Research at NovoPsych
Our Vision: Better Assessment, Better Care
NovoPsych’s research program is dedicated to continuously improving the accuracy, interpretability and clinical usefulness of the psychometric tools mental health clinicians use in everyday practice.
Working in partnership with clinicians and researchers, we translate contemporary psychological science into practical assessment tools that can be used with confidence.
NovoPsych is committed to a future where:
- Clients get the right care, at the right time
- We move beyond diagnostic labels to the specific underlying patterns driving an individual’s distress
- Measures don’t rely solely on self-report, but integrate other forms of data
- Autism, ADHD, trauma, mood and personality difficulties are identified earlier and more accurately
- Clinicians have tools that are data-driven and precise to help better understand a client’s personal experiences.
NovoPsych’s mission is to serve clinicians and their clients. Our research program — built on strong ethical oversight, robust psychometrics, and clinician partnership — is one of the key ways we pursue that mission.
Our Research Partners
We collaborate with researchers from leading institutions and universities, including
NovoPsych Research Team
We have a dedicated team of researchers with backgrounds in clinical psychology, psychometrics, statistics and cognitive science.
Dr Ben Buchanan
Clinical Psychologist
BA(Phil), GradDipPsych, Hons (Psych), DPsych (Clinical), MAPS, FCCLP
Dr David Hegarty
Psychologist
BA (Psych), M.H.Sc., Ph.D
Dr Jamie Marshall
Research Fellow, and Prompt Engineer
Clinical Psychologist
PhD, MPsych (Clinical), BA (Hons) (Psych), GradDipSocSci, AFAIDH, MAPS, FCCLP
Dr Hilah Kate Kaufman
Measurement-Based Care Research Fellow | Psychologist
BA (Psych), MPhil, PhD
Dr Joseph Phillips
Research Fellow, BSc (Hons) Psych, MSc Neuroscience, PhD
Dr Carla Smyth
Research Fellow, Clinical Liaison, and Clinical Psychologist
BA (Hons), PhD (Clin), MAPS, FCCLP
Dr Jane Wotherspoon
Research Fellow
BA/BSc (Hons), Grad Dip Psych Studies, BBehavSci (Hons), MPsych, PhD.
Dr Simon Baker
BPsychMgt/Mkt, BSci(Hons), PhD
Emerson Bartholomew
Psychometrician
BA(Psych) MHealthPsych
NovoPsych Research Team
We have a dedicated team of researchers with backgrounds in clinical psychology, psychometrics, statistics and cognitive science.
Dr Ben Buchanan
Clinical Psychologist
BA(Phil), GradDipPsych, Hons (Psych), DPsych (Clinical), MAPS, FCCLP
Dr David Hegarty
Psychologist
BA (Psych), M.H.Sc., Ph.D
Dr Jamie Marshall
Research Fellow, and Prompt Engineer
Clinical Psychologist
PhD, MPsych (Clinical), BA (Hons) (Psych), GradDipSocSci, AFAIDH, MAPS, FCCLP
Dr Hilah Kate Kaufman
Measurement-Based Care Research Fellow | Psychologist
BA (Psych), MPhil, PhD
Dr Joseph Phillips
Research Fellow, BSc (Hons) Psych, MSc Neuroscience, PhD
Dr Carla Smyth
Research Fellow, Clinical Liaison, and Clinical Psychologist
BA (Hons), PhD (Clin), MAPS, FCCLP
Dr Jane Wotherspoon
Research Fellow
BA/BSc (Hons), Grad Dip Psych Studies, BBehavSci (Hons), MPsych, PhD.
Dr Simon Baker
BPsychMgt/Mkt, BSci(Hons), PhD
Emerson Bartholomew
Psychometrician
BA(Psych) MHealthPsych
The Scientist–Practitioner Model
Our goal is to support the scientist–practitioner model: clinicians using evidence-based tools, and real clinical data contributing to the development of better evidence. NovoPsych supports this model through:
- Evidence-based practice
- Using validated instruments with strong reliability and validity evidence.
- Employing tools with known norms, cut-offs, and sensitivity/specificity.
- Practice-based evidence
- Using real-world clinical data to refine our understanding of what works, for whom, and under what conditions.
- Allowing aggregated outcome data to inform better scales and better thresholds.
Recognising that the evidence base is constantly evolving, NovoPsych actively undertakes research to improve the psychometric tools available to clinicians.
NovoPsych Research Projects
Below is an overview of past and ongoing NovoPsych research initiatives, made possible through clinician participation:
Improving existing scales
- Caregiving Composite Questionnaire (CCQ)
- Confirmatory factor analysis to test structure and refine subscales.
- Aim: ensure the scale measures what it claims to measure, clearly and efficiently.
- Ritvo Autism Aspergers Diagnostic Scale – Revised (RAADS-R)
- A comprehensive psychometric re-evaluation of the RAADS-R using a large clinical sample. Factor analyses, ROC analyses, and cross-validation with established autism measures were performed.
Developing new, modern measures
- Maladaptive Schema Scale (MSS)
- Developed to identify core beliefs most strongly related to psychological distress.
- Built from both theory and large-scale factor analysis of clinical and community samples.
- NovoPsych Five Factor Personality Scale
- A contemporary personality measure developed for clinical practice, integrating modern psychometric techniques and real-world samples.
- Trauma, ADHD and other new measures
- Field trials, beta testing, and validation in routine clinical care, not just undergraduate samples.
Join over 500 scientist-practioners helping improve psychometric science
“It’s research — informed by clinicians on the front line — that drives the next leap in mental health care.”
