Dr Nayana Parange is Professor of Medical sonography and Professorial Lead in UniSA Allied Health and Human Performance. She is an ultrasound educator and researcher and passionate about teaching and learning. She currently leads the portfolio of Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) in Allied Health and Human Performance.
Her academic and professional background includes qualifications in medicine, specialist training in obstetrics and Gynaecology, ultrasound and education.She has an extensive clinical and teaching background, is active in teaching, research, industry and community engagement and her career spans over thirty years. She has over 20 years of clinical ultrasound experience in diverse settings, ranging from... Read more
About me
Dr Nayana Parange is Professor of Medical sonography and Professorial Lead in UniSA Allied Health and Human Performance. She is an ultrasound educator and researcher and passionate about teaching and learning. She currently leads the portfolio of Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) in Allied Health and Human Performance.
Her academic and professional background includes qualifications in medicine, specialist training in obstetrics and Gynaecology, ultrasound and education.She has an extensive clinical and teaching background, is active in teaching, research, industry and community engagement and her career spans over thirty years. She has over 20 years of clinical ultrasound experience in diverse settings, ranging from primary health care to tertiary maternal fetal medicine setting. Her PhD was in maternal-fetal medicine, specifically in fetal cardiac ultrasound in pregnancies with adverse outcomes. Her area of clinical expertise are OB GYN ultrasound and fetal echocardiography.
She has extensive experience in academic leadership and governance, stakeholder engagement, and strategic planning and operations within complex delivery models, having held a range of appointments to several national and international committees in ultrasound.
Some of her current external appointments in the profession include membership of the International Asia-Pacific Simulation Alliance, International Ultrasound Outreach Committee Steering group invited member through International Society of Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynaecology (ISUOG), Chair of the Australian Ultrasound Outreach committee through Australasian Society of Ultrasound in Medicine(ASUM), nominated member for Assessors pool for external review and accreditation of postgraduate sonography programs through the Australasian Sonographer Accreditation Registry (ASAR), Chair of the Special Interest Group Committee member for Obstetric and Gynaecologic Ultrasound through the Australian Sonographer Association (ASA) and the Obstetric and Gynaecologic ultrasound education advisor for the Education Advisory Committee ASA.
She has been the Associate Dean for Online education in the Division of Health Sciences. As Associate Dean, Dr Parange provided academic leadership in the Division and UniSA Online, facilitating the digital transformation of academic programs, driving curriculum development for UnISA Online programs, promoting innovative online teaching approaches and contributing to establishing an exceptional educational and student experience for online students.
Dr Parange’s research and scholarship focuses on education, spanning multiple aspects of education. She is passionate about improving pregnancy outcomes globally and strongly feels that that every mother and baby counts. She has devoted her career striving towards this goal via clinical work, research, scholarship and community service. She continues to educate, enable and empower health professionals by upskilling them in point-of-care antenatal ultrasound to make a difference to patient care in socially, economically and geographically disadvantaged areas that have limited or no access to these life-saving services which can identify life threatening problems in the mother and unborn baby. Her work in the community includes examining barriers and challenges in access to these life saving services, development and delivery of antenatal ultrasound education of GPs and midwives serving in remote areas to enable provision of these services, and evaluation of impact of this antenatal education and provision of these services on clinical practice and patient outcomes in remote communities. Her work in tertiary education over the last ten years includes improving student engagement and learning in postgraduate ultrasound online environment to enable excellent patient care, and more recently in UniSA Online Health degrees as well, involving technology assisted teaching, online learning pedagogy, interprofessional learning and learning in simulated environments to enable students to be prepared for the workforce. She is often invited as a plenary speaker to discuss and present her work in national and international conferences.
