UCL Centre for Behavioural Medicine

As 2025 comes to a close, we’re reflecting on a year of research, engagement and collaboration.

We want to thank our participants, collaborators and PPI contributors who made this work possible.

Wishing everyone a restful break, and looking ahead to 2026 ✨

Today, we say farewell to Comfort Nanbam Sariem, a post-doctoral fellow who’s been with CBM for 9 months, supported by the Africa Research Excellence Fund.

Her research focuses on improving Type 2 diabetes treatment adherence using the Necessity-Concerns Framework.

Thank you & good luck Comfort!

Excited to have Prof Rob Horne delivering a seminar next week (20th May) on 'Why don't you do right?' Applications of the Necessity Concerns Framework (NCF) to understanding and addressing nonadherence' as part of the King's College London Health Psychology Open Seminar Series!

Lewis is particularly interested in addressing health inequalities, and supporting the development of services that responds to the needs of communities who are underserved and disproportionately affected by poorer health outcomes.

Welcome Lewis!

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Prior to this he was awarded a funded PhD studentship that focused on understanding and strengthening service provisions to those who have experienced complex trauma and PTSD who are from Black backgrounds.

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We are excited to welcome Lewis Benjamin to the Centre for Behavioural Medicine (CBM). He recently joined the CBM to work on the TRANSFORM project, and to lead on grant applications to expand on this work to other cancer care disparities.

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Dr Kayonda Ngamaba presented at the Men's Conference on Sat 29th March where the theme was "Let's Talk Health", covering various topics, including Prostate Cancer, Improving Black health Outcomes, Living well, Mental illness, Stroke survival, & the role of Robotics in healthcare.

The CBM have been busy presenting their work today at the UCL School of Pharmacy @ucllifesciences.bsky.social Research Day 2025!

Dr Comfort Sariem has been away presenting her research at #SBM2025 in California

And Dr Ayşenur Kılıç presented on 'What is the Role of Tuberculosis Stigma in Testing and Treatment Uptake for Tuberculosis Infection? A Systematic Review'

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The CBM has been busy at #UKSBM2025 conference in Bristol this week!

Dr Comfort Sariem presented on 'Effect of a Cognitive Intervention Based on the Necessity-Concerns Framework on HIV Treatment Adherence and Outcomes in Jos, Nigeria'

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Our Director, Prof Rob Horne, has been featured in the NZ Listener!

A systematic review exploring the role of tuberculosis stigma on test and treatment uptake for tuberculosis infection - BMC Public Health Background Tuberculosis (TB) stigma may be a barrier to engagement in testing and treatment for TB infection (TBI). We systematically reviewed the available evidence on how TB stigma influences engage...

Stigma around active TB disease is well recognised, findings highlight that stigma also acts as a hidden barrier in accessing care for latent TB infection — a key part of global TB elimination strategies.

Check out the full paper! bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....

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🚨New CBM Paper!

Aysenur Kilic explores how tuberculosis stigma can impact engagement with testing and treatment for TB infection – a crucial but often overlooked step in ending TB.

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We are excited to have CBM group leader Prof Rob Horne all the way over with our friends in New Zealand delivering a seminar at @aucklanduni.bsky.social on 11th March!

It was great to have @beccatodd18.bsky.social representing us at the Edinburgh Breast Cancer Special Symposium (EBCSS) last month. She presented a poster on the SWITCH study highlighting the key aims of the study, proposed workstreams & ways HCPs attending the conference could get involved

Kayonda was able to help athletes understand how their fundraising efforts directly supports research, hopefully inspiring them to raise even more funds!

The UCL CBM will be cheering on all those taking part in the 2025 London Marathon!

Last month one of our research fellows - Kayonda Ngamaba – attended the @pcr-uk.bsky.social London Marathon Fundraising Event on 15th February to present research from the TRANSFORM project (funded by @pcr-uk.bsky.social) to athletes ahead of the London Marathon next month.

INHALE WP3, a multicentre, open-label, pragmatic randomised controlled trial assessing the impact of rapid, ICU-based, syndromic PCR, versus standard-of-care on antibiotic stewardship and clinical out... Purpose INHALE investigated the impact of seeking pathogens by PCR on antibiotic stewardship and clinical outcomes in hospital-acquired and ventilator-associated pneumonia (HAP and VAP). Methods This ...

1/2 The INHALE WP3 randomised trial provides multi-centre evidence that rapid syndromic PCR, delivered at the point-of care in the ICU improved antibiotic stewardship by 21% in absolute terms. Equivalence of clinical cure was not demonstrated link.springer.com/article/10.1...

#antimicrobialresistance #AMR #stewardship #antibiotics #prescribing #research

Findings suggest that implementation strategies for technological solutions to antimicrobial resistance must be “behaviorally intelligent,” recognizing the challenges facing clinicians when making life or death prescribing decisions.

Most acknowledged the importance of stewardship, BUT test results often didn’t impact their prescribing decisions – especially if they were negative. Broad-spectrum antibiotics were often prescribed or continued even if the test suggested they weren’t necessary - “just-in-case” of infection

We interviewed clinicians about using rapid molecular diagnostic tests, which can aid the earlier refinement of antimicrobial therapy, to support ICU prescribing decisions for patients with suspected HAP/VAP.

Guidelines vs mindlines: a qualitative investigation of how clinicians’ beliefs influence the application of rapid molecular diagnostics in intensive care | Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy Rapid molecular diagnostic tests for pathogens and resistance genes may improve antibiotic-prescribing decisions and stewardship. However, clinicians’ desire to protect their patients with antibiotics...

🚨 New Paper from Dr SJ Stewart and the INHALE team @inhale-trial.bsky.social

“Guidelines vs Mindlines” published in Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy

journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

#preventativemedicine #healthcare #nhs #personalisedmedicine #pharmacy #behaviouralmedicine

This report launched in
@houseofcommons.parliament.uk
earlier this month! physoc.org/policy/preci...
Personalised approaches to preventative medicine could enable earlier interventions, keeping the population healthier for longer, out of hospital and easing NHS pressures.

Exciting news! Our group leader Prof Rob Horne has been providing expert opinion as part of the Steering Group for a new report with The Physiological Society - ‘Physiology Passport: Putting personalised prevention at the heart of resilient health systems’ with
@phgfoundation.bsky.social

The UCL Centre for Behavioural Medicine (CBM) is now on Bluesky!

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