Associate Professor Asha Bowen

Areas of expertise: Skin infections, Streptococcus pyogenes, Staphylococcus aureus, Aboriginal children, central line associated blood stream infections, osteomyelitis, paediatric infections including HIV, bacteraemia, TB and congenital CMV

Associate Professor Asha Bowen is a clinician scientist working at Perth Children’s Hospital as a paediatric infectious disease specialist and Head of Skin Health at the Telethon Kids Institute. Her clinical role informs her research. She was awarded her PhD at the Menzies School of Health Research in Darwin in 2015, a large randomized controlled trial on the treatment of impetigo in remote Indigenous children to find a better treatment. Dr Bowen is the lead investigator for the SToP trial to “see, treat and prevent” skin infections, a large cluster randomised trial with a stepped wedge design in the Kimberley, WA. This trial will commence following several years of community engagement to ensure the study is guided by the Aboriginal co-investigators and community members. Asha and her team recently launched the inaugural National Healthy Skin Guideline to guide clinicians in the recognition and evidence-based treatment of skin infection. Asha is the Deputy Chair of the Australian and New Zealand Paediatric Infectious Diseases committee and a member of the Australasian Society of Infectious Diseases clinical research network.