Gayatri Jape
Honorary Research Associate
MD, FRACP, PhD, CCPU
Dr Gayatri Jape (MD, FRACP, PhD, CCPU) is a consultant neonatologist at King Edward Memorial Hospital. She is a Clinical Senior Lecturer at the University of Western Australia. She has worked in Pediatrics and Neonatology since last 18 years in Australia and overseas.
Dr Jape is currently the Clinical Lead for the Neonatal Follow Up Program at Child and Adolescent Health Service and is involved with follow up of high-risk infants till age of five years. She has recently completed her PhD at UWA focussed on probiotics, nutrition and long-term neurodevelopment in preterm infants. She is the Chair for the Perinatal Society of Australia and New Zealand (PSANZ) long-term outcomes sub-committee and is a member on the Communications Committee in the Newborn Brain Society. She is a member of the neonatal-perinatal advanced training committee.
She led a randomized controlled trial on effect of single or three strain probiotic on enteral nutrition in extremely preterm infants (SiMPro, ACTRN12615000940572) which is currently in the long term follow up phase. She successfully led a novel pilot clinical trial (ProPara, ACTRN 12618000489291p) comparing efficacy and safety of live and heat inactivated probiotics in preterm infants, the results of which are currently being analysed. She has published several articles and is an international reviewer for high impact peer-reviewed journals. She has received funding grants from Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation (2015, 2018), Telethon Channel Seven Trust (2016, 2017), Centre for Neonatal Research and Education, UWA funding (2017) and Stan Perron Foundation Funding (2020).
Projects
NICU Dads
Co-design of a program supporting paternal involvement in preterm care.
January 2025
Published research
Use of Neuroimaging to Predict Adverse Developmental Outcomes in High-Risk Infants
With advances in perinatal care, we have achieved major reductions in mortality in premature and critically ill infants, but they still remain at increased risk of neurodevelopmental disability. In this context, recent advances in neuroimaging are perceived as an addition of significant value to current clinical developmental screening programs.
Education and Qualifications
- MBBS (University of Mumbai, honours) 2002
- Masters in Paediatrics (MD), University of Mumbai with distinction, 2007
- Fellowship of Royal Australian College of Physicians (Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine) 2013
- Certificate In Clinician Performed Ultrasound, Australian Society of Ultrasound Medicine, 2019
- Graduate Certificate in Autism Diagnosis, UWA, 2019
- Graduate Certificate in Clinical Leadership, UC Davis, California, 2020
- Women in Leadership, AIMWA, 2022
- PhD, UWA, 2022
Awards/Honours
- Best neonatal registrar award, 2010
- 10 years long service award from Child and Adolescent Health Service, 2020
Active Collaborations
- Patricia Conway, University of New South Wales, Sydney and Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
- Dr Meera Esvaran, University of New South Wales, Sydney
- Lars Bode, University of San Diego
- Stephan Schuster, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering