Rate My Professor Sarah Tonkin-Crine

Sarah Tonkin-Crine is Professor of Health Psychology in the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences at the University of Oxford. She earned her PhD in Health Psychology from the University of Southampton in 2013, along with BSc and MSc degrees in Health Psychology. She is a Chartered Psychologist (CPsychol), registered as a Health Psychologist with the Health and Care Professions Council and the British Psychological Society. Before joining Oxford in 2014 as a senior researcher, she worked for seven years in the primary care department at the University of Southampton as a research assistant and fellow. Promoted to Associate Professor in 2021, she now leads a team of behavioural and qualitative researchers in the Infections and Acute Care research group.

Her research specializations include antibiotic stewardship and the management of infections in primary care, with a focus on designing and evaluating behaviour change interventions to support clinicians in providing optimal care. She utilizes qualitative methods for exploratory research to understand behaviour and has conducted process evaluations for clinical trials. Tonkin-Crine has obtained funding from the National Institute for Health Research, Economic and Social Research Council, and European sources. She serves as an expert member of the UK Government's Advisory Committee on Antimicrobial Prescribing, Resistance and Healthcare Associated Infection. Key publications encompass 'Effects of internet-based training on antibiotic prescribing rates for acute respiratory-tract infections: a multinational, cluster, randomised, factorial, controlled trial' (The Lancet, 2013), 'The antibiotic course has had its day' (BMJ, 2017), 'Antibiotic prescribing for acute respiratory tract infections in primary care: a systematic review and meta-ethnography' (Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, 2011), and 'Clinician-targeted interventions to influence antibiotic prescribing behaviour for acute respiratory infections in primary care: an overview of systematic reviews' (Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2017). In 2023, her team received the Antibiotic Guardian Award for Research. She supervises PhD and MSc students in primary care research and mentors for the Society for Academic Primary Care.