Dr Thomas Mills

I am a Senior Research Fellow for PHIRST South Bank, funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research. Since completing my PhD in 2016, I've contributed to diverse health service and public health research projects and I have ongoing collaborations with colleagues across London South Bank University, University of Leeds, University of York and University of Westminster.

I have expertise in complex intervention research, with a particular interest in creative, qualitative modelling in evaluations. My biggest research achievement to date is a 2019 methods paper ‘Advancing complexity science in healthcare research: the logic of logic models’ on this topic, published with BMC Medical Research Methodology. This has been cited 250 plus times and is promoted in Medical Research Council guidance.

Over the past 5 years, I have supported the charity Gambling with Lives to develop its Chapter One prevention initiative. As of April 2026, I am holder of a UKRI "Gambling Harm Research and Innovation Partnership" award.

I had led PHIRST projects exploring community-led approaches to gambling harm reduction and inititatives for embedding health considerations into planning, including "hybrid roles" and health impact assessment.

I'm interested in "big picture" theorisations of complex interventions and am currently exploring how social theory, notably Jurgen Habermas' ideas, can help us understand the problems and contexts of public health interventions.