Dr Sarah McGuinness

Clinical Research Fellow (Infectious Diseases), School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University

Dr Sarah McGuinness

Clinical Research Fellow (Infectious Diseases), School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University

Sarah is an academic infectious diseases physician. She currently holds dual positions as Consultant Physician in the Department of Infectious Diseases at the Alfred Hospital (Travel Medicine Clinic) and Senior Research Fellow in the Infectious Diseases Epidemiology Unit within the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine at Monash University. Her research focuses on improving strategies to combat preventable infections in at-risk populations (including travellers, immigrants and refugees, healthcare workers, and those living in resource-constrained settings), both locally and globally, with a focus on the Asia-Pacific region.

Sarah graduated in medicine from the University of Melbourne in 2006 and undertook specialist training in infectious diseases in Melbourne and Darwin. She completed a Diploma in Tropical Medicine in Peru in 2010 and a Master of Public Health at James Cook University in 2015. She was awarded her PhD, "Understanding the health effects of water and hygiene interventions in low- and middle-income countries" in December 2019 from Monash University. In 2020, Sarah undertook a secondment to the Department of Health and Human Services to support the Victorian public health response to COVID-19. She is an NHMRC Emerging Leadership 1 Fellow (2023-2027) and RACP Cottrell Research Establishment Fellow (2023).

Sarah has published over 40 research papers and book chapters. She is an active member of the International Society of Travel Medicine (ISTM), the Asia Pacific Travel Health Society (APTHC) and Australasian Society for Infectious Diseases (ASID). She is the current Chair of the ISTM’s Digital Communications Committee and Associate Editor of the Journal of Travel Medicine. She is also unit coordinator for the Monash MPH subjects "Infectious Diseases Epidemiology and Prevention" and "Epidemiology of Infectious Diseases".