Rate My Professor Sarah White

Sarah White is an Honorary Senior Research Fellow in Macquarie Medical School at Macquarie University and a Senior Lecturer at the Centre for Social Impact at the University of New South Wales. She earned her PhD from the University of Otago in 2011 with a thesis titled 'A Structural Analysis of Surgeon-Patient Consultations in Clinic Settings in New Zealand' and a BA (Hons) in Linguistics and Spanish and Latin American Studies from the University of New South Wales in 2006. A Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy since 2019, her career at Macquarie University includes leading the design and development of professional practice units in the Bachelor of Clinical Science since late 2015, focusing on communication, teamwork, ethics, and health systems. She developed a Connected Curriculum online module on consultation skills in 2018 for health professions courses such as the Doctor of Medicine and incorporates the Conversation Analytic Roleplay Method in her teaching as the only Australian affiliate.

White's research utilizes conversation analysis to investigate clinical communication, particularly doctor-patient and surgeon-patient consultations, telehealth, and pain communication. She co-edited the book Communication in Surgical Practice with Professor John Cartmill, published in 2016, and has produced over 90 research outputs, including articles in journals like Health Expectations, Patient Education and Counseling, and Journal of Patient-Reported Outcomes. In 2021, she co-founded the Clinical Communication Group at Macquarie University with Cartmill and Associate Professor Peter Roger to enhance collaboration on research, supervision, and teaching for better patient experience and care. She maintains a database of more than 200 clinical interactions supporting research and teaching sustainability. White leads projects on telehealth in general practice, embedding health literacy in clinical practice, and theory versus practice in consultations. She serves as National Representative for the International Association for Communication in Healthcare since 2021, sits on the editorial board of BJGP Open since 2020 where she guest-edited a telehealth collection, and supervises undergraduate and postgraduate students on placements. Her contributions include Teaching Quality Improvement Awards (Highly Commended, Macquarie University, 2018 and 2021) and a team Australian Award for University Teaching Citation in 2022.