Dr Lisa Beatty

Post Doctoral Research Fellow

Flinders Centre for Innovation in Cancer

+61 8 82012506

lisa.beatty@flinders.edu.au

Flinders Centre for Innovation in Cancer (354)

GPO Box 2100, Adelaide 5001, South Australia

Dr Lisa Beatty is a Clinical Psychologist and Cancer Council SA Postdoctoral Fellow (Cancer Support) at the Flinders Centre for Innovation in Cancer. She has over 12 years of research and clinical expertise in the field of psycho-oncology (the scientific exploration of the psychological impact and treatment of cancer). Within this field, Lisa is an expert in the online provision of support for cancer survivors, a strategy that aims to deliver evidence-based psychological treatments to those who may not be able to access them otherwise due to distance, fear or distress. Lisa works at the interface of oncology and psychology and effectively engages with researchers, clinicians, and consumers in both these fields.

Dr Beatty has attracted national funding to support her research and was the lead investigator on a large NHMRC-funded multi-centre grant, which demonstrated the benefits of her online intervention, Finding My Way (www.findingmyway.org.au). This program is now a freely available online resource for the Australian cancer community, and is also currently being adapted for use by researchers in US, UK, Germany and Romania.

Dr Beatty has published over 28 journal articles, 1 book chapter, 1 book review, and has received 5 awards in recognition of her work, including a 2017 "South Australian Young Tall Poppy Science Award".

Clinically, Dr Beatty provides a public psychology clinic for adults affected by cancer, where she provides assessment of, and psychological treatment for, cancer-related distress, along with running occasional group programs, and training provisional (early career) psychologists on clinical rotation with her.

Qualifications

BPsych (Hons), PhD (Clin Psych)

Honours, awards and grants

2017 SA Young Tall Poppy Science Award recipient / 2017 SA Science Excellence Awards Tall Poppy of the Year Finalist

2013 Flinders University Vice-Chancellor's Award for Early Career Researchers

2010 Clinical Oncology Society of Australia Annual Scientific Meeting Best of the Best Poster Award

2004 Flinders Medical Centre Foundation Lyn Wrigley Award for Breast Cancer Research

Research expertise

Oncology and carcinogenesis

Psychology

Research interests

My current research interests include:

(i) Examining the psychosocial adjustment concerns of people with cancer;

(ii) Develop and evaluate self-directed interventions to address these concerns.

My research team have previously designed and evaluated two self-help workbooks for women with breast cancer. During my postdoctoral fellowship, this research expanded into an online format, where we developed and pilot tested a web-based self-help program for all people affected by early-stage cancer, using a single site RCT. Following this, I obtained National Health and Medical Research Council funding as Principal Investigator, to conduct a clinical trial of the second iteration/version of this website, in a multi-site design. This trial was successfully completed in 2016, and the web-program www.findingmyway.org.au is now available as a free-to-access resource for the Australian cancer community, with support from the Flinders Foundation and in partnership with the Cancer Council SA. This research has generated a great deal of international interest, with research groups in the USA, Romania, Germany and the UK all either currently trialling, or planning to trial, Finding My Way in their settings. Current and future research directions include exploring (a) how these resources can be adapted, and (b) are they efficacious, in advanced/incurable cancer populations.

Publications