Sarah Geoghegan

Sarah Geoghegan is a PhD student in the School of Medicine at University College Dublin and a fellow in infectious diseases at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Her research focuses on exploring barriers and facilitators to vaccination during pregnancy. She will use Conjoint based conjoint analysis to explore how vaccine specific attributes can influence decision making around vaccines in pregnancy.

Sarah is a paediatrician. She is currently completing subspecialty training in paediatric infectious diseases at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. She is interested in the epidemiology of vaccine preventable disease and vaccine hesitancy. Her research is particularly focused on new maternal immunizations that are in development. Group B streptococcus is the most common cause of neonatal sepsis and meningitis worldwide. There is currently a vaccine under development that if successful will be administered to pregnant women in order to protect their new-born infants. Uptake of vaccines in pregnancy remains challenging worldwide. Sarah is interested in exploring the acceptability of this vaccine in different settings and is conducting research in the USA, Ireland and the Dominican Republic. She will use conjoint based conjoint analysis to explore how attributes specific to this vaccine may affect decision making among pregnant women in each setting.