Sathya Karunananthan

Sathya Karunananthan holds a PhD in epidemiology from McGill University. She is an assistant professor in the Interdisciplinary School of Health Sciences at the University of Ottawa and an investigator at the Bruyère Health Research Institute.

Professor Karunananthan’s research takes an integrated knowledge translation and exchange approach, involving key knowledge users, including persons with lived experiences, health-care providers, health administrators, community organizations and policy-makers throughout the research process. She works in interdisciplinary teams, using advanced quantitative methods to analyze large health administrative and survey data, as well as mixed methods and evidence synthesis.

Professor Karunananthan is accepting new students for thesis supervision.

• Equitable access to health services
• Language as a social determinant of health
• Older adults living with dementia and frailty
• Health technology and artificial intelligence in health care
• Meta-research
• Participatory research

Sathya Karunananthan’s research on health services focuses on improving access to care for older adults with complex health conditions, such as dementia, frailty, chronic pain and Parkinson’s disease. She investigates disparities in care access among underserved communities, specifically, linguistic minority and racialized groups. She studies the impact of health technologies like electronic consultation and artificial intelligence on inequities in access to care and health outcomes.

Professor Karunananthan’s work in meta-research examines how research is conducted, to identify potential sources of bias, raise awareness of them and advocate for practices and guidelines that minimize them, ensuring that scientific findings are both robust and reliable.

Professor Karunananthan’s  research program has been funded by a variety of sources including the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the uOttawa Brain and Mind Research Institute (uOBMRI), the Brain-Heart Interconnectome (BHI), the Consortium national de formation en santé (CNFS), Innovations Strengthening Primary Health Care Through Research (INSPIRE-PHC), the Community Health and Social Services Network (CHSSN) and the Alzheimer Society of Canada.

See Sathya Karunananthan’s publications.

• Hum, E., Karunananthan, S., Adil, A., Moroz, I., Davidson, R., & Liddy, C. (2025, January). A regional program evaluation of the Stanford Chronic Pain Self-Management Program in Eastern Ontario, Canada. Canadian Journal of Pain, 9(1).
• Schneider, T., Farrell, B., Karunananthan, S., Afkham, A., Keely, E., Liddy, C. & McCarthy, L. (2024, March). Classification System for Primary Care Provider eConsults About Medications for Older Adults with Frailty. BMC Primary Care, 25(1).
• Karunananthan, S., Bonacci, G., Fung, C., Huang, A., Robert, B., McCutcheon, T., Houghton, D., Hakimjavadi, R., Keely E., Liddy, C. (2024, January). What do primary care providers want to know when caring for patients living with frailty? An analysis of eConsult communications between primary care providers and specialists. BMC Health Services Research.
• Karunananthan, S., Rahgozar, A., Hakimjavadi, R., Yan, H., Dalsania, K., Bergman, H., Ghose, B., LaPlante, J., McCutcheon., T., McIsaac, D.I., Abbasgholizaddeh Rahimi, S., Sourial, N., Thandi, M., Wong, S.T. & Liddy, C. (2023, December). Use of Artificial Intelligence in the Identification and Management of Frailty: A Scoping Review Protocol. BMJ Open, 13(12).
• Lee, S.H., Gibb, M., Karunananthan, S., Cody, M., Tanuseputro, P., Johnston, S., Kendall, C., Bedard, D., Collin, S. & Kehoe MacLeod, K. (2023, December). Exploring Primary Care Physicians' Experiences of Language and Cultural Discordant Care for Linguistic Minority Patients at the End-of-Life: A Study Protocol. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 22.
• Karunananthan, S., Grimshaw, J.M., Maxwell, L., Nguyen, P.Y., Page, M.J., Pardo Pardo, J., Petkovic, J., Vachon, B., Welch, V.A. & Tugwell, P. (2023, October). Can a replication revolution resolve the duplication crisis in systematic reviews?. BMJ Evid Based Med.
• Nunan, D., Bashir, K., Bilimoria, K., Birdi, J., Campbell, F., Dean, R., Downer, M.B., Costa, G.G., Golob, M.M., Heintzman, A., Howe, M.S., Karunananthan, S., Kurup, K.K., Leinberger-Jabari, A., Luo, Y., Mathe, N., Miguel, R.T.D., Morrow, R.L., Scobie, C. … Yadav, U.N. (2023, October). Ten resources for understanding bias in health research: EBM live workshop 2022. BMJ Evid Based Med. 28(5), pp. 337-340.
• Nguyen, P.Y., McKenzie, J.E.., Hamilton, D.G., Moher, D., Tugwell, P., Fidler, F.M., Haddaway, N.R., Higgins, J.P.T., Kanukula, R., Karunananthan, S., Maxwell, L.J., McDonald, S., Nakagawa, S., Nunan, D., Welch, V.A. & Page, M.J. (2023, April). Systematic reviewers' perspectives on sharing review data, analytic code, and other materials: a survey. Cochrane Ev Synth, 1(2).
• Nguyen, P.Y., McKenzie, J.E., Hamilton, D.G., Moher, D., Tugwell, P., Fidler, F.M., Haddaway, N.R., Higgins, J.P.T., Kanukula, R., Karunananthan, S., Maxwell, L.J., McDonald, S., Nakagawa, S., Nunan, D., Welch, V.A. & Page, M.J. (2023, March). Systematic reviewers' perspectives on replication of systematic reviews: a survey. Cochrane Ev Synth, 1.
• Hakimjavadi R., Karunananthan S., Alexander G., Fung C., Gazarin M., Houghton D., Hsu A.T., LaPlante J., Levi C., Tanuseputro P., Liddy C. (2023). What is the level of information technology maturity in Ontario's long-term care homes? Across-sectional survey study protocol. BMJ Open, 13(2), e064745.
• Hakimjavadi, R., Karunananthan, S., Fung, C., Levi, C., Helmer-Smith, M., LaPlante, J., Gazarin, M., Rahgozar, A., Afkham, A., Keely, E. & Liddy, C. (2023). Using electronic consultation (eConsult) to identify frailty in provider-to-provider communication: a feasibility and validation study. BMC Geriatr, 23, 136.