Sathya Karunananthan holds a PhD in epidemiology from McGill University. She is an associate professor in the Interdisciplinary School of Health Sciences at the University of Ottawa and an investigator at the Institut du Savoir Montfort and the Bruyère Health Research Institute. She holds the Academic Health Network University Research Chair (OAHN-URC) in Language as a Social Determinant of Health.
Professor Karunananthan is accepting new students for thesis supervision.
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 takes an integrated knowledge translation and exchange approach, involving key knowledge users, including persons with lived experiences, healthcare 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’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.
