​Prof Bettina Meiser 
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BSc, BAHons(Psych), PhD, Registered Psychologist
Head, Psychosocial Research Group

Phone: +61 2 9385 0025
Fax: +61 2 9385 0033
Email: b.meiser@unsw.edu.au

Overview

With the input of many colleagues, Associate Professor Bettina 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.  She is Head of the Psychosocial Research Group, Prince of Wales Hospital, and A/Professor in the Prince of Wales Clinical School.  She currently holds a Cancer Institute NSW Career Development Fellowship and an NHMRC Career Development Award.  

Click here for a list of Professor Meiser’s publications here. 

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

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
  • 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

 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 literact decisdion aid for women considering prenatal screening, 2013
  • Roger Liang, Exploring clinician attitudes towards somatic tumour mutation testing, 2015

​Society Memberships & Professional Activities

  • Executive Advisory Board, Breast Cancer Campaign, United Kingdom, since 2012
  • Psychosocial Section Editor, European Journal of Human Genetics, since 2011
  • Member of Editorial Board, Familial Cancer, since 2013
  • Member of Scientific Committee for International Meetings on Psychosocial Aspects of Hereditary Cancer, since 2007
  • 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), 2007-201

Broad Research Areas

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