Dr Parange loves teaching, and her engagement with students is collegial, student centred, and focused on their contribution and performance beyond the classroom. For example, assignments in her course are deliberately designed to enable students to confidently present their submission as academic papers to peer reviewed international journals or posters in international conferences. Dr Parange’s outstanding contributions to ultrasound education in the postgraduate environment, to the ultrasound profession as well as her innovative ultrasound outreach education efforts for sustainability of essential services in remote communities globally have led to significant national and international recognition and resulted in several prestigious awards including ASA Researcher of the Year 2023, a Fellow of International Association of Medical Education (FAMEE), Europe 2019, Senior Fellowship in 2018 from Advance HE (HEA, UK), 2018, Inaugural ASA Fellowship where she was one of 13 people across Australia and New Zealand to win this Fellowship, SA Governor’s multicultural volunteering award, 2016 Australian Govt teaching citation award for university teaching from the Department of Education and Teaching, the 2016 international Effective Practice award from the Online Learning Consortium USA, 2016 national diversity award from the Australian Centre for Leadership for Women (ACLW), 2015 ASUM Award of Excellence for service to rural and remote ultrasound, 2015 Women in Innovation (Winnovation) Award South Australia where she was one among 8 women across South Australia at that time. She has been awarded several teaching awards in UniSA as well, including the ‘Student-nominated best digital educator’ from the UniSA Division of Health Sciences in 2016 and the 2015 Unisa Citation for outstanding contributions to Digital learning.
Dr Parange is available for expert consultancy in development, assessment and evaluation of educational programs including those in ultrasound ( point of care ultrasound as well as advanced ob gyn ultrasound), scholarship of learning and teaching as well as in online education.
Please contact her via email: Nayana.Parange@unisa.edu.au
About me
Dr Parange is an Expert Panel Member for the Asia Pacific Simulation Alliance which is an international Platform bringing together simulation users, developers, researchers and government to share, learn and collaborate.
Dr Parange is involved with ISUOG, ASAR, ASUM and ASA in various capacties.Please see the section on engagement and external contribution.
About me
Doctor of Philosophy University of Adelaide
Masters in Medical Sonography University of South Australia
Graduate Certificate in Education (University Teaching) University of South Australia
Bachelor of Medicine/Bachelor of Surgery BJ Medical College, Pune, Maharashtra, India
Dr Parange is committed to research, with a focus on promoting health equity, to ensure that all individuals have access to the resources, services and support they need to live healthy and fulfilling lives.
Dr Parange is dedicated to exploring new ideas and approaches to clinical practice and clinical education using evidence based practice, to improve practitioner and student education and training to ensure development of safe and competent practitioners. To this effect, her research interests are broad and varied, encompassing projects in clinical ultrasound, including antenatal ultrasound for fetal well being and preterm birth, ultrasound in endometriosis, Artificial Intelligence applications in ultrasound as... Read more
Research
Excludes commercial-in-confidence projects.
Antenatal ultrasound to improve newborn outcomes in rural and remote Australia, The Hospital Research Foundation, 19/06/2017 - 31/12/2022
Research
Research outputs for the last seven years are shown below. Some long-standing staff members may have older outputs included. To see earlier years visit ORCID, ResearcherID or Scopus
Open access indicates that an output is open access.
| Year | Output |
|---|---|
| 2023 |
|
| 2016 |
1
|
| 2012 |
|
| Year | Output |
|---|---|
| 2024 |
Open access
|
| 2024 |
|
| 2024 |
Open access
|
| 2024 |
Open access
1
1
3
|
| 2023 |
Open access
2
2
|
| 2023 |
5
5
15
|
| 2023 |
Open access
1
6
|
| 2023 |
Open access
4
4
16
|
| 2022 |
Open access
11
10
|
| 2022 |
Open access
7
7
1
|
| 2022 |
9
46
|
| 2022 |
Open access
1
1
4
|
| 2022 |
2
2
|
| 2022 |
Open access
7
|
| 2022 |
Open access
41
77
|
| 2022 |
Open access
9
5
9
|
| 2022 |
Open access
1
1
1
|
| 2022 |
Open access
3
3
2
|
| 2020 |
Open access
1
1
40
|
| 2020 |
29
23
34
|
| 2020 |
Open access
13
10
1
|
| 2019 |
Open access
|
| 2017 |
|
| 2017 |
12
10
1
|
| 2016 |
Open access
|
| 2016 |
2
|
| 2015 |
Open access
6
|
| 2015 |
Open access
4
2
|
Research
Dr Parange is committed to research, with a focus on promoting health equity, to ensure that all individuals have access to the resources, services and support they need to live healthy and fulfilling lives.
Dr Parange is dedicated to exploring new ideas and approaches to clinical practice and clinical education using evidence based practice, to improve practitioner and student education and training to ensure development of safe and competent practitioners. To this effect, her research interests are broad and varied, encompassing projects in clinical ultrasound, including antenatal ultrasound for fetal well being and preterm birth, ultrasound in endometriosis, Artificial Intelligence applications in ultrasound as well as online education, exploring the effectiveness of innovative approaches, as well as technology enhanced learning and teaching, including simulation and Augmented Reality applications.
