BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCE IN CANCER SCREENING, CONTROL AND COMMUNICATION
With
Dr Rachael Dodd
Senior Research Fellow,
The Daffodil Centre, a Cancer Council NSW & The University of Sydney Joint Venture
Sydney, Australia
RESEARCHER PROFILE
Filmed in Sydney | April 2025
Dr Dodd completed her undergraduate in Psychology (2007), Masters in Health Psychology (2009) and PhD in Psychology (2016) in the UK. Her PhD focused on the psychosocial impact of HPV in people diagnosed with head and neck cancer, which resulted in the development of an education resource which is being implemented into clinical practice here in Australia and is available online. Dr Dodd relocated to The University of Sydney in Australia in 2017, following the completion of her PhD. Her research capitalised on her expertise in HPV and focused on the changes to the cervical screening program that commenced in Australia in 2017.
Dr Dodd has an established international reputation as a behavioural scientist in cancer control and communication. Since completing her PhD in 2016, Dr Dodd has been awarded a three-year University of Sydney Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (2018-2021) and a three-year Research Fellowship at The Daffodil Centre (current). Dr Dodd is the co-chair of the ‘Strengthening and optimising approaches to cancer prevention, screening, and early detection’ hub at The Daffodil Centre (with more than 130 staff and students).
Dr Dodd has published 78 research papers and is a CI on grants worth over $20 million. This has included being the lead investigator of an International Lung Cancer Foundation Young Investigator Grant, to co-design decision support tools for lung cancer screening in Australia and she is leading a consortium to develop the suite of information materials and education resources for the upcoming National Lung Cancer Screening Program.
Source: Supplied
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8080-6359
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Brain ageing, dementia and psychiatric disorders
Professor Perminder Sachdev graduated from the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, in 1978 and completed his MD in Psychiatry there in 1983. Following time in New Zealand, he relocated to Australia, where he completed psychiatric training and a PhD at UNSW in 1991. His doctoral work examined ethnopsychological concepts in Māori culture. His early research focused on drug-induced movement disorders, including akathisia, tardive dyskinesia and neuroleptic malignant syndrome, while his later work has centred on dementia and pre-dementia syndromes, particularly neuroimaging, biomarkers and risk factors.
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Visceral pain and the gut-brain axis
Professor Stuart Brierley is Director of the Visceral Pain Research Group, Director of the Hopwood Centre for Neurobiology, and Theme co-Leader of Lifelong Health at the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI).
Prof Brierley is an international expert on the ‘gut-brain axis’ and chronic visceral pain mechanisms. Current investigations are on a individual cell type called the enterochromaffin cell, and it helps signal pain and anxiety from the gastrointestinal tract to the brain.
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Paramedics in the Community
Dr Brendan Shannon is a registered paramedic and Head of Postgraduate Programs and Deputy Head of Department of Paramedicine at Monash University.
Brendan has a keen research interest in alternative care pathways, non-transport, referral services, paramedic practitioners and community paramedicine. His Doctoral research focused on investigating the experiences of health services when implementing alternative care pathways.
