Forskningsinteresser inkluderer klinisk interaksjon, klinisk usikkerhet, trygging, kulturelle aspekter ved helse og sykdom, smerte og sykdomserfaring.

Doktorgradsforskningen er knyttet til kommunikasjon og interaksjon i kliniske konsultasjoner, spesielt i forhold til langvarige muskel-skjelettsmerter. 

Hovedmålet med forskningsprosjektet er å gjennomføre en kvalitativ undersøkelse av interaksjonen i naturlig forekommende konsultasjoner mellom klinikere og pasienter med langvarig plager. Observasjonsdata fra konsultasjoner er supplert med intervjudata samlet inn fra både klinikere og pasienter. Ved at studere deres interaksjon og sammenstille beretninger om hvordan pasienter og klinikere opplever konsultasjonen, er hovedmålet å få ny kunnskap om a) relasjonsfaktorer som påvirker disse kliniske møtene på positive og negative måter, b) om barrierer og tilretteleggere for pasientsentrert omsorg og c) måtene den bredere sosiokulturelle konteksten påvirker deres samhandling.

Clinical interaction in context: a narrative exploration of 212 naturally occurring GP consultations.

Clinical interaction in context is a research project dealing with the interaction between patients and doctors in clinical consultations, with a focus on patient centred care and shared decision-making. Through various sub-studies, we explore the moment-to-moment unfolding of naturally occurring clinical consultations between patients and general practitioners (GPs). Although our empirical exploration focuses on in situ consultations between patients and GPs as they unfold, we situate their interaction in the sociocultural context in which it is embedded and explore their negotiations in relation to their institutionalised positions and roles. The study is based on 212 naturally occurring GP consultations in England, sourced from the One in a Million data archive in the UK. Consultations involve musculoskeletal, psychological, digestive, cardiovascular, neurological, endocrine/metabolic and general conditions. By exploring complete naturally occurring consultations with a heterogenous sample of patients, we capture the interactional dynamics of negotiations in relation to a wide range of consultation aspects and clinical conditions. Contextualising these negotiations enables us to see how the actions of both patients and GPs are constrained by their different institutionalised positions. Through data-grounded semantic coding of all 212 consultations in NVivo, we are able to relate single cases to the wider dataset. While analysing the data, we combine qualitative thematic analysis and narrative analysis, but our main analytical approach is qualitative interpretive narrative analysis. In line with this methodology, we analyse the consultations as narratives, and explore complete consultation transcripts in relation to what was uttered (content), how it was uttered (form), and by whom (speaker). By focusing on the interactional dynamics; quoting long extracts; analysing components in light of the whole, and attending to sequentiality, we respect the integrity of the narrative. The project is structured around three main overlapping subthemes: (1) risk and uncertainty, (2) modes of interaction, and (3) patient agency. Read more on separate webpage here.

Most recent publication from the project:

Lian OS, Nettleton S, Grange H and Dowrick C. (2023) ‘My cousin said to me ...’ Patients’ use of 3rd-party references to facilitate shared decision-making during naturally occurring primary care consultations. Health: An Interdisciplinary Journal for the Social Study of Health, Illness and Medicine. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/13634593231188489

Lian OS, Nettleton S, Grange H and Dowrick C (2023) ‘I’d best take out life insurance, then.’ Conceptualisations of risk and uncertainty in primary care consultations, and implications for shared decision-making. Health, Risk & Society 25(5-6): 234-251. https://doi.org/10.1080/13698575.2023.2197780

Lian OS, Nettleton S, Grange H and Dowrick C (2023) "It feels like my metabolism has shut down". Negotiating interactional roles and epistemic positions in a primary care consultation. Health Expectations 26(1): 366-375. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/hex.13666

Lian OS, Nettleton S, Grange H and Dowrick C (2022) “I’m not the doctor; I’m just the patient”: Patient agency and shared decision-making in naturally occurring primary care consultations. Patient Education and Counceling 105(7): 1996-2004.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pec.2021.10.031

Lian OS, Nettleton S, Wifstad Å and Dowrick C (2021) Negotiating Uncertainty in Clinical Encounters: A Narrative Exploration of Naturally Occurring Primary Care Consultations. Social Science & Medicine 291 (114467). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.114467

Lian OS, Nettleton S, Wifstad Å and Dowrick C (2021) Modes of Interaction in Naturally Occurring Medical Encounters with General Practitioners: The ´One in a Million´ Study. Qualitative Health Research 31(6): 1129-1143. https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732321993790

Complete list of research interests:

• Clinical interaction and shared decision-making
• Uncertainty and risk
• Illness narratives
• Contested Chronic Conditions: experiential perspectives
• Sociology of diagnosis
• Social constructions of health and illness
• Cultural, historical and gendered perspectives on medical knowledge and practice
• Medicalisation as a modern phenomena
• Qualitative research and narrative theory
• The role of theory in qualitative research
• Photography and visual research

His research interests lie at the intersection of philosophy and medicine, focusing on the conceptual foundations of medical knowledge, the nature of health and disease, and the complex moral questions that arise in medical practice, public health, and medical research – f.i. the impact of uncertainty, risk, and medical decision-making on patient autonomy and informed consent, or the moral obligations of health care systems and professionals in promoting health equity and access. The research includes philosophical analyses and qualitative methods.

Member of project: Operation room ethics. Investigating the black box of medical ethics. 

Members: Kari Milch Agledahl, UiT (PI), Reidar Pedersen UiO, Torben Wisborg UiT, Benedicte Skjold-Ødegaard, Stavanger UH, Åge Wifstad UiT