Rheumatology Research within the South Asian Population


Dr Kumar has published extensively in these areas and has developed a national reputation for her work in ethnicity in rheumatology. The impact of her research on patient care is bringing together all major stakeholders including British Society for Rheumatology (BSR), patient organisations, industry, and the NHS. With her continued commitment to improving care of patients with rheumatoid arthritis she has co-developed the Apni Jung work with National Rheumatoid Arthritis Society (NRAS) to help engage South Asian patients in education about their disease and acquiring self-management skills with the right support. Dr Kumar’s’ future research will contribute towards addressing the health inequalities in rheumatology practice.

A Relevant Peer-Reviewed article may be of interest:

A programme of work designed by University of Birmingham researchers has been promoted, by the British Society for Rheumatology and NRAS. Results of the study were recently published and can be seen here:

Development and testing of a bespoke cultural intervention to support healthcare professionals with patients from a diverse background

Rheumatology researchers identified communication gaps between healthcare providers and patients from different cultural backgrounds, hindering quality care. Research led by Dr. Kanta Kumar, University of Birmingham and teams, developed a 90-minute training programme by using a before and after design research. The team tested the training programme by offering the training to fifteen clinicians across the rheumatology centres in England and collected data from on 364 patients.

The results showed overall improvement in implementing cultural concepts during the consultation, and patient enablement with a significant boost in ratings from South Asian patients.

Encouraged by these findings, the cultural competency programme will be offered to new and early-career rheumatology staff. Dr. Kumar and team have emphasised the urgency of reducing healthcare disparities, highlighting the programme’s potential to be adopted by professionals in various policy makers and specialties.

If you are serving a diverse ethnic population then get involved in bridging health disparities,

The intervention programme is now freely available to members of the British Society for Rheumatology.

Rheumatology: Differential Outcomes

Development and testing of a bespoke cultural intervention to support healthcare professionals with patients from a diverse backgrounds.

NRAS in 2024

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