BIG DATA RESEARCH IN MATERNAL, PERINATAL AND RENAL HEALTH EPIDEMIOLOGY
Dr Erandi Hewawasam
Research Fellow,
National Perinatal Epidemiology and Statistics Unit
Centre for Big Data Research in Health
UNSW Sydney, Australia
RESEARCHER PROFILE
Filmed in Sydney, Australia | June 2026
Dr Erandi Hewawasam is a Research Fellow at the National Perinatal Epidemiology and Statistics Unit within the Centre for Big Data Research in Health at University of New South Wales (UNSW). Her work focuses on maternal and reproductive health, chronic diseases (e.g., kidney disease, endometriosis), and early-life outcomes. She is the Program Manager for the Fertility Medicine Data Asset for Australia (FM-DATA), an MRFF-funded national infrastructure project linking fertility, hospital, Medicare, pharmaceutical, and perinatal datasets covering more than 40 million individuals. She also coordinates the Early Life Course Platform, integrating around 20 New South Wales and Australian federal administrative datasets to support population health research.
Before joining UNSW, Dr Hewawasam spent over five years at the Australia and New Zealand Dialysis and Transplant Registry (ANZDATA) at the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI) as a post-doctoral research fellow and program manager for Pregnancy and Kidney Research Australia (PKRA). In these roles, she led patient-centred research at the intersection of pregnancy and chronic kidney disease (CKD), using data linkage, registry analysis, cohort studies, and surveys to improve parenthood outcomes for Australians with CKD. Her work has informed national clinical guidelines, been embedded into renal clinical care and specialist training programs, and contributed to international nephrology education initiatives.
Dr Hewawasam has published more than 40 peer-reviewed papers in leading journals and secured more than $275,000 in competitive funding. In 2025, she received the prestigious James McWha Rising Star Award, one of University of Adelaide’s Distinguished Alumni Awards, recognising exceptional early-career alumni demonstrating leadership and significant impact in their profession and community. Alongside her research, she supervises higher degree students, mentors medical trainees, contributes to teaching, and advocates for inclusive opportunities for women in science as a UNSW STEMM Champion 2025.
Source: Supplied
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8320-3668
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Developing upper limb motor biomarkers of dementia
Kaylee is currently a research fellow with the Wicking Dementia Research and Education Centre at the University of Tasmania. She has recently submitted her PhD thesis, reporting the findings of her research on developing upper limb motor biomarkers of dementia. She has postgrad degrees in physiotherapy and experience working in the community and aged care across Tasmania for several years, where she worked with people with dementia.
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CASE STUDY Next Generation Condom Contraception
Eudaemon Technologies, an early-stage medtech company with a focus on sexual reproductive health, is developing a hydrogel condom to address the need for a better feeling, next generation condom, with the potential to improve user experience and address issues with traditional latex condoms.
“Over 1 million STI’s being diagnosed every day and up to 120 million unplanned pregnancies every year result in a $60 billion health burden across the globe”, says Co-Founder and Executive Director of Operations, Dr Simon Cook.
Formed in 2018, the company focuses on developing tough hydrogels as an alternative to address issues with odour, colour, and taste commonly associated with latex condoms. This technology can be loaded with small molecule drugs for flavours or anti-STI compounds, and was developed in response to a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to address unplanned pregnancies and STIs.
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Stem cell therapies for enteric neuropathies
Dr Stamp is a Group Leader in the Department of Anatomy and Physiology at the University of Melbourne, Australia. Dr Stamp’s PhD research (with Prof Martin Pera, Monash University) focused on the derivation of hepatopancreatic progenitors from human embryonic stem cells. He then joined the lab of Dr Don Newgreen at the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute where he began working on development of the enteric nervous system (ENS), before joining Prof Heather Young’s lab at the University of Melbourne, where he focused on developing a stem cell therapy to treat gut motility disorders such as the paediatric enteric neuropathy Hirschprung disease.
