Shanthi Ramanathan

Dr. Ramanathan is a researcher and implementation scientist who completed a Bachelor of Arts in Communication, a Master of Health Science and a PhD assessing the implementation of the NHMRC Guidelines for the treatment of low back pain.

She began her career in 1991 as a researcher in health programs at the Asia-Pacific Office of Consumers’ International particularly in the areas of consumer protection, community development, rational drug use, smoking and primary health care. Dr. Ramanathan then relocated to Australia in 1995 and commenced as the Executive Officer of the Australian Rural Health Research Institute where she was involved in implementing a range of public health intervention programs in rural and remote settings across Australia.

Between 2005 and 2016, Dr. Ramanathan was variously a Research Fellow, Director of Research and Head of Client Research at the Hunter Valley Research Foundation with responsibility for a portfolio of mainly health and social research projects with a combined value of over $6 million. Between 1999 and 2005, she also performed short-term consultancy stints with both the Greater Murray and Hunter New England Area Health Services mainly in the area of continuing professional education of health service staff.

Prior to joining HMRI as a Post-Doctorate Fellow in Health Economics, Dr. Ramanathan worked with the University of South Australia as Project Manager of CareTrack Kids, a study about the appropriateness of healthcare delivered to Australian children for 19 common paediatric conditions and the type and frequency of adverse events in children. The study involved a retrospective review of patient medical records within hospitals, general practices and paediatric clinics.

At HMRI, Dr. Ramanathan is leading the implementation of a framework to encourage and assess the impact of research within two NHMRC Centres for Research Excellence in stroke rehabilitation and integrated quality improvement in indigenous primary healthcare, as well as running workshops to speed up the adoption of FAIT within the health and medical research community. She is an experienced focus group and workshop facilitator.