Associate Professor | Senior Research Officer
Population Health Department
Vanessa.Beesley@qimrberghofer.edu.au
Associate Professor Vanessa Beesley is a behavioural scientist and who holds a Bachelor of Public Health, a First Class Honours Degree in Epidemiology and a PhD in Psycho-Oncology. She has dedicated over a decade to working in the specialised field of ‘patient-reported outcomes’ in cancer research. She is passionate about person-centred care and meeting peoples supportive care needs. Her work spans across many tumour streams including patients and carers affected by ovarian, endometrial, pancreatic, colorectal cancer, neuroendocrine tumours and melanoma.
A/Prof Beesley is or has been a chief investigator of 13 patient-reported outcomes studies funded through major national grants or specialist agencies. She has published over 60 scientific articles, co-written a manual on methods of data analysis, given ~20 national or international conference presentations, workshops or symposiums and held multiple Cancer Australia contracts to provide recommendations to government.
A/Prof Beesley is a founding member of the Queensland Collaborative for Cancer Survivorship which focuses on developing and evaluating health innovations. Through this collaborative and a board approved partnership with Australia’s leading pancreatic cancer organisation, A/Prof Beesly has developed a translational program of work assessing real world implementation of a nation-wide support service for families faced with pancreatic cancer. Her other main focus is on women with ovarian cancer. In this endeavour, she leads the patient-reported outcomes arm of the national Ovarian Cancer Prognosis and Lifestyle (OPAL) Study. Her OPAL work has been translated into Cancer Council hosted educational webinars for health professionals and into a learning program for general practitioners.
2015-current: Senior Research Officer, Population Health Department
2018-current: Adjunct Associate Professor, School of Nursing, Queensland University of Technology (QUT)
2008-2018: Honorary Fellow, School of Public Health and Social Work (SPHSW), QUT
2007-2015: Research Officer, Population Health Department, QIMR Berghofer
Associate Professor Beesley is a chief investigator on the following studies and trials
Associate Professor Vanessa Beesley has:
2019: Winner of the Best of the Best Epidemiology Orals at the Clinical Oncological Society of Australia Annual Scientific Meeting
2008-2013: NHMRC Early Career Award
2006: QUT Write-up Award
2003: Postgraduate Research Student Award for Outstanding Contribution
2002-2005: QUT Postgraduate Research Award
2000: QUT Honours Award
2007: PhD (Psycho-oncology), Queensland University of Technology, Australia
2000: B.A. (Health Science), Hons (First Class), Queensland University of Technology, Australia
1999: B.A. (Health Science), Public Health, Queensland University of Technology, Australia