(Ann) Sarah Walker
Professor of Medical Statistics and Epidemiology
Sarah has worked with the Crook group since April 2006, originally on secondment from the MRC Clinical Trials Unit, but part-time with the University of Oxford from December 2011. Her work includes the design and analysis of studies investigating the epidemiology and management of infectious diseases (including healthcare-associated infections) and antimicrobial resistance, with a particular focus on 'big data' from routinely collected electronic health records. She co-leads the “Modernising Medical Microbiology” Consortium translating new whole genome sequencing and informatics approaches into microbiology practice and service with Professors Crook and (Tim) Peto.
Most recently, she is the Chief Investigator and Academic Lead for the National COVID-19 Infection Survey, a collaboration between the University of Oxford and the Office for National Statistics, investigating prevalence and incidence of current and past infection with SARS-CoV-2.
She has also been instrumental in obtaining ethical and regulatory approvals for a large anonymised linked database of hospital admissions and microbiology/laboratory data (Infections in Oxfordshire Research Database, IORD), and now leads analyses investigating aspects of epidemiology and management of infectious diseases in IORD. She has made substantial contributions to the design and analyses of a programme of retrospective and evaluative prospective studies designed to move whole genome pathogen sequencing into routine clinical practice, particularly for Clostridium difficile (NEJM 2013), Staphylococcus aureus (CID 2013) and Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Lancet Respiratory Medicine 2012/2013); and also linking large-scale molecular and traditional epidemiology (e.g. for C. difficile (LID 2017) and Esherichia coli (LID 2018)).
Sarah is also Associate Statistical Editor for the Journal of Infectious Diseases
Recent publications
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Niche and local geography shape the pangenome of wastewater- and livestock-associated Enterobacteriaceae.
Journal article
Shaw LP. et al, (2021), Sci Adv, 7
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Antibody Status and Incidence of SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Health Care Workers
Journal article
Lumley SF. et al, (2021), New England Journal of Medicine, 384, 533 - 540
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Increased infections, but not viral burden, with a new SARS-CoV-2 variant
Journal article
Walker AS. et al, (2021)
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Probabilistic transmission models incorporating sequencing data for healthcare-associated Clostridioides difficile outperform heuristic rules and identify strain-specific differences in transmission
Journal article
Eyre DW. et al, (2021), PLOS Computational Biology, 17, e1008417 - e1008417
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Isoniazid preventive therapy plus antiretroviral therapy for the prevention of tuberculosis: a systematic review and meta-analysis of individual participant data
Journal article
Ross JM. et al, (2021), The Lancet HIV, 8, e8 - e15