Dr Alison Wright completed her BA in Psychology at Princeton University, followed by a PhD in Health Psychology at King’s College London, funded by a Wellcome Trust studentship, examining the impact of genetic information on smoking cessation. She was subsequently awarded a postdoctoral Wellcome Trust Research Training Fellowship in Health Services Research, during which she investigated patient reactions to health risk information and completed an MSc in Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Prior to joining the Institute of Pharmaceutical Science, she was a Senior Research Fellow at the UCL Centre for Behaviour Change, leading the behavioural science research team on the Human Behaviour-Change Project to categorise the active ingredients and mechanisms of behaviour change interventions.

Dr Wright’s research focuses on two principal areas: public and patient experiences of pharmacogenomics, and behaviour change intervention design to boost treatment adherence, optimise healthcare services, and reduce health inequalities. Applied areas include medication adherence, NHS Health Checks, and uptake of services as diverse as pulmonary rehabilitation and colorectal cancer screening. All of her work is informed by behavioural science theory and a systematic, evidence-based approach to intervention design. Methodologically, she has expertise across questionnaire design, qualitative interviews, evidence synthesis, and patient and public involvement (PPI).

Her current research interests include:

• Pharmacogenomics and other forms of personalised health information
• Intervention design and refinement
• Psychological approaches to understanding and enhancing healthcare service utilisation and treatment adherence
• Reducing inequalities in healthcare service uptake and engagement