Dr Emily McBride is a Clinical Academic Psychologist in Health Psychology within the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience at King's College London.

She applies psychology and behavioural science to improve outcomes across long-term conditions, chronic disease, and medical care. Her work spans a range of conditions including obesity, cancer, pain, endocrine disorders, and neurological conditions.

Her current programme predominantly focuses on obesity management (including bariatric surgery and GLP-1 therapies) and multiple long-term conditions, with particular emphasis on health inequalities and intersections between mental health and health behaviours. She develops and evaluates psychologically informed interventions, including digital approaches.

She has secured over £500,000 in research funding as Principal Investigator, including awards from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), and leads interdisciplinary funded projects at the intersection of behavioural science and clinical care. Her work often integrates behavioural theory with real-world implementation, with a strong emphasis on scalable and equitable models of intervention and care delivery.

Alongside her academic role, Dr McBride holds is a Consultant Health Psychologist within an NHS bariatric service, where she developed and leads a specialist psychology pathway embedded within multidisciplinary obesity care. She is Psychologist Lead on the British Obesity and Metabolic Specialist Society (BOMSS) Council, contributing to national clinical guidance and professional standards.

Dr McBride lectures on the MSc in Health Psychology at King’s and is Module Lead for ‘Health Psychology in Action and Professional Development’, overseeing clinical skills and theory teaching and placement coordination. She supervises PhD students, MSc dissertations, and professional doctorate trainees, and is an accredited BPS Stage 2 Health Psychology supervisor.

She completed her PhD in Behavioural Science at University College London, including as an Exchange Scholar at Yale University, through a competitively funded NIHR fellowship and Yale–UCL scholarship focused on HPV and cervical cancer screening.

Her doctoral work contributed to national changes in UK cervical screening communication materials. She has received national recognition awards for research excellence, including awards from NIHR, the British Psychological Society, and the Society of Academic Primary Care.

Dr McBride also has a background in health policy and public impact, having previously served as Policy Lead for the British Psychological Society (Division of Health Psychology) and as a Senior Behavioural Scientist within the UK Department of Health and Social Care.

Through these roles, she contributed to national policy discussions, professional guidance, and the integration of behavioural science into government and NHS decision-making.

Research interests

• Application of psychology and behavioural science across long-term conditions and chronic disease
• Bariatric psychology and psychological care in obesity management (including GLP-1 therapies and bariatric surgery)
• Multiple long-term conditions (MLTC)
• Intersections between mental health conditions and health behaviours
• Health inequalities in chronic disease prevention and treatment
• Development and evaluation of psychologically informed and digital health interventions
• Translational behavioural medicine and implementation within clinical services
• Impact of behavioural science on health policy and clinical guideline development

Expertise and Public Engagement

Dr McBride disseminates her expertise in health psychology and behavioural science through national committee roles and professional networks. She has engaged extensively with policymakers and has produced and co-authored national policy guidance documents and briefing papers.

She is actively involved in Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement, serving on working groups and leading funded PPIE projects to co-design and refine research and intervention development. She has secured dedicated funding to support meaningful patient and public partnership in her work.

She also contributes to public engagement through professional events and collaboration with stakeholder panels to ensure research outputs are accessible, relevant, and impactful.