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.    Dr Bowen's clinical role informs her research as a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) funded Fellow.

Dr Bowen was awarded her PhD at the Menzies School of Health Research in Darwin in 2015 for a large randomized controlled trial on the treatment of impetigo in remote Indigenous children. She 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 recruiting from 2019-2021 throughout the Kimberley region in Western Australia. Community engagement over several years formed the foundation of the SToP Trial and ensured the study was guided by the Aboriginal co-investigators and community members. 

Dr Bowen and her team recently launched the inaugural National Healthy Skin Guideline to guide clinicians in the recognition and evidence-based treatment of skin infection. She is also the Chair of the Australian and New Zealand Paediatric Infectious Diseases committee and Deputy Chair of the Australasian Society of Infectious Diseases clinical research network.