Wasantha Jayawardene, MD, PhD

Assistant Research Scientist
Indiana University Bloomington

I am Wasantha Jayawardene, MD, PhD, an Assistant Research Scientist at the Institute for Research on Addictive Behavior, Indiana University School of Public Health Bloomington. I obtained my M.D. from Moscow, medical and epidemiological work experience and advanced professional training from Sri Lanka, followed by Health Promotion M.S., Health Behavior PhD with minor in Neuroscience and postdoctoral experience from Indiana University School of Public Health Bloomington. My prior research focused on critical health issues of school children and youth, including obesity and obesogenic behaviors, substance abuse, medication misuse, mental health, sexually transmitted infections, asthma exacerbations, and international health issues. In this regard, I have employed various methodologies, including experimental interventions, surveys, descriptive studies, and analysis of data from nationwide surveys, school health records, and medical records. To date, I have published over 45 peer-reviewed journal manuscripts and over 45 conference papers as well as 3 evaluation reports. Currently, I serve as the Principal Investigator of three randomized controlled community trials, including a NIDA-funded trial on recruitment and web-based interactive trainining of citizen responders to administer Naloxone nasal spray in opioid overdoses in their communities.