(Ann) Sarah Walker

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