Research update: Recent studies of clinical significance
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Presenter(s)
Professor Robert West Professor of Health Psychology and Director of Tobacco Studies, Cancer Research UK Health Behaviour Research Centre, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London and UKCTCS
Biography
Robert West is Professor of Health Psychology and Director of Tobacco Studies at the Cancer Research UK Health Behaviour Research Centre, University College London, UK. Professor West completed his PhD in Psychology in 1983 at University College London and worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Psychiatry until 1985 when he took up a lecturing position at Royal Holloway, London University. In 1991 Professor West joined St George’s, University of London, where he was made Professor in 1996. He took up his present position at UCL in 2003. Professor West is also Editor-in-Chief of the journal, Addiction, co-director of the NHS Centre for Smoking Cessation and Training, a member of the Board of Directors of QUIT, a member of the Editorial Board of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco/WHO Tobacco Treatment Database, a member of the Editorial Board of the Cochrane Collaboration Tobacco Review Group. He is also provides advice to the English Department of Health and is President of the Society for Research in Nicotine and Tobacco.
Professor West has published some 350 scientific works and is co-author of the English and Scottish National Smoking Cessation Guidelines that provided the blueprint for the UK-wide network of smoking-cessation services that are now an established part of the National Health Service.
Professor West’s research includes clinical trials of new smoking-cessation treatments, studies of the acute effects of cigarette withdrawal, and population studies of smoking patterns. He has also undertaken research into driver behaviour, causes of accidental injury, alcohol use and music perception. He has developed a general theory of motivation (PRIME Theory) and is co-author of a comprehensive model of behaviour change (the Behaviour Change Wheel). He recently contributed to a House of Lords enquiry into behaviour change interventions.
