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Contact Details

Phone
+64 3 479 7168
Email
ari.samaranayaka@otago.ac.nz
Position
Research Associate Professor and Biostatistician
Qualifications
BSc MPhil DipFGT DipFM PhD
Research summary
Methodological and biostatistical expertise in health-related research
Teaching
Ari runs Introductory hands-on short courses on Stata statistical software for researchers
Memberships
Research Ethics Committee, Department of Preventive and Social Medicine

Research

Associate Professor Ari Samaranayaka is a biostatistician in the Biostatistics Centre. He leads biostatistical and methodological aspects of health-related research projects in a range of disciplines such as public health, epidemiology, injury, physiotherapy, pharmacy, dentistry, immunology, and many more.

He works with health researchers of varying capacities as a research collaborator or a biostatistical advocate over the entire research cycle from conceptualisation of the research idea, developing methodology and study design, securing grant funding, implementation and data analyses, and disseminating findings.

Ari also provides supervision for postgraduate students in health-related and/or biostatistical research.

Publications

Takele, G. M., Sullivan, T., Samaranayaka, A., Åström, M., Herdman, M., Arega, G., & Derrett, S. (2026). Generic health-related quality of life instruments among children and adolescents in low- and middle-income countries: A scoping review. Systematic Reviews, 15, 56. doi: 10.1186/s13643-025-03060-2 Journal - Research Article

Kallarakkal, T. G., Siriwardena, B. S. M. S., Samaranayaka, A., Ekanayaka, R., & Tilakaratne, W. M. (2026). Prediction of extranodal extension in oral squamous cell carcinoma using demographic and clinicopathological variables: Evidence from a multicentre study. Journal of Oral Pathology & Medicine, 55(2), 267-274. doi: 10.1111/jop.70086 Journal - Research Article

Chapple, C., Samaranayaka, A., Widyastuti, N., Pryymachenko, Y., Wilson, R., & Abbott, H. (2025, October). Frequency of manual therapy for people with knee osteoarthritis: The Opti-OK trial. Verbal presentation at the Australian Physiotherapy Association Scientific Conference (APASC): Lead the Physiotherapy Evolution, Adelaide, Australia. Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs

Sole, G., Olds, M., Bell, R., Douglas, C., Samaranayaka, A., Sullivan, T., … Swain, N. (2025). Stepped rehabilitation of people with persistent shoulder pain in New Zealand (StePS-NZ): A randomised clinical trial protocol. Trials, 26, 469. doi: 10.1186/s13063-025-09174-1 Journal - Research Other

Moore, B., De Silva, H., Samaranayaka, A., De Silva, R., & Tong, D. (2025, September). Occlusal planning in orthognathic surgery: Is a digital equivalent to hand? Verbal presentation at the Faculty of Dentistry Clinical and Research Excellence Symposium, Dunedin, New Zealand. Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs

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