Old Age Neuroscience and the ORCHARD portfolio

Oxford Vascular Study

Sarah Pendlebury is a physician at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (OUHFT) and was made Professor of Medicine and Old Age Neuroscience at the University of Oxford in 2020 having been Associate Professor since 2013. She works 50/50 in clinical and research work.

Sarah qualified in medicine from the University of Oxford in 1992 having studied pre-clinical medicine at Cambridge, and completed a DPhil at Oxford in clinical neuroscience in 2000. She was appointed Consultant Physician in 2008.

She is a member of the Editorial boards of Stroke, International Journal of Stroke, Neurology, and Cerebrovascular Diseases, is  lead author on several books on TIA/stroke, neurology and old age medicine and senior editor of a case-based learning series (OUP) covering medical/surgical specialities.

Sarah has established clinical cohorts with detailed clinical characterisation, brain imaging and blood biomarkers to facilitate research on delirium, dementia and frailty with potential for translational impact. 

Sources of funding

NIHR, John Fell Fund, ARUK

DPhil Projects

Available to potential students able to secure their own funding

Clinical work

My clinical duties include stints in acute general and complex medicine and memory clinics. As OUHFT Clinical Lead for Dementia and Delirium, I work closely with the Electronic Patient Record (EPR) Team, information analysts and OUHFT managers to implement improvements to the process of care for cognitively frail or complex patients.

RESEARCH

My research is focused on the short- and long-term impact of acute (systemic) illness and cerebrovascular disease on the ageing brain with a substantial translational component.

Cognitive impact of acute cerebrovascular disease

My work on dementia after TIA/stroke has culminated in landmark papers with commentaries (Lancet Neurol 2009; Lancet Neurol 2019, Lancet Healthy Longevity 2024) including on the role of infection and delirium on dementia risk and contributed to international guidelines (American Heart Association, European Stroke Organisation, European Academy of Neurology, International Stroke Recovery and Rehabilitation Roundtable).

impact of acute illness ON the ageing brain: Delirium, dementia and frailty

I have established  large real world cohort studies including the Oxford and Reading Cognitive Health After Recovery from Acute illness and Delirium-Prospective Study (ORCHARD-PS, 2023-) to enable identification of novel biomarkers, and the Oxford and Reading Cognitive Comorbidity, Frailty and Ageing Research Database (ORCHARD-EPR, 2019-,n>700,000 patient episodes to date) exploiting rich EPR data.  

I have led implementation of Trust-wide routine cognitive screening via the Electronic Patient Record (EPR, 2015-), a 6-fold increase (2010-18) in sensitivity of hospital administrative coding for delirium, development and implementation of a delirium susceptibility score, and compliance with GIRFT requirements for delirium screening in older hospital patients.