Ms Julia El Mecky
PhD student
Julia is a PhD Student within Medicine at the University of Southampton.
Julia is a Medical Anthropologist from the Netherlands and has joined CELS in Southampton and the ELSI research group (ethical, legal, and social issues of clinical genetics) at the University Medical Centre, Groningen (UMCG) as our second joint PhD student.
She is researching ethical and social aspects of next-generation sequencing, particularly as they relate to certainty and uncertainty around genetic findings: what happens when an uncertain genetic finding is detected? Why do popular media often represent genetics as a sure-fire way to predict one’s future? What is the relevance to patients and healthcare professionals of incidental findings, i.e. outcomes of genetic testing that carry potential consequences for an individuals’ health, but which are discovered outside the diagnostic or predictive scope for which genetic testing was initially performed?
Julia is interested in how healthcare processes are (subjectively) experienced by patients, their families, and healthcare professionals, how medical information is communicated and received, as well as the possibility of using research to develop tools for clinical practice. Julia has also been trained in film-making and is enthusiastic about exploring the potential of visual media to enhance patient and public engagement with genetics.