Kirsten McCaffery

McCaffery joined the University of Sydney as a Research Fellow and was eventually appointed Professor of Behavioural Science and Director of Research at the Sydney School of Public Health.^[2] Her research considers health literacy and patient communications.^[3][4]

McCaffery founded the Sydney Health Literarcy Lab, which seeks to empower people in their health outcomes.^[5] 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.^[6][7]

In October 2020, McCaffery was elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences.^[8] During the COVID-19 pandemic, McCaffery studied disparities in COVID-19 knowledge amongst the Australian population.^[9] As with much of the world, those with the greatest burden of chronic disease are the most disadvantaged.^[9] She found that these differences in COVID understanding lead to social inequalities in health outcomes.^{[citation needed]} Alongside health literacy, McCaffery studied the pandemic-induced rise and fall of Telehealth, and how to improve the patient experience.^[10]

• Vikki A Entwistle; Stacy M Carter; Alan Cribb; Kirsten McCaffery (6 March 2010). "Supporting patient autonomy: the importance of clinician-patient relationships". Journal of General Internal Medicine. 25 (7): 741–745. doi:10.1007/S11606-010-1292-2. ISSN 0884-8734. PMC 2881979. PMID 20213206. Wikidata Q33898754.
• Sian K Smith; Ann Dixon; Lyndal Trevena; Donald Nutbeam; Kirsten McCaffery (19 October 2009). "Exploring patient involvement in healthcare decision making across different education and functional health literacy groups". Social Science & Medicine. 69 (12): 1805–1812. doi:10.1016/J.SOCSCIMED.2009.09.056. ISSN 0277-9536. PMID 19846245. Wikidata Q51803612.
• Heather Powell; Vanessa E Murphy; D Robin Taylor; Michael J Hensley; Kirsten McCaffery; Warwick Giles; Vicki Clifton; Peter G Gibson (1 September 2011). "Management of asthma in pregnancy guided by measurement of fraction of exhaled nitric oxide: a double-blind, randomised controlled trial". The Lancet. 378 (9795): 983–990. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(11)60971-9. ISSN 0140-6736. PMID 21907861. Wikidata Q50787410.