Rate My Professor Sandra Salter

Dr Sandra Salter is an Associate Professor and Senior Lecturer in Pharmacy Practice in the School of Health and Clinical Sciences, Pharmacy, at the University of Western Australia, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences. She earned a Bachelor of Pharmacy from Curtin University in 1992, a Postgraduate Diploma in Pharmacy (Hospital) from Curtin University in 2011, and a PhD from the University of Western Australia in 2015. Her doctoral thesis, titled 'Investigating the management of anaphylaxis in pharmacy: A growing need for pharmacist-driven community competence in the preparedness and care of people at risk of anaphylaxis,' addressed gaps in community pharmacy preparedness for anaphylaxis. With more than 30 years as a clinical pharmacist in private and public hospitals, general practice, and community pharmacy, including leadership as Chief Pharmacist (Hospital) and Managing Pharmacist (community), Salter has over 25 years of teaching experience in university, hospital, community pharmacy, general practice, intern training, and patient education settings.

Salter's research focuses on anaphylaxis epidemiology and health care pathways using multiple linked administrative datasets—the first such work worldwide—vaccine safety surveillance in community pharmacies, allergy, food allergy prevention through public health interventions, and pharmacy professionalism. She led the development of SmartVax, a world-first pharmacy-linked vaccine safety surveillance system using secure cloud technology and API integration for near real-time monitoring of adverse events following immunisation, piloted for influenza in 2020 and scaled nationally for COVID-19 vaccines without increasing pharmacist workload. Her contributions include chief investigator roles in projects such as Epidemiology of Anaphylaxis in Western Australia (EPAWA), Actively Monitoring the Safety of Immunisation in Community Pharmacies (AIM-CP), and COVID-19 Vaccine Safety Monitoring in Community Pharmacy (COVID-19 VIP). Salter has received the Fellowship of the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia (2023), University of Technology Sydney Joint Innovative Pharmacist of the Year (2021), UWA Excellence in Teaching Awards (2021, two categories), and UWA Student Guild Student Choice Award (2020). She serves on the National Allergy Council expert Drug Allergy Working Group, Australasian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergy Anaphylaxis Committee, and previously represented on the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences Research Committee and School of Allied Health Research Committee (Co-Chair). Key publications include 'Investigating health care pathways for anaphylaxis: Seeing the bigger picture through linked data' (2025, Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: Global), 'Attitudes, perceptions, and experiences of Western Australians towards vaccine safety surveillance systems following COVID-19 vaccines: A qualitative descriptive study' (2024, Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health), 'Rationale for use for monoclonal antibody and anti-cytokine therapy for multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children: A systematic review' (2024, Global Pediatrics), and her 2015 PhD thesis. Her work informs global competency frameworks and professional practice standards in pharmacy.