Dr. Saravana Kumar

Since completing his doctoral research in 2005, Dr Saravana Kumar has been employed as a research and academic in the International Centre for Allied Health Evidence (iCAHE) within the University of South Australia. Dr Kumar is a Manipulative and Sports Physiotherapist by primary training and has a PhD in evaluation of health care quality service delivery. He has extensive research experience in conducting: 

- primary research employing diverse qualitative and quantitative research methods and

- secondary research by accessing, evaluating and synthesising evidence from wide ranging literature sources and translating this evidence into relevant, meaningful and easy to access resources for all the stakeholders within academic and clinical health care

Teaching Interests

Dr Kumar undertakes teaching within the University of South Australia on research methods in undergraduate and postgraduate clinical programs. He has presented extensively at national and international conferences, and is actively involved in helping bridge the gap between research evidence and clinical practice by educating clinicians at numerous workshops. 

- Dr. Kumar is a JBI accredited systematic reviewer and systematic review trainer and is the deputy director of the Centre for Allied Health Evidence.

Research Interests

- Dr. Kumar has been actively involved in exploring the different stakeholders’ perspectives of quality within health care. This was undertaken as part of his PhD research investigation which explored these issues within an evaluatory framework. The overall aim of such an investigation was to streamline health care usage and optimise the delivery of health service to be underpinned by the quality framework.

- Dr. Kumar also spearheads numerous initiatives within iCAHE with the aim of bridging the gap between research evidence and clinical practice. These include;
Allied Health News in Reviews
DoHSA question and answer service
Undertaking numerous systematic reviews
Assisting in the development of Physio Connect 

- Dr. Kumar has been a supported researcher since 2005 and in 2007 has been accepted into the Early Career Research Developmental Program at University of South Australia. In 2007, Dr. Kumar was awarded University of South Australia Quality Teaching Award in recognition of his high standards of teaching.

- Dr. Kumar has won numerous prizes for his research. These include;
Health Sciences Research Student of the year (2003)
Best Presentation at the annual Research Degree Colloquium (2004)
Ruth Grant Prize (2006).

- Dr. Kumar has worked as a private practice consultant physiotherapist across different settings within metropolitan and rural South Australia. During this time, Dr. Kumar worked in close association with health professionals of different background and collaborated with them in the management of patients with complex pathologies. He recognises the value of close working relationships with all health care providers to ensure health care is underpinned by principles of quality care in order to ensure optimal outcome for all stakeholders involved.

- Dr. Kumar currently supervises students enrolled at University of South Australia and other external institutions. These students currently investigate wide ranging allied health care issues ranging from guideline implementation to discharge planning.


More information about Dr. Kumar can be accessed via his home page at the University of South Australia website.