Dr Sarah Finer, MBBS MRCP PhD

Profile

Sarah is Clinical Senior Lecturer in Diabetes at the Centre for Primary Care and Public Health. She studied medicine at University College London, and undertook specialist and academic training in Diabetes and Endocrinology in east London. She was an NIHR Academic Clinical Fellow at Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, and was awarded an MRC Clinical Training Fellowship for her PhD. Prior to completing her specialist clinical training, she was an NIHR Clinical Lecturer at the University of Cambridge, and she then returned to east London to take up her current clinical and academic role. Her interdisciplinary research focuses on type 2 diabetes and multimorbidity in high risk populations, such as ethnic minority groups and women with gestational diabetes. 

Sarah works as a Consultant in Diabetes at Barts Health NHS Trust, specialising in type 1 diabetes (including pump therapy)
, complex type 2 diabetes
 and diabetes in pregnancy
.

Her other roles include:

• Deputy Lead of the Genes & Health research programme
• QMUL Academic Lead for NIHR Integrated Academic Training in primary care
• Member of the Diabetes UK Diabetes Resarch Steering Group (Prevention, Targets and Therapies for Type 2 diabetes)
• Member of the NIHR Health Services and Delivery Research Funding Committee

Sarah’s current team members include:

Dr Fabiola Eto, postdoctoral researcher

Dr Sara Calderon, GP and PhD student (LISS-DTP funded)

Dr Miriam Samuel, Academic Clinical Fellow

Dr Sam Hodgson, Academic Clinical Fellow

Ms Jing Hui Law, PhD student (Wellcome Trust Health Data In Practice Doctoral Training Programme)

Ms Meera Mahesh, Medical Student

Genes & Health research team

Research

Research Interests:

Genes & Health 

• Sarah is Deputy Lead of the Genes & Health research programme, which investigates health and disease in British Bangladeshis and Pakistanis, using health data and genomics. This large-scale, long-term community-based programme has 48,000 volunteers and funding (Wellcome Trust) to reach 100,000. A cohort profile is available here.
• Within Genes & Health, Sarah leads work investigating diabetes, metabolism, obesity and multimorbidity, aiming at improving health and individual and population-level in people who are living at high risk, yet are understudied in research. Her work spans population-level analysis using health data science/epidemiological and genomic investigation, and translational medicine approaches including novel recall-by-genotype studies of individuals with rare, loss-of-function gene variants. Recent outputs are here and here. 

Type 2 diabetes and Multimorbidity

• Sarah leads a wide portfolio of multimorbidity research, primarily using health data to understand clusters and trajectories of multimorbidity, and how these vary by ethnicity. In collaborative research programmes, she is also investigating the genetic influences on multimorbidity across the lifespan, and the application of AI methods to understand the dynamic interrelationships between multimorbidity and polypharmacy, and characterise targets for prevention/intervention in routine NHS care.
• Sarah uses interdisciplinary research methods in her work type 2 diabetes and multimorbidity, working alongside social scientists, computer scientists and health services researchers to evaluate complex health and social care models and contribute to their improvement and redesign

Recent research grants include:

• MRC Collaborative Award (QMUL Lead and Co-Investigator): Physical and mental health multimorbidity across the lifespan (LIfespaN multimorbidity research Collaborative (LINC)
• NIHR Artificial Intelligence in Multiple Long-term Conditions Development Award (Co-Investigator) Characterising the dynamic inter-relationships between polypharmacy and multiple long-term conditions. Using artificial intelligence (AI) to map patient journeys into multimorbidity clusters across the UK, Awarded 2021
• MRC Development Award (Co-Investigator) Investigating five large population-based cohort studies to understand for the precursors of multimorbidity risk. Awarded 2020
• MRC project grant (Principal Investigator) Multimorbidity clusters, trajectories and genetic risk in British south Asians. Awarded 2020
• Diabetes Research and Wellness Foundation pump priming award (Principal Investigator). Uncovering novel, rare genetic causes of type 2 diabetes in people of Bangladeshi and Pakistani heritage participating in East London Genes and Health. Awarded 2018
• NIHR Health Services and Delivery Research project grant (Principal Investigator). Can group clinics offer a better way to meet the complex health and social care needs of young adults with diabetes in an ethnically diverse, socioeconomically deprived population? Awarded 2016

Publications

Recent preprints here and here.

View all of Sarah Finer's Research Publications at:

https://researchpublications.qmul.ac.uk/publications/staff/24479.html

Grants