Rate My Professor Sisira Edirippulige

Dr Sisira Edirippulige is an Associate Professor in the Medical School at the University of Queensland, serving as Deputy Director - Teaching of the Centre for Online Health within the Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences. He is also an affiliate of the Centre for Health Services Research. Holding a PhD from Moscow, a PhD from the University of Auckland, an MSc from Moscow, an MPH, and a Graduate Certificate in Higher Education from the University of Queensland, his academic career includes prior teaching positions at Kobe Gakuin University in Japan and the University of Auckland in New Zealand. With extensive experience in development studies across Russia, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Japan, and New Zealand, Edirippulige focuses his research on the development, promotion, and integration of e-health education in the healthcare sector. He designs and develops training programs in e-health and telehealth for various health professionals, contributing significantly to digital health education and clinical telehealth implementation.

Edirippulige has supervised 17 PhD projects, including five current ones on topics such as AI-powered medical history tools, telemedicine systems in India, and digital health workforce needs. His funding includes NHMRC Project Grants and UQ start-up funds for telehealth initiatives in aged care and cystic fibrosis. Key publications encompass the highly cited 'The role of telehealth in reducing the mental health burden from COVID-19' (2020, over 1,400 citations), 'Education and training to support the use of clinical telehealth: a review of the literature' (2017, 318 citations), and his book 'Sri Lanka's twisted path to peace: Some domestic and international obstacles to the peace process' (2004). Recent works include studies on digital mental health interventions, health-tech startups, and neuroscience-informed teacher training for children's mental health. He received a prestigious Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) fellowship in 2025 to investigate digital health education in Japanese medical schools and the Best Paper award at the Successes and Failures in Telehealth conference in 2024 for UQ's digital health courses. With over 6,000 citations on Google Scholar, his work influences telehealth adoption, mHealth interventions, and global digital health training.