Frank has been an academic GP since joining a practice in Blantyre, Lanarkshire in 1984. During his early years in practice he undertook a PhD in Glasgow University and a sabbatical year to work as a GP in the Seychelles. He left to take up the NHS Tayside chair of General Practice and Primary Care in the University of Dundee in 1998. He was appointed as the Director of the Scottish School of Primary Care in 2007. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 2011.

Franks research interests lie mainly in health informatics and community based trials, covering the spectrum from record-linkage of electronic health records to decision support to the evaluation of complex interventions.

Sullivan F, The John Bryden memorial lecture: improving health with the community health index and developments in record linkage. Inform Prim Care. 2014;21(4):156–160. Madhok VB, Al-Shahi Salman R, Sullivan F. The GP as an investigator. Br J Gen Pract. 2014 Aug;64(625):409. doi: 10.3399/bjgp14X681037. Cooper S , Caslake M, Evans J, Hassiotis A, Jahoda A, McConnachie A, Morrison J, Ring H, Starr J, Stiles C, Sullivan F, Toward onset prevention of cognitive decline in adults with Down syndrome (the TOP-COG study): study protocol for a randomized controlled trial. Trials 2014 15:202. Fraser DM, Sullivan FM, Thompson AM, McCowan C. Aspirin Use and Survival After the Diagnosis of Breast Cancer: a population based cohort study. Br J Cancer 2014 doi:10.1038/bjc.2014.264 McLernon D, Donnan PT, Sullivan FM, P Roderick P, Rosenberg WM, Ryder SD, Dillon JF. Prediction of liver disease in patients whose liver function tests have been checked in primary are: model development and validation using population-based observational cohorts. BMJ Open 2014;4:e004837. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2014- 004837. Sullivan F, Hinds A, Pitkethly M, Treweek S, Wilson P, Wyke S. Primary care research network progress in Scotland European Journal of General Practice. 2014. (doi:10.3109/13814788.2013.879116) Hanning KA, Steel M, Goudie D, McLeish L, Dunlop J, Myring J, Sullivan F, Berg J, Humphris G, Ozakinci G. Why do women not return family history forms when referred to breast cancer genetics services? A mixed-method study. Health Expect. 2014 Jan 5. doi: 0.1111/hex.12166. Treweek, S., Bonetti, D., MacLennan, G., Barnett, K., Eccles, M.P., Jones, C., Pitts, N.B., Ricketts, I.W., Sullivan, F., Weal, M., Francis, J.J. Paper-based and web-based intervention modeling experiments identified the same predictors of general practitioners' antibiotic-prescribing behaviour. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 2014:67296 – 304 Grant A, Ure J,Nicolson D.J., HanleyJ, Sheikh A, McKinstry B, Sullivan F, Acceptability and perceived barriers and facilitators to creating a national Research Register to enable 'direct to patient' enrolment into research: the Scottish Health Research Register (SHARE) BMC Health Services Research 2013 13:422. Saunders SP, Goh CS, Brown SJ, Palmer CN, Porter RM, Cole C, Campbell LE, Gierlinski M, Barton GJ, Schneider G, Balmain A, Prescott AR, Weidinger S, Baurecht H, Kabesch M, Gieger C, Lee YA, Tavendale R, Mukhopadhyay S, Turner SW, Madhok VB, Sullivan FM, Relton C, Burn J, Meggitt S, Smith CH, Allen MA, Barker JN, Reynolds NJ, Cordell HJ, Irvine AD, McLean WH, Sandilands A, Fallon PG. Tmem79/Matt is the matted mouse gene and is a predisposing gene for atopic dermatitis in humans. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2013 Sep 28. pii: S0091-6749(13)01437-1. doi: 10.1016/j.jaci.2013.08.046. [Epub ahead of print] Morales DR, Donnan PT, Daly F, Van Staa T. Sullivan FM, Impact of clinical trial findings on Bell's palsy management in general practice in the UK 2001-2012: interrupted time series regression analysis, BMJ Open2013;3:e003121 doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2013-003121 Grant A, Sullivan F, Dowell J. An ethnographic exploration of influences on prescribing in general practice: why is there variation in prescribing practices? Implementation Science 8(1):72. DOI:10.1186/1748-5908-8-72. Wallace P, Delaney B, Sullivan F. Unlocking the research potential of the GP electronic care record. Br J Gen Pract. 2013 Jun;63(611):284-5. doi: 10.3399/bjgp13X668023 Fraser D, Sullivan F, McCowan C, Relationship between aspirin use after diagnosis of breast cancer and survival in a cohort of Scottish women European Journal of Surgical Oncology 39 (5), 522-522 Loudon K, Zwarenstein M, Sullivan F, Donnan P, Treweek S. Making clinical trials more relevant: improving and validating the PRECIS tool for matching trial design decisions to trial purpose. Trials 2013, 14:115. DOI: 10.1186/1745-6215-14-115 Treweek S, Lockhart P, Pitkethly M, JA Cook, M Kjeldstr?m, M Johansen, TK . Kjeldstr?m M, Johansen M, Taskila TK, Sullivan FM, Wilson S, Jackson C, Jones R, Mitchell ED, Methods to improve recruitment to randomised controlled trials: Cochrane systematic review and meta-analysis. BMJ Open 2013;3:e002360 doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2012-002360 van Hecke O, Smith BH, Sullivan FM. Lessons from Mackenzie that still resonate British Journal of General Practice 63 (608), 158-159.