Sarah Meredith, Professor of Clinical Trials

Sarah is a clinical epidemiologist and public health physician with a particular interest in the safety and efficacy of medicines, and the design and conduct of studies to provide better evidence to support clinical and public health decisions about their use.

She joined the MRC Clinical Trials Unit at UCL in 2000 in the Division Without Portfolio. She had the remit of supporting the development of clinical trials in areas in which there were important questions but a lack of necessary infrastructure or expertise to design, conduct or analyses the clinical trials needed to answer those questions. As a result, she collaborated on trials in a range of different clinical fields, particularly tuberculosis, dermatology (with the UK Dermatology Clinical Trials Network) and transfusion medicine (as part of the MRC/NHSBT Clinical Studies Unit). Later, her current focus was on improving the treatment and management of tuberculosis globally, with an interest in drug-resistant tuberculosis.

She previously worked at the National Heart and Lung Institute on respiratory disease surveillance, and in the Department of Preventive Medicine at Vanderbilt University where she gained experience in pharmaco-epidemiology.

As an emeritus role, Sarah will continue to work with MRC CTU at UCL colleagues on improving drug-resistant tuberculosis treatment and management and she will keep contributing as an advisory.

Selected publications

Madan JJ, Rosu L, Tefera MG, van Rensburg C, Evans D, Langley I, et al. Economic evaluation of short treatment for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis, Ethiopia and South Africa: the STREAM trial. Bulletin of the World Health Organization. 2020;98(5):306.

Nunn AJ, Phillips PPJ, Meredith SK, Chiang C-Y, Conradie F, Dalai D, van Deun A, Dat P-T, Lan N, Master I, et al. A Trial of a Shorter Regimen for Rifampin-Resistant Tuberculosis. New England Journal of Medicine 28 Mar 2019

Tweed, C. D., Crook, A. M., Amukoye, E. I., Dawson, R., Diacon, A. H., Hanekom, M., et.al.  Toxicity associated with tuberculosis chemotherapy in the REMoxTB study. BMC infectious diseases, 2018;18 (1), 317. doi:10.1186/s12879-018-3230-6

Tweed, C. D., Wills, G. H., Crook, A. M., Dawson, R., Diacon, A. H., Louw, C. E. et.al (2018). Liver toxicity associated with tuberculosis chemotherapy in the REMoxTB study. BMC Medicine, 2018; 16 (1), 46. doi:10.1186/s12916-018-1033-7

Sydes, M. R., Johnson, A. L., Meredith, S. K., Rauchenberger, M., South, A., & Parmar, M. K. B. Sharing data from clinical trials: the rationale for a controlled access approach. TRIALS 2015, 16. doi:10.1186/s13063-015-0604-6

Nunn, A. J., Rusen, I. D., Van Deun, A., Torrea, G., Phillips, P. J. P., Chiang, C. -Y., Meredith, S.K. Evaluation of a standardised treatment regimen of anti-tuberculosis drugs for patients with multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis (STREAM): study protocol for a randomised controlled trial. TRIALS 2014.

Gillespie SG, Crook AM, McHugh TD, Mendel CM, Meredith SK, Murray SR, Pappas F, Phillips PPJ, Nunn AJ for the REMoxTB Consortium. Four-Month Moxifloxacin-based Regimens for Drug-Sensitive Tuberculosis. NEJM 2014; 371: 1577-1587.

Thomas KS, Crook AM, Nunn AJ, Foster KA, Mason JM , Chalmers JR, Nasr IS , Brindle RJ, English J, Meredith SK, Reynolds NJ, de Berker D, Mortimer PS and Williams HC on behalf of the UK Dermatology Clinical Trials Network’s PATCH I Trial Team. Penicillin to prevent recurrent leg cellulitis. NEJM 2013 368;18 1695-1703.

Elebute MO, Choo L, Mora A, Macrury C, Llewelyn C, Purohit S, Hicks V, Casey C, Malfroy M, Deary A, Reed T, Meredith S, Manson L, Williamson LM. Transfusion of prion-filtered red cells does not increase the rate of alloimmunization or transfusion reactions in patients: results of the UK trial of prion-filtered versus standard red cells in surgical patients (PRISM A). British Journal of Haematology. 2013 160; 5 701-708.

Ray WA, Taylor JA, Brown AK, Giddeon P, Hall K, Arbogast P, Meredith S. Prevention of fall-related injuries in long-term care: a randomized controlled trial of staff education. Archives of Internal Medicine 2005; 165:2293-2298.

 Ray WA, Murray KT, Meredith S, Narasimhulu S, Hall K, Stein M. Oral erythromycin and the risk of sudden death from cardiac causes. NEJM 2004; 351:1089-1096.

Research Interests

• Improvement of tuberculosis treatment and management
• Support of clinical trials in underdeveloped areas
• Risk-based approaches to clinical trial conduct.

Research Areas

• Tuberculosis
• Other conditions
• Methodology