Dr Parange's current research funded by The Hospital Research Foundation Group is examining the gap that currently exists in rural, remote and Aboriginal communities in potentially life-saving ultrasound services, and investigating strategies and solutions to improve access to essential antenatal ultrasound services in primary care in rural and remote communities so that pregnant women do not have to travel long distances for essential, basic ultrasound monitoring in their pregnancy which have the potential to identify problems early, and therefore allowing timely management for improved pregnancy outcomes. She is leading a team to examine the impact of training health professionals in remote areas in point of care ultrasound. https://www.hospitalresearch.com.au/saving-lives-mothers-babies-country-australia/
Dr Parange completed her PhD in 2009. Her PhD thesis is titled,"Pathophysiology of fetal intrauterine central shunts in high-risk pregnancies : a prospective observational Doppler study." and is available from the link: http://hdl.handle.net/2440/57789
Dr Parange has worked with the Pregnancy and development group (University of Adelaide) as a postdoctoral researcher investigating gender-specific adaptive patterns in pregnancies complicated with asthma and preeclampsia in pregnancy. She investigated fetal circulatory patterns with Doppler.
Dr Parange is deeply committed to building research capacity in future generation of teaching academics, sonographers and other health professionals. She supervises Masters by Research and PhD students currently and is keen to collaborate for research or education initiatives.
Please feel free to email her at Nayana.Parange@unisa.edu to start a conversation.
Dr Parange has extensive links with the medical sonography profession within Australia and overseas. Some of the roles she is involved in include:
1. Asia Pacific Simulation Alliance: Expert Panel member which is an International Simulation Alliance of simulation users, developers, researchers and government to share, learn and collaborate.
2. ASAR : Accredtiation panel member for external accreditation of medical sonography programs in Australia.
3. ASUM : Chair Ultrasound outreach committee
4. ASUM: Member Standards of Practice Committee
5. ASA: Special Interest Group Committee member ob gyn sonography
6. ISUOG: Ultrasound outreach Steering committee member and volunteer trainer for ob gyn ultrasound
Dr Parange has developed and delivered ultrasound workshops and/or mentored ultrasound trainers across 14 countries.
Please see links below to see some examples of ultrasound outreach experience:
Australia experience
Ghana experience
2011: http://www.isuog.org/Outreach/Projects/Ghana/Kumasi_2.htm
Earth Institute Columbia university blog:http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2011/07/28/ultrasound-trainings-improve-maternal-and-newborn-care-at-kumasi-hospitals/
2012: http://www.isuog.org/Outreach/Projects/Ghana/Kumasi_3.htm
Remote Indonesia experience
Ende, Island of Flores: http://www.fohg.com.au/programmes-projects/recent-trips/maternal-and-neonatal-ultrasound-project/
Papua New Guinea experience
2012 onwards, Dr Parange has been invited to Port Moresby annually and via the PNG HECS program, funded via Ausiad, as an ultrasound expert and technical adviser, to conduct workshops upskilling doctors in training ( ob gyn, remote medicine, emergency medicine) and midwives working in remote provinces to train them in point of care, life saving ob gyn ultrasound. After four years of annual visits on her own, in 2016, she lead a team of ultrasound expert volunteers to PNG as the project leader as an expansion of this initiative under the the formal ASUM –ISUOG outreach banner.
2016:making-a-difference-in-paupua-new-guinea/
Fiji experience
Dr Parange was invited to lead a workshop under the auspices of WFUMB and ISUOG at at the WFUMB Centre of Education, Fiji National University in 2020. Participants were drawn from many hospitals and clinics across Pacific nations.
https://wfumb.info/event/isuog-basic-og-course-at-the-fiji-coe-delivered-by-wfumb/
Whyalla news: http://www.whyallanewsonline.com.au/story/3183597/ultra-care-given-to-teach-ultrasound-practices/
2015 Winnovation SA award for Regional Rural and Remote : http://www.wit-sa.org/award-winners/nayana-parange
The Advertiser: http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/business/women-in-innovation-awards-handed-out/news-story/c577c90c08b75fa186f268cadc65b4d9
The Winnovation Awards showcase and celebrate successes of female innovators and recognise women ‘changing the game’ in science, technology, business, the arts and more, with inspiring and innovative approaches to problems, some with the potential to make a global impact.She was one of only 8 women across South Australia who won the award in 2015.
