Peter Crome trained in medicine at the University of London. He undertook postgraduate training at Guy's Hospital becoming a specialist in geriatric medicine, general (internal) medicine and clinical pharmacology. He worked at Orpington Hospital between 1981and 1994. He was appointed Professor of Geriatric Medicine at Keele University in 1994. He has served as President of the Section of Geriatrics and Gerontology of the Royal Society of Medicine and is President-Elect of the British Geriatrics Society. From 2001 to 2005 he was Deputy Head (Dean) of the Medical School becoming Head of the Medical School in 2005.

His research centres on the treatment of stroke and dementia and he has published widely in these fields including a major text Drugs and the Older Population, which he co-edited with Gary Ford.