Professor Rashan Haniffa

Rashan's research focus is to improve care for critically ill patients globally by enabling a community of practice that uses a common data platform for continuous data driven evaluation, evidence generation and practice change.

Professor Rashan Haniffa

Chair of Critical Care Medicine and Health Systems Research

Contact details

Group Members

  • Critical Care Asia and Africa network members
  • NICS-MORU, Sri Lanka team members

PhD supervision

  • Bharath Kumar Tirupakuzhi Vijayaraghavan, University of Amsterdam
  • Dilanthi Gamage Dona, University of Birmingham
  • Diptesh Aryal, Instituto D'Or de Pesquisa e Ensino, Brazil
  • Swagata Tripathy, University of Edinburgh
  • Vrindha Pari, University of Birmingham
  • Cornelius Sendagire, Instituto D'Or de Pesquisa e Ensino, Brazil
  • Sumaiya Arfin, University of Amsterdam

Research Overview

Rashan co-leads the Wellcome UKRI/MRC Collaboration for Research, Implementation and Training in Asia and Africa (CCAA). This research consortium seeks to develop and implement near real-time digital healthcare registries, undertake population health surveillance and interventional research in LMICs. The research seeks to understand how clinical registries can be leveraged to provide real-time feedback for public health surveillance, critical care practice improvement and equitable participation in clinical trials. The overarching goal of the research is to empower a community of practice to solve healthcare problems.

Biographical Profile

Rashan trained in medicine at the University of Colombo and subsequently completed training as a critical care physician and anaesthetist in the UK. Rashan was awarded a PhD scholarship by the University of Oxford, where his doctoral work was on developing methods for continuous healthcare evaluation in resource-limited settings. During this time he co-founded NICS-MORU, a not-for-profit research unit based in Sri Lanka, that develops and curates digital registries to strengthen research capacity and facilitate data-driven service improvement in Asia and Africa. NICS-MORU also functions as the data coordinating centre for multinational observational and interventional research projects. He has also completed a MSc in Clinical Trials at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Rashan works clinically as a consultant in intensive care medicine at the General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University Hospital, Sri Lanka and at University College Hospitals London.

Honours and Awards

  • NIHR Academic Clinical Lecturer, 2018-2020
  • President's (Sri Lanka) award for scientific research
  • Intensive Care Society (UK), Research Gold Medal - 2016/17
  • Global Rising Star – Australia New Zealand Intensive Care Society- 2015/16
  • Ten Outstanding Young Persons of Sri Lanka - 2015/16
  • NIHR Academic Clinical Fellowship- 2009/12
  • Intensive Care Society (UK) – MSc Braun Fellowship - 2008
  • First class honours and best academic performance, University of Colombo - 2003

Other Responsibilities

  • Affiliate member, Usher Institute
  • Director, NICS-MORU
  • First Trustee, NICST (UK charity 1171106)
  • Co-chair, WHO Covid-19 Global Data Platform
  • Scientific committee, ISARIC
  • Honorary Associate Professor, Department of Interventional Surgery, UCL
  • Steering committee, national critical care registries- India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka

Collaborators

Internal

External

  • Professor Arjen M Dondorp, University of Oxford
  • Professor Ramani Moonesinge, University College London
  • Professor Krishnarajah Nirantharakumar, University of Birmingham
  • Professor Jorge Salluh Instituto D'Or de Pesquisa e Ensino, Brazil

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