Dr. Sarah Mills is an Academic Clinical Fellow in General Practice at the University of Dundee. She is funded through a 2018 Chief Scientist Office (CSO) Academic Clinical Fellowship grant, and is in her final year of her PhD, with anticipated completion in 2021. In 2020 she was awarded the Howard Elder Prize for the best paper published in a field related to cancer.

Sarah completed Academic General Practice Training through a Scottish Clinical Research Excellence Development Scheme (SCREDS) Clinical Lectureship in General Practice in East Scotland in 2016. She completed an Academic Foundation Programme in South East Scotland in 2012.

Sarah completed her medical training at the University of Cambridge in 2010, where she was awarded the William Harvey Studentship for clinical excellence, and the Jim Knott Prize for excellence in Palliative Care. She received a Bachelor of Science (Hons) First Class from the University of St Andrews in 2007, where she was awarded the P.T. Herring Award as the top student in her class.

In parallel to her academic work, Sarah is a 5-session GP Partner in Bank Street Medical Practice in Cupar, Fife, where she is involved in medical student teaching and GP training.

My research aims to understand the patterns of unscheduled care attendance and outcomes for patients with cancer in their last 12 months of life, and to examine their associations with demographic, temporal, clinical, and prescribing factors, with a view to making recommendations for improving care of people with terminal cancer.

It is a retrospective cohort study of all patients in NHS Tayside who died from cancer between January 2012 and June 2015, and uses routinely collected healthcare data to analyse patterns of use of unscheduled care.

Understanding how and why people dying from cancer use unscheduled care is vital to determining what interventions could reduce unnecessary attendance at unscheduled care and improve outcomes of attendances, leading to improved service provision for this vulnerable group.

Tutor, University of Dundee GP ‘Systems in Practice’ (SiP) course (2016–2017, 2020-present)

• Teach groups of 6-10 medical students from Year 1- Year 3.
• Tutorials are interactive and focused on clinical cases with systems-based themes.

Advisor of Studies, University of Dundee, (2020-present)

• Formal role offering support to medical students as a first point of contact for pastoral care, working with students and liaising with the student support team.

Tutor, MN Portfolio, University of Dundee (2012–Present)

• Provide students with content and stylistic feedback to improve history-taking and medical record keeping skills.

Supervisor, University of Dundee Summer Research Program (2016)

• Supervised work of a 3rd year medical student during the Summer Research Program

Instructor, University of St Andrews, OSCE Revision Day (2011, 2012)

• Initiated, wrote and delivered a day-long revision course, covering clinical examination and result interpretation.

Tutor, University of Edinburgh ‘Bedside Teachers’ Group (2010–2011)

• Delivered teaching sessions in clinical medicine to final year medical students, focusing on clinical examinations.

Tutor, Prescribing Tutorials (2010–2011)

• Instructed final year students on correct prescribing techniques in small group tutorial settings.

Associate Clinical-Supervisor, University of Cambridge School of Medicine (2009–2010)

• Planned, developed and delivered clinical skills and clinical examination lessons for Stage 1 clinical students.

Instructor, Medical Ethics Community Education Partnership (2007–2008)

Developed interactive modules on medical ethics with PGCE students, for Religious Studies AS Curriculum.

Training

• Teaching for Healthcare Professionals, Department of Education Micro-credential, University of Glasgow, 2020
• Applied Statistics with Routine Health Datasets, Master of Public Health, University of Dundee, 2019
• Introduction to Statistics and SPSS, University of Dundee, 09/2015
• Research Methods Course, NS Tayside & University of Dundee, 03/2015
• Good Clinical Practice (GCP), NHS Research Scotland (NRS): 09/2015, 08/2017 & 12/2019