Prof Debi Bhattacharya

Debi Bhattacharya is a Professor of Behavioural Medicine at the University of East Anglia and a Primary Care Pharmacist. At UEA, she leads the BehaviouRal and Implementation Science for healTh and carE research Group (BRITE). As a long-standing member of the UKSBM, Debi also co-chairs the Special Interest Groups for both Older Adults and Medicines Optimisation.

Debi’s work focuses on applying behaviour change theory to tackle medicine-related challenges within the messy reality of clinical practice. Her work extends across designing, implementing, and evaluating interventions operating at system and individual level. Examples include driving system-level change through the Opioid deprescribing toolkit, hospital ward-level change through the CHARMER deprescribing intervention, and individual patient-level change through the IMAB-Qi medication adherence programme in general practice.

Beyond her own research, Debi is a vocal advocate for building research capacity, especially within underrepresented healthcare professions and methodological disciplines. She leads the NIHR Incubator for Pharmacy Professionals, which provides infrastructure funding to grow research capacity within priority fields. While many such incubators exist for different specialties, Debi’s is the first to be built from the ground up using behavioural science to understand and address the determinants of pharmacy professionals delivering and leading research.

Her other leadership roles include membership of the National Pharmacy Research Advisory Group and the NIHR INSIGHT/HCP Internship committee. She also contributes to the NIHR funding committees for Programme Grants for Applied Research and the Pre-Application Support Fund and sits on the editorial boards for the journals Patient Preference and Adherence and the International Journal of Pharmacy Practice.