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Sarah Walker

Senior Statistician
Infection Theme at the NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre (OxBRC) at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, and the Medical Research Council Clinical Trials Unit (MRC CTU) in London

Sarah has worked within the OxBRC Infection Theme since its initiation in 2007. Her research interests are in the design and analysis of clinical and observational studies investigating the diagnosis, epidemiology, treatment and management of infectious diseases. Much of her work is conducted within the Infections in Oxfordshire Research Database, IORD), a large anonymised linked database of hospital admissions and microbiology/laboratory data approved without obtaining individual patient consent. She also has major research interests in the translation of new whole genome sequencing approaches into microbiology practice and service, for example tracking transmission of pathogens including C. difficile.

Sarah is also Associate Statistical Editor for the Journal of Infectious Diseases.

Selected recent publications:

1.  Eyre D, Golubchik T, Gordon NC, Bowden R, Piazza P, Batty E, Ip C, Wilson D, Didelot X, O'connor L, Lay R, Buck D, Kearns A, Shaw A, Paul J, Wilcox MH, Donnelly P, Peto TEA**, Walker AS**, Crook DW**. A pilot study of rapid benchtop sequencing of Staphylococcus aureus and Clostridium difficile for outbreak detection and surveillance. BMJopen 2012;2:e001124. doi:10. 1136/bmjopen-2012-001124. ** joint last authors.

2.  Schacklow I, Walker AS, Crook DW, Peto TEA, Wyllie DH. Surveillance of infection severity: using electronic health care databases. Plos Med 2012;9(7):e1001279.

3.  Crook DW, Walker AS, Kean Y, Weiss K, Cornely OA, Miller M, Esposito R, Louie TJ, Stoesser NE, Young BC, Angus BA, S Gorbach, TEA Peto on behalf of the Study 003/004 teams. Fidaxomicin versus vancomycin for Clostridium difficile infection: meta-analysis of pivotal randomized controlled trials. Clin Inf Dis 2012; 55:S93-103.

4. Eyre DW, Walker AS, Wyllie DH, Dingle KE, Griffiths D, Finney J, O’Connor L, Vaughan A, Crook DW, Wilcox MH, Peto TEA on behalf of the Infections in Oxfordshire Research Database (IORD). Predictors of recurrent C. difficile infection: implications for initial management. Clin Inf Dis 2012; 55:S77-87.

5. Schlackow I, Stoesser N, Walker AS, Crook DW, Peto TEA, Wyllie DH. Increasing  incidence of E. coli bacteraemia is driven by an increase in antibiotic-resistant isolates: Electronic database study in Oxfordshire 1999-2011. J Antimicrob Chemo 2012; 67(6):1514-1524.

6. Walker AS**, Eyre DW**, Wyllie DH, Dingle KE, Harding R, O’Connor L, Griffiths D, Vaughn A, Finney J, Wilcox M, Crook DW, Peto TEA on behalf of the Infections in Oxfordshire Research Database (IORD). Characterisation of Clostridium difficile hospital ward-based transmission using extensive epidemiological data and molecular typing. Plos Med 2012; 9(2): e1001172. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1001172. ** joint first authors.

7. Eyre DW, Walker AS, Griffiths D, Wilcox MH, Wyllie DH, Dingle KE, Crook DW, Peto TEA. Clostridium difficile mixed infection and re-infection. J Clin Micro 2012; 50(1):142-4.

8. Stoesser N, Crook DW, Fung R, Griffiths D, Harding R, Kachrimanidou M, Keshav S, Peto TE, Vaughan A, Walker AS, Dingle KE. Prevalence and diversity of C. difficile strains in human children compared with isolates from adults with C. difficile-associated infection. J Clin Micro 2011;49(11):3994-6.

9. Wyllie DH, Walker AS,  Miller R, Williamson SR, Schlackow I, Finney JM, O’Connor L, Peto TEA, Crook DW. Decline of meticillin resistant S. aureus in Oxfordshire hospitals is strain specific and preceded infection control intensification. BMJopen 2011 doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2011-000160.

10. Dingle KE, Griffiths D, Didelot X, Evans J, Vaughan A, Kachrimanidou M, Stoesser N, Jolley K, Golubchik T, Harding RM, Peto TEA, Fawley W, Walker AS, Wilcox M, Crook DW. Clinical Clostridium difficile: clonality and pathogenicity locus diversity. Plos ONE 2011 6(5): e19993. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0019993.

11. Finney J, Walker AS, Peto TEA, Wyllie DH. An efficient record linkage scheme using graphical analysis for identifier error detection. BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making 2011;11:7.

12. Thwaites GE, Edgeworth JD, Gkrania-Klotsas E, Kirby A, Torok ME, Tilley R, Walker AS, Wertheim HFL, Wilson P, Llewelyn MJ on behalf of the United Kingdom Clinical Infection Research Group (UKCIRG). Do we know how to manage Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia? Lancet Inf Dis 2011;11:208-22. (authors except first and last alphabetical)

13. Thwaites G on behalf of the United Kingdom Clinical Infection Research Group (UKCIRG). The management of Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia in the United Kingdom and Vietnam: a multi-centre evaluation. PlosONE 2010 5(12): e14170. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0014170.

14. Foster D, Walker AS, Paul J, Griffiths D, Peto TEA, Crook DW on behalf of the Oxford Invasive Pneumococcal Surveillance Group. Reduction in invasive pneumococcal disease following implementation of the conjugate vaccine in the Oxfordshire region, England. J Med Microbiol 2011; 60:91-97.

15. Walker AS, Spiegelhalter D, Crook DW, Wyllie D, Morris J, Peto TEA. Fairness of financial penalties to improve control of Clostridium difficile. BMJ 2008;337:a2097.

16. Walker AS, Peto TEA, O'Connor L, Crook DW, Wyllie DH. Are there better methods of monitoring MRSA control than bacteraemia surveillance? an observational database study. PlosONE 2008: 3(6): e2378. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0002378.