Dr Parange has been invited and recorded several radio interviews for several radio channels including ABC and Fiveaa for her work in education.You can listen to one of her interviews from the link below:
Radio interview recording: ABC NEWS live 8th Jue 2016, Regional Voices Australia 5th May 2016, http://www.regionalvoices.com.au/regional-voices/nayana-parange
External engagement & recognition
| Organisation | Country |
|---|---|
| Australasian Sonographers Association | AUSTRALIA |
| BreastScreen SA | AUSTRALIA |
| Cancer Voices South Australia | AUSTRALIA |
| Central Coast Radiology | AUSTRALIA |
| Central Queensland University | AUSTRALIA |
| Children’s Hospital in Orange California | UNITED STATES |
| Flinders Medical Centre | AUSTRALIA |
| Foundation for the Advancement of International Medical Education and Research | UNITED STATES |
| Hunter Imaging Group | AUSTRALIA |
| Iuliu Hațieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy | ROMANIA |
| King Edward Memorial Hospital | AUSTRALIA |
| Monash University | AUSTRALIA |
| NewYork-Presbyterian Health System | UNITED STATES |
| Orange Hospital | AUSTRALIA |
| Pacific Radiology Group | NEW ZEALAND |
| RMIT University | AUSTRALIA |
| Royal Adelaide Hospital | AUSTRALIA |
| SKG Radiology | AUSTRALIA |
| Specialist Imaging Partners | AUSTRALIA |
| The Endocrine Society of Australia | AUSTRALIA |
| University of Adelaide | AUSTRALIA |
| University of New South Wales | AUSTRALIA |
| University of South Australia | AUSTRALIA |
| University of South Carolina School of Medicine | UNITED STATES |
External engagement & recognition
| Engagement/recognition | Year |
|---|---|
Woman of Achievement 2024: Maternal health-Outstanding Achievement in Health Science InnovationZonta Club of Adelaide Inc. |
2024 |
2023 Researcher of the YearAustralasian Sonographer Association |
2023 |
ASUM Awards of Excellence-Honorary FellowAustralasian Society for Ultrasound in Medicine |
2022 |
Educator Excellence 2020-2021Australian Allied Health |
2021 |
Impact and Innovation Excellence 2020-2021Australian Allied Health |
2021 |
Rural and Remote Excellence 2020-2021Australian Allied Health |
2021 |
2019 Heidi Taylor Community Service Award nominationService Clubs Association of SA |
2019 |
2019 South Australian Womens' Honour RollOffice for Women, Government of South Australia |
2019 |
FellowAMEE: An International Association of Medical Education, Europe |
2019 |
ASA Inaugural FellowshipAustralasian Sonographers Association |
2018 |
Associate FellowshipHigher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia Inc (HERDSA) |
2018 |
Finalist: Educator of the year AwardAustralasian Sonographer Association |
2018 |
SA Governor Multicultural awardMulticultural SA, Government of South Australia |
2018 |
Semi-finalist, Aunt Minnies award (Most Effective Radiology Educator category)Aunt Minnie |
2018 |
Senior Fellow (SFHEA)Higher Education Academy/Advance HE, United Kingdom |
2018 |
MemberInternational Federation of National Teaching Fellows |
2017 |
President's AwardSouth Australian Indian Medical Association |
2017 |
Associate FellowshipAustralasian Sonographers Association |
2016 |
Australian Awards for University Teaching , Outstanding contributions to student learningDepartment of Education and Training, Australian Government |
2016 |
Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student LearningOffice for Learning and Teaching, Department of Education and Training, Australian Government |
2016 |
FellowIndian College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology |
2016 |
Honours Roll Recipient, Diversity AwardAustralian Centre for Leadership for Women |
2016 |
International Award for Effective Practice in online teachingOnline Learning Consortium, Newburyport, MA, USA |
2016 |
Invited member of Accreditation Panel of Assessors for Sonography Programs in AustraliaAustralian Sonographer Accreditation Registry |
2016 |
National award for Women's leadership, empowerment and community engagementAustralian Centre for Leadership of Women |
2016 |
Nominated Member- Standards of Practice in Ultrasound CommitteeAustralasian Society for Ultrasound in Medicine |
2016 |
ASUM Award of Excellence for Rural and Remote Service to UltrasoundAustralasian Society for Ultrasound in Medicine |
2015 |
FellowIndian College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology |
2015 |
Invited member of Accreditation Panel of Assessors for Sonography Programs in AustraliaAustralian Sonographer Accreditation Registry |
2015 |
Nominated Member- Standards of Practice in Ultrasound CommitteeAustralasian Society for Ultrasound in Medicine |
2015 |
Winnovation Award for Regional Rural and RemoteWomen in Innovation |
2015 |
FellowIndian College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology |
2014 |
Invited member of Accreditation Panel of Assessors for Sonography Programs in AustraliaAustralian Sonographer Accreditation Registry |
2014 |
FellowIndian College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology |
2013 |
FellowIndian College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology |
2012 |
FellowIndian College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology |
2011 |
FellowIndian College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology |
2010 |
Dr Parange has been an active volunteer with the following organisations.
