Nahal Mavaddat

Associate Professor Nahal Mavaddat serves as Head of the Discipline of General Practice at the UWA Medical School, University of Western Australia. A clinical academic with expertise in primary care and medical humanities, she earned her MBBS in Medicine and Surgery and Postgraduate Diploma in Cognitive Science from UWA. She completed her PhD at the University of Cambridge's Department of Psychiatry, investigating deficits in decision-making among patients with anterior communicating artery aneurysm rupture using computerized tasks to assess risk-taking behavior post-subarachnoid haemorrhage. Her early research at Cambridge's Wolfson Brain Imaging Centre and as UWA Athelstan and Amy Saw Overseas Medical Research Fellow explored personality and social influences on health perceptions, particularly self-rated health in stroke survivors. Mavaddat held a Training Fellowship in Academic General Practice at the University of Birmingham and was a NIHR Walport Clinical Lecturer at Cambridge from 2010 to 2016. Possessing clinical qualifications in primary mental health care, she transitioned back to Western Australia in 2017.

Currently, she leads the UWA Medical Humanities Network and acts as Graduate Research Coordinator for General Practice, Psychiatry, Neuroscience, Emergency Medicine, and the Rural Clinical School. Her research focuses on wellbeing, quality of life, subjective health, positive psychology, physical and mental comorbidity, medically unexplained symptoms, chronic pain, mental health in primary care, and health and medical humanities. Notable publications include "Rural General Practitioners' Perceptions of the Barriers and Facilitators of Chronic Disease and Cardiometabolic Risk Factor Care Through Lifestyle Management—A Western Australian Qualitative Study" (Healthcare, 2026, with A. Sheth and S.C. Thompson); "Beyond the Scales: A Qualitative Study on the Biopsychosocial Impacts of Time-Restricted Eating in Free-Living Individuals" (Obesities, 2025, with H.S. Rathomi et al.); "It just made sense to me! A Qualitative Exploration of Individual Motivation for Time-Restricted Eating" (Appetite, 2025, with H.S. Rathomi et al.); "Navigating challenges and adherence in time-restricted eating: a qualitative study" (Nutrition & Dietetics, 2025, with H.S. Rathomi et al.); and "Analysis of the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of ear and hearing healthcare professionals regarding cognitive impairment and dementia in China" (International Journal of Audiology, 2025, with X. Fu et al.). With 48 research outputs, her work contributes to primary care research in rural and chronic disease contexts.

Professional Email: nahal.mavaddat@uwa.edu.au