Prakash Jayakumar, M.D., Ph.D.

Prakash Jayakumar, M.D., Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the Department of Surgery and Perioperative Care and director of clinical research and outcome measurement.

Jayakumar is charged with building academic programs and research initiatives for the department, accelerating the integration of technological innovations and expanding the department’s health policy-related work. He will also mentor faculty in study design and grant development and facilitate collaboration across departments in Dell Medical School and The University of Texas at Austin.

Jayakumar came to Austin as a U.K. Harkness Fellow in Health Care Policy and Practice Innovation. He is the first orthopaedic surgeon to be awarded this fellowship, which is designed to reciprocate the Rhodes Scholarship, since its founding in 1997. Working at the Value Institute for Health and Care and Department of Surgery and Perioperative Care under the mentorship of Kevin Bozic, Elizabeth Teisberg, David Ring and Tom Lee, he investigated integrated care delivery models in learning health systems across the U.S. and a comprehensive range of outcomes and costs in institutions, including the musculoskeletal integrated practice units at UT Health Austin, the clinical practice of Dell Med.

Prior to Dell Med, Jayakumar was an orthopaedic surgeon on the prestigious Percivall Pott Orthopaedic Program in London and completed fellowships in orthopaedic trauma and upper extremity surgery in the U.K., Austria, Switzerland and U.S. Following scholarships from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Harvard Medical School/Massachusetts General Hospital studying principles of health outcome measurement, he completed a prize-winning Ph.D. (D.Phil.) at Balliol College, University of Oxford in outcome measurement and explored PROs as predictors of health and patient engagement in orthopaedics.

Jayakumar has trained at Harvard and INSEAD business schools in value-based care and innovation and the Royal College of Art and Imperial College London in health care design. He has been a consultant for global medical device companies in health technologies, outcome measurement and high-value care. Jayakumar received his medical degree with honors from Kings College London and a first-class Bachelor of Science in orthopaedic sciences with the Scales Medal from University College London. He is a member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England and a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.

Jayakumar has published extensively in high-quality journals such as JAMA Internal Medicine and the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, and he is a reviewer for multiple journals, including Health Affairs. He is currently a principal investigator in a five-year global project on patient outcomes following injury, funded by the A.O. Foundation in Switzerland. Jayakumar also serves as a visiting professor of orthopaedics at Duke University, working with the Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy. Jayakumar is excited to bring these different vantage points on health care to the Dell Medical School mission.