1. Soroptimist International http://www.siswp.org/
Soroptimist International is a global movement of women, with members belonging to more than 3,000 clubs in 126 countries/territories, spread over 4 federations. Members of Clubs represent a wide range of occupations, talents and interests. The theme "Soroptimists - Educate to Lead" with a focus on Education, Enable and Empower provides opportunities for members to improve the lives of women and girls world wide.
A project close to her heart is the 'Birthing in the Pacific' project which is a SI South West Pacific project to improve reduce maternal mortality in Papua New Guinea by training and equipping midwives.
2.Smith Family iTrack mentoring program.
iTrack is an online mentoring program for high school students in Years 9 to 11. iTrack provides students with someone to talk to outside of their networks who can give them advice and encourage them with their post-school plans.Students are matched with a supportive adult (other than a teacher or parent) who volunteers as a mentor and provides the student with advice and guidance about workplace, study and career opportunities.
https://www.thesmithfamily.com.au/what-we-do/our-work/at-school/secondary/itrack
Ever since she qualified from medical school more than 30 years ago, Dr Parange has been involved in teaching, in an informal and formal teaching capacity. She employs interdisciplinary content, interactive teaching strategies and inquiry-based learning and hopes to foster a passion and enthusiasm for lifelong learning in her students. Although Dr Parange's special interest remains OB-GYN ultrasound and fetal echocardiography, she has taught different courses at UniSA. Her goal in teaching is to foster thoughtful, critical, engaged and independent thinkers and problem solvers, and she endeavours to create open and dynamic environments to facilitate interaction, dialogue and debate. She is committed to fostering inclusivity and cultivating a feeling of belonging in the classroom. As as a teacher, her aim is to foster building confidence, enthusiasm and intrinsic motivation and a feeling of belonging for all students, and create a safe space in her classroom, to enable them to thrive.
Dr Parange's cultural heritage and background and clinical training has gone a long way in shaping her teaching interests. Hence in addition to her interest in cutting-edge technology, she is committed to education at grass-root level in disadvantaged communities within Australia as well as world wide. Having served in a predominantly rural community in India,she is sensitive to the needs of students in rural and remote areas, and health needs in rural and remote communities and has developed and delivered several educational programs in ultrasound to upskill health personnel including GPs, midwives and nurses serving in remote regions to make a difference in perinatal mortality and morbidity especially in developing communities.
Teaching & student supervision
Teaching & student supervision
Supervisions from 2010 shown
| Thesis title | Student status |
|---|---|
| Developing cross-disci;inary essential skills using learning analytic methods in students across health disciplines | Current |
| Healthy Newborn Project-An evaluation of antenatal Point-of-Care Ultrasound (POCUS) training of health professionals from rural/remote Australia and National PoCUS needs analysis survey. | Current |
| Measurements of third trimester transvaginal cervical length ultrasound scans in pregnant women and the association with preterm birth: A systematic review and retrospective audit | Current |
| Quality of life in childhood cancer survivors following photon and proton radiation therapy. | Current |
| Systematic characterisation of existing and new models of the vaginal mucosa and their application to assess the vaginal delivery of nanomedicine | Current |
| Ultrasound characteristics and measurements of uterosacral ligaments for diagnosis of deep infiltrating endometriosis with MRI and surgical correlation | Current |
| An assessment of the accuracy and validity of sonographer-led transvaginal ultrasound scanning for deep endometriosis | Completed |
