Prof. Renuka Visvanathan

Professor Visvanathan has an international reputation in the research area of nutritional frailty. She is especially interested in the provision of quality health care to prevent the impact of frailty (e.g. falls and fracture) as well as improve the wellbeing, function and quality of life of frail, older people and consumers with dementia. She is also interested in research that is likely to translate into improved clinical practice.

Professor Visvanathan is Clinical Director of the Aged & Extended Care Services at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (& Basil Hetzel Institute), Central Adelaide Local Health Network since 2005, which is home also to the University of Adelaide academic geriatric medicine department. 

She is Director of the Adelaide Geriatrics Training and Research with Aged Care (G-TRAC) Centre, which is located in a major aged care campus arising from an innovative partnership project between the University of Adelaide and Resthaven Inc. in the suburb of Paradise. Professor Visvanathan established this innovative centre in February 2013.

Professor Visvanathan is Associate Investigator with the University of Adelaide School of Medicine's NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence Translating Nutritional Science to Good Health based at the Royal Adelaide Hospital campus and the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI). 

Professor Visvanathan is a member of the Expert Advisory Board to the 49 million European Sarcopenia and Physical Frailty In Older Persons: Multicomponent Treatment Strategies [SPRINTT] Project and also a member of the Editorial Board to Frailty.net, an international education resource that aims to help primary care physicians and other health professionals involved in the care of older persons implement frailty into clinical practice. 

Professor Visvanathan is a current board member of Resthaven Inc., Member to the Nestle Australia Malnutrition Board and Advisory Group Member to the board of Alzheimer's Association South Australia. She has previously been a member of the Clinical Governance Advisory Group, Royal District Nursing Service (RDNS) in South Australia and Deputy Chair (till July 2014) of the Older Peoples Clinical Network, SA Health. She is a current committee member of the Australasian Association of Gerontology Executive- SA Division and a member of the Policy and Planning committee of the Australia and New Zealand Society for Geriatric Medicine.

Professor Visvanathan is a graduate of the University of Adelaide, having completed her medical degree in 1996. Her basic physician training years (1998-2000) saw her teach and train at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and Lyell McEwin Hospital in Adelaide. She specialised in geriatric medicine and trained at both the Royal Adelaide Hospital and Hampstead Rehabilitation Centre. She commenced as a staff specialist in geriatric medicine at the Royal Adelaide Hospital in 2004. In 2004 also, she developed and implemented the 5th year geriatric medicine teaching program for the University of Adelaide Spencer Gulf Rural Clinical School. In 2005, on completion of her PhD in the research area of â??Nutritional Frailty', she commenced as the Director of the Aged & Extended Care Services at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and Senior Lecturer in the Discipline of Medicine, University of Adelaide. In recognition of her contribution to academic geriatric medicine, she was academically promoted to Associate Professor in 2008 and Professor in 2014. She lead the development and establishment of the Adelaide G-TRAC Centre, which was officially opened in February 2013 by the Federal Minister of Ageing.