Dr. Phyllis Butow, PhD

Research Interests:

Psycho-oncology, psychological impact of disease, factors influencing coping and adjustment to disease, evaluation of health services, health education and behavioral interventions, measurement, evaluation and interventions within health professional-patient communication, predictors of treatment compliance, psychometric measurement and test development.

Bio:

Prof Phyllis Butow (BA(Hons), MPH, MClinPsych, PhD), formerly Professor and NHMRC Senior Principal Research Fellow, is now Emeritus Professor in the School of Psychology at the University of Sydney. Her research focuses on psychosocial issues in cancer, and she has formed several large research groups which explore these issues, including the Australian Psycho-Oncology Co-operative Research Group (PoCoG) and the Centre for Medical Psychology and Evidence-based Decision-making (CeMPED). Prof Butow has won many awards for her work, including the International Psycho-Oncology Society Bernard Fox award for outstanding contribution to Psycho-Oncology research in 2009 and the Clinical Oncological Society of Australia Tom Reeve award for outstanding contribution to cancer care in 2011, was named NSW Cancer Researcher of the year in 2012 and received an Order of Australia (AM) in 2014. Prof Butow has conducted a large body of research on doctor-patient communication, patient involvement in cancer consultations and decision-making, patient and family support, disparities in outcomes and needs of immigrants with cancer, interventions for fear of cancer recurrence, psychosocial and behavioral issues in genetic and genomic testing, and implementation of evidence based interventions in routine care.

Education:

Undergraduate Education

• BA, Hons: Class 1, Macquarie University, 1979

Graduate Education

• PhD, Faculty of Medicine, University of Sydney, 1991

• Masters of Public Health, University of Sydney, 1994

• Masters of Clinical Psychology, Aust. National University, 1982

Publications:

A full list of Dr. Butow's publications can be found here.