Dr Hemavathi Shanmugam is a psychiatrist and medical lecturer in the Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Malaya. Her primary clinical and research focus is neuromodulation in psychiatry, particularly its application in mood and anxiety disorders. She holds certification in transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS; PULSES, USA) and transcranial electrical stimulation (TES; PlatoScience, Denmark), and is an active member of international neuromodulation networks, including the Clinical TMS Society and its Asian Special Interest Council (CTMSS).

Clinically, Dr Hemavathi led the implementation of the TMS service for psychiatric disorders at the University Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC), established through collaboration with the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine. She is formally credentialed and privileged by UMMC to perform TMS procedures. She completed a clinical attachment in Interventional Psychiatry at the National University Hospital, Singapore, with exposure to neuronavigation-guided and accelerated TMS protocols.

Her research focuses on neuromodulation, real-world clinical outcomes, and health-economic evaluation of TMS in the Malaysian healthcare context. She is actively involved in undergraduate and postgraduate psychiatry education and contributes to the development, standardisation, and credentialing of neuromodulation services within her department.