Jessica Dawson

Jessica Dawson is a Senior Research Fellow at the NHMRC Clinical Trials Centre within the Faculty of Medicine and Health at the University of Sydney. She also serves as a senior renal dietitian at St George Hospital, specializing in Conservative Kidney Management. Her academic career includes a PhD awarded in 2021, focusing on eHealth interventions in chronic kidney disease (CKD).

Her research spans systematic reviews, qualitative studies, observational cohort analyses, and randomized controlled trials. Key areas of interest include integrating digital health tools into CKD care, addressing frailty and malnutrition in advanced kidney disease, and reducing the evidence-practice gap through implementation science. She has led the creation of world-first nutrition guidelines for Conservative Kidney Management and evaluates how health literacy and symptom burden affect patient outcomes.

Jessica’s honors include being a finalist for the Young Investigator of the Year Award (2020) by the Australia and New Zealand Society of Nephrology. She actively contributes to teaching via the Renal Nutrition Program, designed to enhance renal medicine training for dietitians. Her work is funded by grants such as the 2024 Agency for Clinical Innovation project on diabetes support informed by Aboriginal voices.

Her research projects emphasize digital interventions for dietary and medication adherence in CKD patients, alongside cost-effectiveness analyses of mobile health programs. She collaborates with multidisciplinary teams and leverages platforms like Cochrane Reviews and the NHMRC Clinical Trials Centre to advance translational research and clinical practice.