Spaces of convergence in a cancer clinical genomics trial: a survey examining genomic literacy among medical oncologists in British Columbia

The emergence of big data in the network age has led to many innovative breakthroughs in all sectors of life. One significant breakthrough are the prominent applications of clinical genomics in developing personalized medicine. In this thesis I explore the technological diffusion of clinical genomics within the spaces of convergence of multidisciplinary medical stakeholders in the Personalized Onco-Genomics (POG) cancer clinical trial, I co-developed the concept of “Genomic literacy” by drawing upon three areas of scholarship: health communication, information communication technologies (ICTs), and science and technology. I gathered data using a survey and semi-structured interviews with medical oncologists and other scientists at. Using this data I examine how genomic literacy, attitudes, and experiences of the domain experts working with clinical genomics can determine the adoption of genomic technologies into clinical care. These spaces of convergence of multidisciplinary medical stakeholders also create a pedagogical space where the stakeholders come together. This bioclinical collective of stakeholders learn more about genomics through their communicative and discursive processes, as they co-construct knowledge and meaning with genomic information.