Researcher

Emeritus Professor Bettina Meiser

My Expertise

Psychosocial aspects of genetics; psychosocial aspects of cancer; psychosocial impact of hereditary cancer; psychosocial impact of genetic counselling and testing.

Fields of Research (FoR)

Cancer Genetics, Health, Clinical and Counselling Psychology, Social and Community Psychology, Other Psychology and Cognitive Sciences, Psychological Methodology, Design and Analysis, Psychiatry (incl. Psychotherapy)

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Biography

With the input of many colleagues, Professor Meiser has built a nationally and internationally recognised research program that assesses the psychosocial impact of genetic counselling and testing for hereditary disease; psychological adjustment of individuals at risk for hereditary disease; and the design and evaluation of interventions in the cancer genetic counselling setting, in particular decision aids as an innovative means of patient...view more

With the input of many colleagues, Professor Meiser has built a nationally and internationally recognised research program that assesses the psychosocial impact of genetic counselling and testing for hereditary disease; psychological adjustment of individuals at risk for hereditary disease; and the design and evaluation of interventions in the cancer genetic counselling setting, in particular decision aids as an innovative means of patient education. 

Broad Research Areas:
Cancer, Population Health, Genetics - Genome Analysis, Clinical Research, Preventive Medicine

Qualifications:
BSc, BA (Hons) PhD 

Website:

https://www.unsw.edu.au/medicine-health/our-schools/clinical-medicine/research-impact/research-groups/clinical-research/psychosocial-research-group

Society Memberships & Professional Activities:

  • Executive Advisory Board, Breast Cancer Campaign, United Kingdom, 2012-2022
  • Psychosocial Section Editor, European Journal of Human Genetics, 2011-2022
  • Member of Editorial Board, Familial Cancer, 2013-2022
  • Member of Scientific Committee for International Meetings on Psychosocial Aspects of Hereditary Cancer, 2007-2022
  • Chair, Human Research Ethics Committee, The Cancer Council of New South Wales, 2003-2012
  • Cancer Research Committee, The Cancer Council of New South Wales, 2008-2012
  • Secretary, Ethical and Social Issues Committee, Human Genetics Society of Australasia, 2005-2012
  • Scientific Advisory Committee, Psycho-Oncology Cooperative Group (PoCoG), 2007-2010

Students supervised:

PhD

  • Belinda Thewes, Fertility- and menopause-related information needs of younger women with breast cancer, 2006
  • Nadine Kasparian, Psychosocial aspects of hereditary melanoma, 2006
  • Claire Wakefield, A randomised trial of a decision aid for genetic testing for cancer susceptibility, 2007
  • Michelle Peate, Development and evaluation of a fertility decision aid for young women with breast cancer, 2009
  • Elvira Zilliacus, An evaluation of telehealth cancer genetic counselling, 2010
  • Alex Wilde, Psychosocial impact of advances in genetic research in psychiatry and implications for health care, 2010
  • Janan Karatas, Psychological impact of pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, 2010
  • Mona Taouk, Development of a psychometric tool to assess adolescent depression, 2013
  • Mona Saleh, Beliefs about kinship and hereditary cancer in Arabic-Australians, 2014
  • Holly Peay, Psychosocial implications of hereditary muscular dystrophies, 2015
  • Sundresan Nackier, Familial Risk and Colorectal Cancer Screening in General Practice, 2017
  • Aideen McInerney-Leo, Role of next generation sequencing in disease diagnostics, including psychosocial impact, 2017
  • Amanda Willis, An assessment of the psychosocial and behavioural impact of new genomic technologies in the hereditary cancer setting, 2018
  • Tatiane Yanes, Psychosocial and behavioural impact of genomic testing for polygenic breast cancer risk, 2020
  • Lin Cheng, Patients’ and health professionals’ decision-making about preimplantation genetic testing, 2022

Doctorates in Clinical Psychology

  • Kerry Tiller, A randomised trial of a decision aid for women at risk for ovarian cancer, 2003
  • Shab Mireskandari, A study of partners of women at high risk for developing breast cancer, 2004

 

Masters in Clinical Psychology

  • Jody Junk-Gibson, A content analysis of prenatal counselling of women with high-risk screening results, 2001
  • Helen Gunn, An evaluation of support groups for younger women with breast cancer, 2003

 

Masters of Genetic Counselling

  • Ruth Cowan, A needs analysis of men at increased risk for prostate cancer, 2006
  • Stephanie Burcher, Survey of oncology health professionals regarding their experiences with providing treatment-focused genetic testing for women newly diagnosed with breast cancer, 2011
  • Alexandra Fleming, Health professional attitudes to direct to consumer genetic testing, 2011
  • Amanda Willis, Couples’ preferences for receiving information about prenatal screening, 2013
  • Radhika Ragkumar, Psychosocial aspects of genetic counselling in Tamil clients, 2014
  • Yanni Chen, Exploring clinician attitudes about using aspirin for risk reduction in people with Lynch Syndrome, 2015
  • Morgan Rice, Evaluation of evidenced-based resources to facilitate decision-making about risk-reducing medication for breast cancer risk, 2016
  • Cassandra MacDonald, Evaluation of evidence-based consumer resources to facilitate decision making about risk reducing medication for bowel cancer risk, 2017
  • Laura Wedd, Psychological impact of reclassification of pathogenicity of unclassified variants, 2018
  • Gillian Gregory, Communication analysis of genetic counselling for polygenic breast cancer risk: A quantitative study, 2018

Masters by Research

  • Ingrid Sinnerbrink, Follow up of children detected prenatally with chromosomal changes of uncertain significance, 2011

 

Honours

  • Bronwyn Calford, The content and process of telehealth cancer genetic counselling, 2010
  • Sophie Putt, Psychological and behavioural impact of genetic testing for bipolar risk: A qualitative study, 2018

 Independent Learning Projects

  • Paboda Ratnayake, Information dissemination preferences of families at high risk for breast cancer, 2009
  • Si Si Zhou, Attitudes of health professionals towards predictive genetic testing of healthy people for susceptibility for depression risk, 2011
  • Justin Chau, High School Sun Protection Study, 2011
  • Lilian Zou, Exploring beliefs about hereditary depression amongst Chinese-Australians, 2012
  • Mimi Zu, Exploring beliefs about hereditary depression amongst Anglo- Australians, 2012
  • Ben Storey, Attitudes and information needs regarding next generation sequencing of cancer patients attending hereditary cancer clinic, 2012
  • Michelle Wong, Development of low literacy decision aid for women considering prenatal screening, 2013
  • Roger Liang, Exploring clinician attitudes towards somatic tumour mutation testing, 2015
  • Pierre Hemming, Oncologists’ evaluations of a telephone genetic counselling service for women with ovarian cancer considering genetic testing, 2017
  • Lup Lo, Risk of schizophrenia in relatives of individuals affected by schizophrenia: A meta-analysis, 2018
  • Melissa Cullen, Implications of genomic risk information in  people at genetic risk of schizophrenia: A qualitative study, 2018 
  • Kuheli Das Gupta, Communication analysis of genetic counselling for polygenic breast cancer risk: A qualitative study, 2019

 

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Location

School of Clinical Medicine, UNSW Medicine & Health
Randwick Clinical Campus
Level 1, South Wing, Edmund Blacket Building
UNSW SYDNEY, Randwick NSW 2031




Map reference (Google map)

Contact

61 2 9065 7532