Dr Lisa Ballard (DHealthPsych CPsychol) is a Senior Research Fellow within the faculty of Medicine at the University of Southampton.
Lisa graduated from Solent University in 2005 with a degree in Psychology and then went on to study at the University of Southampton for an MSc in Health Psychology. Upon graduating from her MSc in 2007 she worked as a research associate at the University College London on a project looking at the feasibility of pharmacies offering computerised tailored advice to aid in smoking cessation. In 2008, she took up an NHS Health Promotion post in Southampton, where she worked for 8 years in the area of behaviour change. She commenced her Professional Doctorate in Health Psychology in 2013 with the University of the West of England and graduated in 2017.
During her Professional Doctorate Lisa, as well as working in Health Promotion, also worked in the Clinical Genetics Department at University Hospital Southampton as a qualitative researcher for STAARS (Adults and Adolescents with Russell-Silver Syndrome in the UK). The qualitative arm of the research aimed to explore what it is like to live with Silver-Russell syndrome through in-depth interviews with adults and adolescents. Part of this research formed the basis of her thesis for her Professional Doctorate in Health Psychology.
In 2017, Lisa was awarded a fellowship from Health Education England, Genomics Education Programme. During this fellowship, Lisa conducted a qualitative study to explore ways in which patients can be encouraged to share genetic health information with their at-risk relatives via an online intervention.
Currently, Lisa is based in Clinical Ethics, Law and Society (CELS) in the Faculty of Medicine where she is researching ethical and legal issues in genetic and genomic medicine. She is a senior research fellow for the NIHR BRC (National Institute for Health Research Biomedical Research Centre) Data, Health and Society theme. This work explores stakeholder views regarding the use of routinely collected hospital data in a learning healthcare system and working with residents of SO14 with the HomeGrownSO14 Project (https://homegrownso14.org/). In addition, Lisa contributes to the EPPiGen Project regarding ethical preparedness in genetic and genomic medicine, an ESRC funded project exploring decision making in predictive & prenatal genetic testing, and has been developing myKinMatters, a web app to help patients communicate genetic information to family members.
