Attending the Innovations in Health Psychology Conference in Clyde, New Zealand

In March 2025, Professor Suzanne Scott and Dr Christina Derksen travelled to New Zealand to catch up on the latest research on symptom perception, nocebo effects, illness and body mindsets in cancer and chronic health conditions, precision medicine, and use of digital technologies in healthcare.

Christina presented the CanDetect team’s work on barriers to implementation of clinical decision support systems in primary care. Her talk covered findings from a systematic review of 99 studies on why existing clinical decision support systems have not been used. Christina discussed recommendations for development teams, primary care teams, commissioners and policymakers. The talk highlighted how complex the task of developing and implementing clinical decision support systems is and how this will be important to consider as the CanDetect programme develops. The conference presentations offered a great chance to discuss the work with Health Psychology and Behavioural Science experts from all over the world.

The conference also featured plenty of opportunities for discussion and networking in both formal and informal settings, including hiking, bike rides and a conference dinner. An early career lunch was organised with Professors Annette Stanton (University of California, Los Angeles) and John Weinman (King’s College London) to support PhD students and postdocs. Over lunch, the early career researchers discussed their projects as well as future research and career opportunities.

The CanDetect behavioural science team will now work on applying insights from the international expertise to the CanDetect project.