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Staff Profile

Dr Sarah Sowden

Advanced Clinical Academic Fellow

  • Email: sarah.sowden@ncl.ac.uk
  • Telephone: +44 (0) 191 208 5100
  • Address: Population Health Sciences Institute
    Faculty of Medical Sciences
    Newcastle University
    5.20, 5th floor, Ridley 1 Building
    Richardson Road
    Newcastle upon Tyne
    NE1 4LP
Background

Area of expertise


Sarah's career mission is to improve the effectiveness of action taken to address health and healthcare inequalities. 


Sarah leads applied health and care inequalities research at Newcastle University including the UNFAIR and Deep End programmes. Sarah’s research aims to enable the NHS, local government and wider system partners to better promote health equity and reduce inequalities in health and care access, experience and outcome. Employed across settings to strengthen links between research, policy and practice, Sarah also works as a Public Health Consultant within the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities in the North East of England; the area with the highest rates of poverty, unemployment, poor health and early death in England. Sarah sits on the executive of the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) North East and North Cumbria (NENC) Clinical Research Network and leads research programmes for the NIHR NENC Applied Research Collaboration. Sarah balances this with working part-time to undertake caring responsibilities. 

Sarah has secured prestigious fellowships to develop her intersectional career; a MRC/ESRC interdisciplinary doctoral training fellowship (2005-2008) and her current five year HEE/NIHR Integrated Clinical Academic fellowship (2019-2024).

Sarah studied Human Sciences at Oxford University and undertook postgraduate studies in Public Health at LSHTM followed by a PhD at UCL.  Sarah has previously worked in Public Health Intelligence (South East Public Health Observatory), Health Protection (Health Protection Agency) and then within local government and across a wide range of NHS settings as a Public Health Registrar (2008-2011) and Academic Clinical Lecturer (2011-2019) whilst undertaking Specialty training in the North East region.

 

Qualifications

  • 2019  Fellow, Faculty of Public Health, UKPHR Specialty membership: FR0974
  • 2018 PgCert Advanced Studies in Academic Practice, Newcastle University
  • 2018  Fellow, Higher Education Academy
  • 2014  Associate Fellow, Higher Education Academy
  • 2011  Membership, Faculty of Public Health
  • 2009  Diplomate Membership, Faculty of Public Health
  • 2009  PhD Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London
  • 2005 MSc (Distinction) Public Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
  • 2002 MA(Oxf) (1st Class) Human Sciences, Wadham College, Oxford University

 

Memberships

 

ORCID ID: 0000-0001-9359-3463

Google scholar: Click here

SCOPUS: Click here

Research

Applied public health research focusing on understanding and evaluating the health inequalities impact of public health and healthcare systems, policies and interventions.



Ongoing

PI: UNFAIR: UNderstanding Factors explaining Avoidable hospital admissions Inequalities - Research study (2019-2024) £345,192 Funder: HEE/NIHR ICA CL fellowship

PI: MINDED: embedding a clinical psychologist in primary care to improve mental health care for patients living in the most socioeconomically disadvantaged communities within the North East & North Cumbria (2022-2024) £151,248 Funder: NIHR SPCR/SPHR (MHPES)

PI: Developing 'Deep End Dental' (2023-2024) £26,633 Funder: NIHR NENC CRN

PI: Understanding and evaluating 'Deep End' primary care (2022-2024) £193,739 Funder: NENC NHS ICB

Co-I: Building and Evidencing Community Asset Partnerships in Housing and Health to address Health Disparities in the North East and North Cumbria (2022-2023) £183,000 Funder: UKRI AHRC, ESRC, NERC, MRC, NCCH

Co-I: Dementia Risk Prediction in Areas of Social Deprivation (2023-2024) £197,031 Funder: NIHR SPCR/SPHR/SSCR Dementia research programme

Co-I: Addressing healthcare and research inequalities: co-designing and evaluating novel recruitment strategies for mental health research (2022-2026) £240,822 Funder: NIHR HTA

Co-I: The Effect of Deprivation on post-stroke outcomes in the North East and North Cumbria £14,363 (2022-2023) Funder: NIHR NENC CRN


Recently completed

PI: PRIME: Interventions to address inequalities in mental health in primary care, systematic review (2021-2022) £43,029 Funder: North of England Commissioning Support (NHS)

Co-PI: Process and impact evaluation of C-WorKS: mobilising knowledge across the health system on impacts and responses to COVID-19 (2021-2022) £24,579 Funder: NIHR ARC NENC

Co-I: EQUALISE: Interventions which increase or decrease inequalities in general practice (2021-2022) £282,062 Funder: NIHR HS&DR 

Co-PI: Co-designing a 'Deep-End' network of GPs in the North East and North Cumbria (2020-2021) Funder: NIHR ARC NENC

Co-I: Covid-19 Health Inequalities Impact Assessment for the North East (2020-2021) Funder: NIHR ARC NENC

Co-I: Levelling up Health: A practical framework to support action on levelling up health and an evidence review of effective policy and practice (2021) £35,000 Funder: Public Health England

Co-I: Embedding public health and prevention in secondary care (2020) £78,084 Funder: North of England Commissioning Support (NHS)

PI: Upper Gastrointestinal cancer diagnostic care pathway: patient experience and co-design (2017-2018) £37,779 Funder: NHS England

 

Previously Sarah has been engaged in a broad portfolio of applied public health research:

  • Evaluating the equity of access, uptake and use of public health interventions by age, socioeconomic circumstance, ethnicity.
  • Reducing inequalities in cancer waiting times and improving services for patients with Upper Gastrointestinal Cancer: exploring patient experience and the opportunities for co-design
  • Reviewing socioeconomic inequalities in patient, referral, diagnostic or treatment intervals for lung cancer patients.
  • Evaluating the implementation and impact of introducing a network of Public Health Consultants in Secondary Care settings across NENC.
  • Analysing content and purpose of Health and Wellbeing Strategies in England and exploring public health risks and implications of English health system reform.
  • Evaluating impact of social housing improvements on the health and wellbeing of residents in high-rise flats.
  • Understanding the impact of welfare reform on disadvantaged communities in the North East of England.
  • Understanding obesogenic environment (extent and nature of food displayed at checkouts of non-food stores).




 

 


Teaching

Sarah is a Fellow of Higher Education Academy and holds a PGcert in Advanced Studies in Academic Practice from Newcastle University.

Sarah is currently educational and clinical supervisor to a public health registrar, academic supervisor to four registrars, an NIHR IFP clinical supervisor, supports the North East and Yorkshire preparation course for the Faculty of Public Health Diplomat Examination and has previously delivered training for Paediatric Registrars and other NHS-based support. Sarah provides career mentorship to an advanced public health practitioner (NIHR PLAF scheme) and ongoing advice, training and support to those working in public health practice, within OHID, UKSHA, local authorities and the NHS, seeking closer involvement with research.

Sarah supports teaching across the Population Health Sciences Institute and is currently co-supervising:

  • NENC ARC inequalities PhD student (exploring equity of access to vaccine programmes)
  • MPH student (exploring ways to improve health literacy in Deep End Primary Care)
  • Undergraduate student dissertation (systematic review of interventions to reduce asthma hospitalisations and readmissions in socioeconomically marginalised groups)
Publications