Dorota Doherty

Professor Dorota Doherty is the Head of the Biostatistics and Research Design Unit and Deputy Director of the Women and Infants Research Foundation (WIRF), located in King Edward Memorial Hospital.

Prior to her recruitment at WIRF, Professor Doherty worked as a Statistical Epidemiologist in the Department of Endocrinology at The University of Western Australia, and as a Research Scientist in the Department of Biostatistics at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Centre.

She is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Western Australia’s Division of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (formerly School of Women’s and Infants’ Health), where she collaborates on research projects, as well as teaches and supervises postgraduate students.

Professor Doherty’s experience in standard and complex biostatistical techniques is pivotal in the translation of research in clinical medicine.

Her national and international reputation as an expert in methodologies of randomised clinical trials and in the implementation of analytical models in healthcare, particularly in maternity care, makes her a fundamental and sought-after contributor to competitively funded research projects.

Her research output has generated a significant number of research articles and government reports using her analytic evaluation methodologies, as well as reviews on model of maternity care for low risk, high risk and disadvantaged obstetric populations in Australia.

Since joining WIRF in 2001, Professor Doherty has been awarded a total of $11.8M in competitive grant support, both as chief and partner investigator.

• The Western Australian Preterm Birth Prevention Initiative
• Outcomes in planned home birth in WA
• Growing Up Healthy Study
• Predict1000 Study
• Aboriginal Health Workers in tertiary maternity care

Bachelor of Science (Mathematics, Hons I) , Murdoch University, Western Australia, 1991
PhD (Medical Statistics), Murdoch University, Western Australia, 1999

NHMRC Project Grant (CIA): Investigation of factors that influence Aboriginal maternal and infant health improvements to be achieved with the introduction of Aboriginal Health Workers into tertiary care 2012-2015

WA Department of Health TRF (CIA): Evaluation of morbidity and mortality associated with home birth in Western Australia. 2012-2014

WA Department of Health SHRAC (CIA): Models for improved maternal care for rural and remote Aboriginal women: evaluation of  clinical benefits and cost-effectiveness  2008-2009

WA Department of Health SHRAC (CIA):  Evaluation of pregnancy outcomes and cost-effectiveness of models of antenatal care and preferred setting for labour and birth care in women at low risk of  pregnancy complications 2007-2008

• Newnham JP, White SW, Meharry S, Lee HS, Pedretti M, Arrese CA, Jeffrey JA, Kemp MW, Dickinson JE, Doherty DA. Reducing preterm birth by a state-wide multifaceted program: an implementation study. Am J Obstet Gynecol 2017; 216 (5): 434-442
• White CRH, Doherty DA, Cannon JW, Kohan R, Newnham JP, Pennell CE. ‘Cost effectiveness of universal cord blood gas and lactate analysis in a tertiary level maternity unit’, J Perinat Med 2016; 44(5):573-84.
• Doherty DA, Bower C, Newnham JP, Hart R. Implications of Polycystic Ovary Syndrome for Pregnancy and for the Health of Offspring. Obstet Gynecol. 2015; 125(6): 1397-406
• Hart R, Doherty DA, ‘The potential implications of a PCOS diagnosis on a woman’s long-term health using data linkage’, JCEM 2015; 100(3):911-919.
• Cannon JW, Mueller UA, Hornbuckle J, Larson A, Simmer K, Newnham JP, Doherty DA. Economic implications of poor access to antenatal care in rural and remote Western Australian Aboriginal communities: an individual sampling model. EJOR European Journal of Operations Research 2013, 226(2):313–324