Dr Rhiannon Phillips is an applied health psychologist whose research sits at the intersection of psychology, public health, and behavioural science. Her research focuses on improving health outcomes through better communication, informed decision-making, and evidence-based behaviour change.

Rhiannon’s current research focuses on shared decision-making and health communication, especially in relation to women’s health and long-term conditions. She has conducted mixed-methods research exploring how individuals and healthcare professionals navigate complex decisions around family planning, pregnancy, infant feeding, and health management, including during periods of heightened uncertainty such as the COVID-19 pandemic. This work aims to ensure that health services and interventions better reflect the values, needs, and lived experiences of patients, particularly women managing chronic illness.

Another key strand of Rhiannon’s research focuses on health-related behaviour change in relation to infection prevention and control. This includes work on vaccination decision-making, antibiotic stewardship, risk perception, and the role of effective communication in supporting protective health behaviours. Drawing on behavioural science frameworks, her research seeks to identify modifiable psychological and contextual factors that can inform the design of effective, scalable public health interventions.

Dr Phillips is experienced in complex intervention development and evaluation, operating across healthcare, community, and educational settings. She adopts interdisciplinary and mixed-methods approaches, integrating qualitative, quantitative, and co-production methods to capture the complexity of real-world health behaviours and systems. She works closely with patients, clinicians, educators, and policy stakeholders to co-design interventions that are both theoretically grounded and practically relevant.