Research interests include clinical interaction, clinical uncertainty, reassurance, cultural aspects of health and illness, pain, and illness experience.

The doctoral research relates to communication and interaction in clinical consultations, specifically in relation to long-term musculoskeletal pain.

The main aim of the research project is to conduct a qualitative exploration of interaction in naturally occurring consultations between hospital clinicians and patients with long-term conditions. Observational data of consultations is supplemented by interview data collected from both clinicians and patients. While exploring their interaction and juxtaposing paired accounts of how patients and clinicians experienced the consultation, the main aim is to gain new knowledge about a) relational factors that affect these clinical encounters in positive and negative ways, b) about barriers and facilitators of patient-centred care and c) the ways in which the wider socio-cultural context influences on their interaction.

Current main project: Clinical Interaction in Context: A Sociological Observational Study of Naturally Occurring Primary Care Consultations

Based on observational data, we explore doctor-patient interaction in 212 naturally occurring primary care consultations in England, with a focus on patient centred care and shared decision-making. While exploring the moment-to-moment unfolding of these consultations, we capture the interactional dynamics and negotiations of epistemic positions. Through data-grounded semantic coding of all 212 consultations in NVivo, we are able to relate single cases to the wider dataset. While combining a qualitative thematic analysis with a narrative analysis, 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 subthemes: (1) risk and uncertainty, (2) modes of interaction, and (3) patient agency.

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. Contextualising these negotiations enables us to see how the actions of both patients and GPs are constrained by their different institutionalised positions.

Read more on separate webpage here.

Most recent publication from the project:

Lian OS, Nettleton S, Grange H and Dowrick C. (2024) ‘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, 28(5): 775-794. 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
• Medical uncertainty
• 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