Dr Kaley Butten

Kaley Butten is a mixed-methods researcher in eHealth (think apps, sensors and digital therapeutics) with a background in public health. Her research interests are informed by the social determinants of health, the non-medical factors (where people are born, grow, work, live, and age) which affect human health and a person’s access to health care. She likes to explore if and how eHealth can support different populations and health services.

Born and raised on Vancouver Island, Canada, she lived and worked abroad before pursuing a career in Public Health in Australia. She obtained her PhD (2020) from Queensland University of Technology titled, “Oral Health in an Urban, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community in Queensland, Australia and the Development of a Culturally Specific Health-Related Quality of Life Measurement Tool” supported by a Faculty of Health Postgraduate Scholarship. Her PhD work resulted in the first validated culturally-specific parent-proxy health-related quality of life tool, a foundational tool which can inform the development of condition specific tools for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. Experience and outcome screening tools are needed to inform the acceptability and efficacy of health interventions, yet there remain few tools which consider cultural perceptions of health.

Kaley’s focus on health equity and access has provided her experience in a number of health areas including diabetes, vaccination, suicide, oral health, quality of life and chronic wounds; her research expertise is supported by her experience in the private sector in data and project management.

Her most recent work explores the adoption and integration of mHealth into Australian Hospital and Health Services. mHealth incorporates individual technologies, such as mobile phone applications, sensors, and web-based platforms to support the management and prevention of health conditions. A passion for supporting the needs and values of people seeking health care and their clinicians, Kaley uses mixed-methods approaches to facilitate collaborative and co-designed solutions to improve access and delivery of health services.