Kirsten McCaffery is a British-Australian public health researcher who is Principal Research Fellow and Director of Research at the

Sydney School of Public Health The University of Sydney School of Medicine, also known as Sydney Medical School (SMS) is the graduate medical school of the University of Sydney. Established in 1856, it is the first medical school in Australia. In 2018, Sydney Medical School j ...

. Her research considers the psychosocial aspects of over diagnosis in healthcare. She was elected Fellow of the

Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences The Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences is an academy to promote health and medical sciences in Australia. It was established in June 2014. It cites "The Academy will serve the three purposes identified as of high priority in the 20 ...

in 2020.

Early life and education

McCaffery earned her undergraduate degree in psychology at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

. She held various research positions, including working in

Tanzania Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands and ...

and at Cancer Research UK. She decided to do a PhD and pursue a career in research after working as a research associate in the research group of

Jane Wardle Jane Wardle FBA FMedSci (30 October 1950 – 20 October 2015) was a professor of clinical psychology and director of the Cancer Research UK Health Behaviour Research Centre at University College London. She was one of the pioneers of health p ...

Research and career

McCaffery joined the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's si ...

as a Research Fellow and was eventually appointed Professor of Behavioural Science and Director of Research at the Sydney School of Public Health. Her research considers health literacy and patient communications. McCaffery founded the Sydney Health Literarcy Lab, which seeks to empower people in their health outcomes. Through meta-analyses of health literature, McCaffery has shown that 80% of patients did not understand their home-care instructions 36 hours after leaving hospital, with 40 to 80% of information forgotten almost immediately. She is interested in whether removing the label of 'cancer' in low-risk, likely harmless, conditions could help reduce over-diagnosis. In October 2020, McCaffery was elected Fellow of the

. During the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, McCaffery studied disparities in

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

knowledge amongst the Australian population. As with much of the world, those with the greatest burden of chronic disease are the most disadvantaged. She found that these differences in COVID understanding lead to social inequalities in health outcomes. Alongside health literacy, McCaffery studied the pandemic-induced rise and fall of

Telehealth Telehealth is the distribution of health-related services and information via electronic information and telecommunication technologies. It allows long-distance patient and clinician contact, care, advice, reminders, education, intervention, mon ...

, and how to improve the patient experience.

Selected publications

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McCaffery, Kirsten Living people Australian women academics Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Academic staff of the University of Sydney Alumni of University College London Australian women psychologists Public health researchers Fellows of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences Year of birth missing (living people)