Sarah Aitken

Associate Professor Sarah Aitken is an academic vascular surgeon at the University of Sydney's Concord Clinical School, serving as Head of the Surgery Specialty and Co-Chair of the Concord Institute of Academic Surgery. She holds a MBBS (Hons), BTh, GradCert in Clinical Epidemiology, FRACS (Vascular) fellowship, and a PhD. Her research focuses on peripheral artery disease (PAD), geriatric surgical care, diabetes-related complications, and vascular surgery outcomes. Key interests include optimizing care for elderly patients, improving surgical education, and addressing disparities in vascular health outcomes. Aitken leads multidisciplinary studies on PAD epidemiology and has pioneered geriatric comanagement models to reduce hospital-acquired complications in older surgical patients.

Education: MBBS (Hons) from University of Sydney, followed by specialized training in vascular surgery and clinical epidemiology. Her academic contributions include over 50 peer-reviewed articles, with recent work emphasizing frailty assessment in vascular surgery and the role of microlearning in surgical training. She co-leads the STAR-PAD trial investigating β3-adrenergic receptor stimulation for PAD treatment and chairs initiatives to address Australia's vascular workforce shortages.

Her research spans clinical trials, qualitative studies on patient values, and systematic reviews of surgical interventions. Notable grants include a 2024 project on perioperative care optimization and a 2021 trial protocol for PAD medication protocols. Aitken collaborates with teams at the Concord Hospital and Sydney Medical School to advance patient-centered care strategies for complex vascular conditions.