He splits his time equally between clinical and research activity. For the past 17 years, Professor Saravanan’s main research focus is understanding the mechanisms and ethnic variations in ‘programming of obesity and cardiometabolic disorders’ as well as ‘precision medicine’. He has published >135 peer reviewed articles and won several national and international awards. He passionately believes in 'primordial prevention' of metabolic disorders and approaches this by focusing on the health of young women and Gestational Diabetes (GDM). To address this, he has set up early pregnancy cohorts across the world (UK – PRiDE study, n=4746; STRiDE – India, n=3070; STRiDE – Kenya, n= 4134; Malaysia – MAGIC, n=5200 and Thailand – TaRGET, n=4260).
His team won the prestigious NHS Innovation award in 2015 for individualised diabetes management for South Asians in the UK. He is instrumental in fast-track adoption of newer therapies and technologies in diabetes locally, regionally, and nationally. During the Covid-19 pandemic he was instrumental in writing the new RCOG UK screening guidelines for GDM based on his work, which was adopted widely in the UK. He co-led the BABYSTEPS trial – an innovative, combined face-face and remote intervention in post-GDM women to improve their physical activity, in collaboration with University of Leicester. He is the Editor-in-Chief for the RCP’s journal, Clinical Medicine. He reviews grants and board member for funding bodies nationally and internationally.