Speakers

Debi Bhattacharya is Professor of Behavioural Medicine at the University of Leicester and a primary care pharmacist. Debi’s academic role includes teaching and research responsibilities. Debi’s teaching responsibilities include leading a pharmacist independent prescribing course. Debi also leads a team of researchers including pharmacists, nurses, doctors and physiotherapists applying behavioural science to medicine-related challenges. Using theory to develop interventions, Debi has been publishing in this discipline for over twenty years. Current research programmes that she is leading include: • Comprehensive Geriatrician led Medication review (CHARMER) which is a five year, £2.4M NIHR funded research programme. The programme is to design and test a geriatrician and pharmacist behaviour change intervention across 24 hospitals in England to reduce medicine-related harm. • IMAB-Qi which is a five year, £2.7M NIHR funded research programme to design and test a patient behaviour change intervention across 38 medical practices in England to support medication adherence. Debi is a member of funding panel committees for NIHR pre-application support fund and NIHR Programme Grants for Applied research. Debi is an editorial board member for the journals Patient Preference and Adherence and International Journal of Pharmacy Practice. Debi is passionate about research capacity building to secure the future of evidence-based healthcare. As the lead for the recently awarded NIHR incubator for pharmacy professionals, three years of funding are committed to build capacity for the pharmacy profession to engage with research.