Dr Sarah Dineen-Griffin

Dr Sarah Dineen-Griffin is a University of Newcastle alumna who served as an accredited pharmacist in patient medication reviews and practised as a community pharmacist before embarking on her PhD studies into Pharmacy Practice in Australia (awarded 2020, UTS). She held academic positions at University of Technology Sydney and Charles Sturt University before commencing as a Lecturer at The University of Newcastle in 2022. Her track record clearly establishes her as an innovative and leading pharmacy practice researcher and teacher at a national and international level.

She is the lead investigator of two major grants awarded by the NSW Government, worth a total of $8 million, to design, implement and evaluate a trial that extends the scope of practice of community pharmacists across NSW and ACT by enabling them to prescribe oral contraceptives and medications for urinary tract infections and skin conditions. To achieve this, she has brought together a consortium of 18 investigators and 18 partner organisations, spanning major medical (RACGP, Rural Doctors Network NSW), pharmaceutical (Pharmacy Guild, Pharmaceutical Society of Australia) and consumer (Consumers Health Forum) organisations, adopting a co-design approach for clinical management protocols and educational materials that draws on input from content experts, GPs and community pharmacists. These protocols have now been incorporated into NSW Health legislation. Under Sarah’s leadership, this highly impactful trial will likely transform the scope of pharmacy practice into the future and alleviate pressure on other parts of the healthcare system.

In addition, Dr Dineen-Griffin has attracted several grants from the pharmaceutical industry (>$400,000) for research projects in the areas of self-care and minor ailments. Her achievements have been recognised by 7 competitive awards since PhD completion.

Sarah’s leadership qualities are further evidenced by her active roles in national and international levels professional organisations. She was the Vice President of the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia in NSW (2021-23), has served as an executive member of the Community Pharmacy Section of The International Federation of Pharmacy (FIP) since 2021, and at the recent FIP World Pharmacy Congress (September 2023) was elected Vice President of the FIP Executive Committee Community Pharmacy Section. She was appointed by the Federal Minister for Health as member of the Review of Australia’s National Medicines Policy, which “guides the range of activities encompassing medication management, access, and affordability of medicines in Australia through a partnership approach between all sectors”. This federal committee is highly influential in determining future medicines policy in Australia.

Her research in pharmacy has resulted in peer-reviewed publications in high-impact international journals. Her publications have attracted over 250 citations. Sarah was awarded the 2023 College of Health, Medicine & Wellbeing Early Career Researcher Award - for an academic who has made an outstanding achievement in research & within 5 years of PhD completion. In the short time she worked at Charles Sturt University, Sarah was awarded the RED Research Excellence Award for Most Productive Early Career Researcher in 2021. She was awarded the UTS Dean’s award for outstanding PhD thesis in 2021 and NSW Young Pharmacist of the Year by the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia in 2020. These achievements recognise Sarah's impact as an early career researcher and the currency of her research. Sarah is an editorial board member for two international pharmacy journals, Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy and Pharmacy Practice.