Professor Sarath Ranganathan appointed as Academic Director of Clinical Education Strategy and Risk.

Professor Sarath Ranganathan has been appointed to the role of Academic Director of Clinical Education Strategy and Risk in the Faculty Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences.

Professor Ranganathan will lead, develop strategy and manage risk in the faculty’s clinical education strategy and risk portfolio. His role is to ensure the successful implementation of high-quality clinical education, including clinical placements across all our affiliated hospitals and clinics as well as classroom-based skills training, practice and assessment.

Sarath brings extensive experience of management, governance and quality improvement through serving on committees and boards and decades of clinical and academic teaching, mentoring and training of clinical interns and medical students. He will have oversight of the MDHS clinical education risk framework and be responsible for its monitoring and will chair the MDHS Clinical Education Strategy and Risk Committee.

The role extends to strategic and operational risks to program sustainability; student learning; safety of students, staff, patients and the community; reputation of the Faculty and the University; and legal and financial liability.

Professor Sarath Ranganathan was awarded his PhD in 2003 from University College, University of London, for his thesis entitled ‘Lung Function in Infants with Cystic Fibrosis: Findings at Diagnosis and Changes with Time’ and is a Consultant in Respiratory Medicine, Royal Children’s Hospital, (RCH).

Since his appointment at the RCH in 2004, he has specialised and shown leadership in the field of respiratory medicine and cystic fibrosis in clinical practice, teaching and research.

In 2010 he became Head of the Respiratory Group, Infection and Immunity, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute. He is also the principal investigator and Co-Director of the Australian Respiratory Early Surveillance Team for Cystic Fibrosis (since 2006) and Director, Lung Foundation Australia (since 2014).

Since 2020, Sarath has served as the Stevenson Chair and Head of the Department of Paediatrics. Previous appointments were as Director of Respiratory and Sleep Medicine, RCH, Melbourne. Professor Ranganathan will retain these roles in addition to his new responsibilities as Academic Director of Clinical Education Strategy and Risk.