Dr Ashfaq Chauhan (PhD, MIHM, MHM, BPhysio, FKGIPS) is a registered physiotherapist, an early career researcher (PhD conferred April 2023) in health services research and a fellow in patient safety and quality. He has also completed training in health management and public health. Dr Chauhan has worked as a physiotherapist in Australian healthcare system for over 13 years. As a migrant and a person from LGBTQI+ background, Dr Chauhan is passionate about improving health outcomes for people from priority populations. He has a vision to make health systems responsive to the needs of the diversity of populaitons. He was a finalist for the 2025-26 Research Australia Discovery Award, a recipient of the 2024 NSW Premiers Award for Outstanding Cancer Research Early Career Researcher Award and the 2024 HSRAANZ Distinguished New Investigator Award. 

Dr Chauhan is primarily developing a program of work that is equity focused, especially in relation to patient safety and quality for culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities. As a mixed-method researcher, he uses methodological approaches that use high levels of consumer engagement to identify systemic issues contributing to disparity in health outcomes for CALD communities. He uses inclusive co-design methods to develop solutions 'with' end-users including consumers from CALD backgrounds to address the disparities. He has developed and delivered innovative tools that have received recognition through multiple (10+) awards nationally and internationally. In addition to this, his research also examines implementation of co-design interventions, change management in healthcare and consumer and staff experiences of healthcare. He conducts his research in collaboration of various stakeholders including national and statewide health systems and services partners, health agencies, consumers and consumer representatives.

Dr Chauhan co-ordinates the Patient Centred Care Research Stream of over 20 members within Australian Institute of Health Innovation at Macquarie University. He is an inaugral member of the Australian Multicultural Health Collaborative Health Profession Network nad  a Fellow of the Kiani Global Interprofessional Patient Safety (FKGIPS) Program. He is an ECR member of the Psycho-Oncology Co-operative Research Group (PoCoG) Scientific Advisory Committee and co-leads the PoCoG's EMCR Special Interest Group.

He supervises higher degree (Master of Philosophy) and MD (Doctor of Medicine) research students at Macquarie University and mentors colleagues formally as part of the FKGIPS program and informally through HEER stream. He is available to supervise higher degree research students on project focusing on equity and health care safety and quality. 

Dr Chauhan is a affilitate at the Ingham Institute for Applied Medical Research and a sessional academic at UNSW Sydney. He is also a member of various professional networks and ECR committees. His PhD was funded by the Australian Government Research Training Program (RTP) Scholarship and Macquarie University Excellence in Research Training Scholarship. He is a multilingual researcher and can speak Hindi, Gujarati and Urdu.