Sajal Kumar Saha

Dr Sajal Kumar Saha is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Innovation in Infectious Disease and Immunology Research (CIIDIR), Deakin University. He began his journey with Deakin as an Executive Dean Health Research Fellow in 2022. He joined Deakin in 2022 as an Executive Dean Health Research Fellow and has since established an internationally recognised research program in antimicrobial stewardship, implementation science, and point-of-care diagnostics to optimise antibiotic use in primary care. 

He is an implementation scientist and pharmacist whose research focuses on antimicrobial stewardship, point-of-care diagnostics, and the optimisation of antibiotic use in primary care. His work integrates implementation science, clinical epidemiology, health services research, and diagnostic innovation to improve patient care and address antimicrobial resistance.

Dr Saha leads and collaborates on multidisciplinary research evaluating novel point-of-care testing technologies for respiratory tract infections across general practice, community pharmacy, and urgent care settings. His research aims to generate high-quality evidence to support the implementation of rapid diagnostics, improve antimicrobial prescribing, and strengthen healthcare delivery through evidence-based, scalable interventions.

His research expertise encompasses antimicrobial stewardship, implementation science, primary care research, infectious diseases, point-of-care diagnostics, diagnostic stewardship, mixed-methods research, clinical trials, health services research, evidence synthesis, and health economic evaluation. He has established collaborations with clinicians, researchers, healthcare organisations, industry partners, and policymakers to translate research findings into clinical practice and health policy.

Dr Saha has published more than 55 peer-reviewed publications in leading international journals and has secured over AUD $1.2 million in competitive research funding as Chief Investigator. His research has received national recognition, including the Victorian Premier's Award (Runner-up), the Deakin IMPACT Rising Star Award, and Monash Research Impact Award 2020 (HDR Category). He is committed to mentoring early-career researchers and higher degree research students and to fostering collaborative, interdisciplinary research that advances diagnostic and antimicrobial stewardship practices within Australia's primary healthcare system.

His current research employs multimodal approaches to optimise the diagnosis and management of infectious diseases in primary care, including:

• Developing evidence-based clinical decision-support tools for general practitioners, pharmacists, nurses, and other primary healthcare professionals.
• Designing and evaluating collaborative multidisciplinary models of care to improve antimicrobial stewardship and optimise patient outcomes.
• Conducting clinical trials and implementation studies to assess the effectiveness, feasibility, and scalability of rapid point-of-care diagnostic technologies.
• Advancing precision antimicrobial prescribing through targeted diagnostic and pharmacotherapy strategies to improve antibiotic use and combat antimicrobial resistance.