Dr. Nalliah’s research expertise is process evaluation. He has studied various healthcare processes, educational processes and healthcare economics. Dr. Nalliah’s research studies were the first time nationwide data was used to highlight emergency room resource utilization for managing dental conditions in the United States. Dr. Nalliah is internationally recognized as a pioneer in the field of nationwide hospital dataset research for dental conditions and has numerous publications in peer reviewed journals. After completing a masters degree at Harvard School of Public Health, Dr. Nalliah’s interests have expanded and he has studied various public health issues including sports injuries, poisoning, child abuse, motor vehicle accidents and surgical processes (like stem cell transplants, cardiac valve surgery and fracture reduction). National recognition of his expertise in these broader topics of medicine have given rise to opportunities to lecture to medical residents, nurse practitioners, students in medical, pharmacy and nursing programs about oral health. This is his passion- that his research should inform an evolution of health education curriculum and practice.
Dr. Nalliah’s professional mission is to improve healthcare delivery systems and he is interested in improving processes, minimizing inefficiencies, reducing healthcare bottlenecks, increasing quality, and increase task sharing which will lead to a patient-centered, coherent healthcare system. Dr. Nalliah’s research has identified systems constraints and his goal is to influence policy and planning to break those constraints and improve healthcare delivery.