DrRowena Forsyth

BA (Hons) (University of Sydney); Grad Cert Edu (High Ed) (University of Sydney); PhD (UNSW); Senior Fellow Higher Education Academy (SFHEA)

Dr Rowena Forsyth is a health sociologist with expertise in researching and teaching social dimensions of health, digital health and qualitative research methodology.

At the University of Sydney she is a member of the Digital Health Group and Leadership Team Member of the Cyberpsychology Research Group within the Sydney School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health.

Research

Dr Forsyth’s research program ‘Digitally Interactive Healthy Lives’ is grounded in sociologies of health and professions. It uses qualitative approaches to investigate social and relational aspects of patients' and health professionals' use of information resources and digital technologies. It focuses on investigating how people interact with information and other people through digital platforms to (trans)form their wellbeing. It has two strands: Health Professional Wellbeing and Adolescent Digital Health.

Her research on Health Professional Wellbeing studies how health professionals’ wellbeing can be supported through using online platforms (including professional networking and social media platforms) and electronic information systems. Since 2023 she has led a project on ‘Health Professionals’ Use of Online Communities’ investigating how health professionals use online platforms for peer connections and professional development. The goal of this research is to understand how social connectedness is accomplished and reproduced through digital technologies so that such platforms can be used to enhance social support. In addition, her recent work on surgical training and wound care documentation investigates how information systems can lead to enhancements to systems that improve professionals’ efficiency and wellbeing.

In Adolescent Digital Health she focuses on Pacific adolescents’ empowerment using digital health technologies. She addresses social determinants of health in collaborations with University of New Caledonia colleagues (within the FALAH (Family Farming Lifestyle and Health Pacific Islands research collaboration) and has collected data in Australia, New Caledonia and Vanuatu. The impact of this work is also being translated into Pacific academics’ capacity building through a 2026 Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Australia Awards Fellowship grant

In 2026 she commenced and Australian Research Council Discovery Project “Deciphering adolescents’ use and evaluation of digital health information” in collaboration with Professor Corinne Caillaud, Associate Professor Louisa Peralta and Dr Krestina Amon.

Her previous research examined how medical tourists incorporate information from online and real-world sources in their decision-making. Earlier research included projects on consent in bone marrow transplant, health journalists' conflicts of interest, patient-held health records and the implementation of computerised physician order entry systems.

Over the course of her career, Dr Forsyth has attracted more than AUD $3.8 million in competitive research funding from government and industry sources. She has over 60 publications spanning sociology, medicine, public health and digital technologies.

Teaching
Dr Forsyth is an educator with more than 20 years of teaching excellence across undergraduate and postgraduate programs. She has led qualitative research methods teaching for health professions and social science students at three universities in a variety of short course and semester long formats. She has taught Digital Health since 2021 and is the unit coordinator for BIDH5000: Digital Health Innovation and Implementation – a core unit in the Master of Digital Heath and Data Science degree.

She is internationally recognised for her teaching as a Senior Fellow of Advance HE. Rowena is a Sydney Educational Fellowship Program Accredited Assessor & Mentor for Fellow and Senior Fellowship  at the University of Sydney. She is also an Accredited University-wide Peer Reviewer of Teaching.

She has held teaching leadership positions including Co-Acting Director of Academic Education in School of Medical Sciences (May 2024-May 2025), Education Lead for Digital Health (2021-2026) and Health Stream Coordinator, Bachelor of Science(Health) and Bachelor of Science /Bachelor of Advanced Studies (2020).

Supervision

Dr Forsyth is also a highly regarded PhD and Masters supervisor and mentor, having graduated 6 PhD/Masters students and 11 Honours students. In 2025, she was awarded the University of Sydney Early and Mid-Career Academic Network (SEMCAN) Good Mentor Award, recognising her excellence in higher degree research supervision and student development.

Rowena is currently accepting applications from prospective PhD students interested in studying professional and wellbeing aspects of digital technology in health contexts.