NovoPsych exists to help clinicians deliver better outcomes through high-quality psychometric assessment. A core part of that mission is ongoing, rigorous research into how psychological measures perform in real-world clinical practice.
At the same time, we understand that clinicians are rightly cautious about how client data is used. Over 500 clinicians have opted in to share anonymous psychometric data with NovoPsych, because they share an interest in improving the state of psychometrics research.
We invite you to learn more about our research directions, and how NovoPsych users can opt in to help improve psychometric tools. There are two relevant privacy policies detailing how data is protected, processed, stored and used. NovoPsych Psychometrics Privacy Policy, and NovoNote AI Scribe Privacy Policy.
Note, NovoPsych’s research efforts centre around psychometrics, and no data from NovoNote AI scribe is used to train AI models.
Benefits of Opting In to De-Identified Data Sharing
Better measurement for everyone
- More accurate norms by age, gender, setting, and region.
- Sharper clinical cut-offs and reliable change indices.
- Scales that perform well across diverse populations (not just convenience samples)
More precise diagnosis and formulation
- Improved ability to differentiate overlapping presentations (e.g., anxiety vs ADHD vs mood vs personality features).
- Progress towards dimensional, transdiagnostic models (e.g., HiTOP) using real clinical data.
More effective treatment planning
- Outcome data that help identify which patterns of scores are associated with better recovery.
- Potential for future decision-support tools to flag risk, complexity, or likely response to specific interventions.
Advance the profession
- Contribute to international research on mental health assessment.
- Strengthen the evidence base underpinning the tools you already use.
- Support new, more nuanced measures of constructs like schema, trauma, neurodevelopmental conditions, and wellbeing.
Talking to Clients About Data Use
If you choose to opt in, you may wish to include a brief statement in your own consent forms or information sheets. For example:
“De-identified questionnaire data may be used for academic research to improve psychological tests or for quality improvement purposes”
Key points to consider:
- Emphasise that participation is anonymous and poses no additional risk.
- Make clear that care does not depend on whether they agree or disagree.
- Encourage questions; being transparent builds trust
- Some of our projects have specific informed consent requirements that clients must review.
- Other projects that Human Research Ethics Committees (HREC) have deemed to pose a low risk have been granted a client “waiver of consent,” indicating that the HREC does not impose specific consent requirements for clients. Nonetheless, various professional codes, such as the Australian Code of Conduct for Psychologists, mandate the disclosure of how data is utilised, including for research purposes. Therefore, in these circumstances, it is recommended that a short statement like the one above be included on client registration and consent forms.
How NovoPsych Conducts Research
When a clinician opts into anonymous data sharing, data is only used for research under very specific, tightly controlled circumstances, and only when permitted by your Data Choices settings. Research projects are approved by a university Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC).
Research Programs
NovoPsych is engaged in a number of dedicated research projects. We collect data through mechanisms such as:
- Recruiting participants via approved research project advertising.
- Field trials of new or revised scales with a subset of clinicians.
- Focus groups with clinicians or mental health care consumers.
For these projects:
- Explicit informed consent is obtained from the client and/or clinician for the specific study.
- The Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) may have set detailed rules on what can be collected, how it is stored, and how it may be used or published.
- Data is handled according to both NovoPsych privacy standards and/or university ethics requirements.
Routinely collected de-identified questionnaire data, when a clinician chooses to opt in
Some users of our platforms choose to opt in to our research programs. By opting in, clinicians allow NovoPsych to use de-identified, aggregated psychometric data for:
- Benchmarking improvements
- To refine norms, clinical cut-offs and benchmarks of treatment response.
- Psychometric development of in-development (“beta”) scales
- To validate and refine questionnaires that are still under development.
- Academic research partnerships
- To contribute anonymous data to university research projects that have been approved by a Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC).
In all these cases:
- No names, emails, addresses, narrative notes, or identifiable information are included.
- Data are analysed in aggregate to answer high-level questions (e.g., factor structures, norms, predictive models).
- Only HREC-approved projects are permitted to use these data
Human Research Ethics Committees Oversight & Data Governance
Much of NovoPsych’s research will contribute to the generation of peer-reviewed journal articles. Such activities operate under the oversight of independent university Human Research Ethics Committees.
These committees:
- Review the scientific merit of each project
- Assess risks, benefits, and consent procedures
- Approve strict protocols for data security and de-identification
- Specify what can and cannot be done with the data
In practice, this means:
- Data used for research are de-identified and aggregated
- Projects must have a clear, clinically relevant purpose
- There are explicit limits on data retention and sharing
We are committed to meeting and exceeding the standards set by these committees.
How We Communicate About Research
We believe that high quality research can have a transformative effect on people’s lives, and the key is translating research findings into real tools for the treatment room. Our research is:
1. Open access and open source
- Most of the research we conduct is provided to the clinical and research community for free, either through open access peer reviewed journals or via our website.
- To date, the psychometric innovations that we produce are provided to the clinical and research community under our open source license, meaning everyone can benefit from our research efforts.
2. Clinically meaningful
- Anchored to the question: “How does this help clinicians and clients?”
- Focused on real improvements to assessment and care, not abstract statistics.
3. Collaborative
- Inviting feedback from clinicians about which problems need better tools.
- Involving practitioners in design, piloting, and refinement.
“It’s research — informed by clinicians on the front line — that drives the next leap in mental health care.”
We encourage you to consider partnering with us on this journey, and opting into sharing anonymous data for research purposes.
Remember that:
- Working together, clinicians, clients and researchers can make the world a better place
- Clinicians are in control of whether any NovoPsych data are shared
- Any research use is purposeful, ethical, and clinically relevant
- Participation is contributing to something genuinely valuable for the profession