Bilde av Lian, Olaug S.
Bilde av Lian, Olaug S.
Professor Medical Humanities, forskningsgruppe olaug.lian@uit.no +4777644815 You can find me here

Olaug S. Lian


Job description

Professor in medical sociology and leader of the Medical Humanities research group. She has worked in various academic positions for three decades, the last 12 years as full professor. Her research covers cultural aspects of health, illness and clinical interaction, illness experiences, and medical uncertainty. Exhibiting the clinical relevance of studies informed by sociological theories and perspectives is a key feature of her research. Her current main project, Clinical Interaction in Context, is an observational study of doctor - patient interaction during naturally occurring GP consultations. 


  • Freja Ekstrøm Nilou, Nanna Bjørnbak Christoffersen, Olaug Synnøve Lian, Ann Dorrit Guassora, Marie Broholm-Jørgensen :
    Conceptualizing negotiation in the clinical encounter – A scoping review using principles from critical interpretive synthesis
    Patient Education and Counseling 2024 ARKIV / DOI
  • Kaja Kvaale, Oddgeir Arne Synnes, Olaug Synnøve Lian, Hilde Bondevik :
    “That bastard chose me”: the use of metaphor in women’s cancer blogs
    Qualitative Research in Medicine & Healthcare 2024 ARKIV / DOI
  • Trine Cæcilie Bræstrup Andersen, Maja Wilhelmsen, Olaug Synnøve Lian :
    ‘The MRI-scan says it is completely normal’: Reassurance attempts in clinical encounters among patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain
    Health 2024 ARKIV / DOI
  • Olaug S Lian, Sarah Nettleton, Huw R. Grange, Christopher Dowrick :
    ‘It feels like my metabolism has shut down’. Negotiating interactional roles and epistemic positions in a primary care consultation
    Health Expectations 20. January 2023 FULLTEKST / ARKIV / DOI
  • Olaug S Lian, Sarah Joan Nettleton, Huw Robert Grange, Christopher Dowrick :
    ‘My cousin said to me..’ Patients’ use of third-party references to facilitate shared decision-making during naturally occurring primary care consultations
    Health 2023 ARKIV / DOI
  • Olaug S. Lian, Sarah Joan Nettleton, Huw Robert Grange, Christopher Dowrick :
    ‘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 and Society 2023 FULLTEKST / ARKIV / DOI
  • Huw R. Grange, Olaug S. Lian :
    "Doors started to appear:" A methodological framework for analyzing visuo-verbal data drawing on Roland Barthes's classification of text-image relations
    International Journal of Qualitative Methods (IJQM) 2022 ARKIV / DOI
  • Guri Norddal, Åge Wifstad, Olaug S Lian :
    ‘It’s like getting your car checked’: the social construction of diabetes risk among participants in a population study
    Health, Risk and Society 31. January 2022 ARKIV / FULLTEKST / DOI
  • Hans Petter Fundingsrud, Olaug S Lian :
    Geografiske ulikheter i tilbudet av polikliniske tjenester til barn og unge ved norske sykehus - et kulturperspektiv
    Tidsskrift for velferdsforskning 2022 FULLTEKST / ARKIV / DOI
  • Kaja Kvaale, Olaug S. Lian, Hilde Bondevik :
    ‘Beyond my Control’: Dealing with the Existential Uncertainty of Cancer in Online Texts
    Illness, Crisis and Loss 2022 ARKIV / DOI
  • Olaug S Lian, Sarah Nettleton, Huw R. Grange, Christopher Dowrick :
    “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 Counseling 2021 ARKIV / FULLTEKST / DOI
  • Olaug S Lian, Sarah Nettleton, Åge Wifstad, Christopher Dowrick :
    Negotiating uncertainty in clinical encounters: A narrative exploration of naturally occurring primary care consultations
    Social Science and Medicine 2021 ARKIV / FULLTEKST / DOI
  • Olaug S Lian, Sarah Nettleton, Åge Wifstad, Christopher Dowrick :
    Modes of Interaction in Naturally Occurring Medical Encounters with General Practitioners: The ´One in a Million´ Study
    Qualitative Health Research 2021 ARKIV / FULLTEKST / DOI
  • Olaug S Lian :
    Contested chronic conditions fused with medical uncertainty: gendered perspectives
    Routledge 2019 OMTALE / DOI
  • Olaug S Lian, Catherine Robson :
    Socially constructed and structurally conditioned conflicts in territories of medical uncertainty
    Social Theory & Health 27. November 2018 ARKIV / FULLTEKST / DOI
  • Catherine Robson, Lorna Myers, Chrisma Pretorius, Olaug S Lian, Marcus Reuber :
    Health related quality of life of people with non-epileptic seizures: The role of socio-demographic characteristics and stigma
    Seizure 2018 ARKIV / FULLTEKST / DOI
  • Olaug S Lian, Catherine Robson, Hilde Bondevik :
    Women With Long-Term Exhaustion in Fictional Literature: A Comparative Approach
    Routledge 2017 ARKIV / DOI
  • Olaug S Lian, Catherine Robson :
    ”It´s incredible how much I´ve had to fight.” Negotiating medical uncertainty in clinical encounters.
    International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-being 2017 ARKIV / FULLTEKST / DOI
  • Anne-Sofie Sand, Nina Emaus, Olaug S Lian :
    Motivation and obstacles for weight management among young women - a qualitative study with a public health focus - the Tromsø study: Fit Futures
    BMC Public Health 2017 ARKIV / FULLTEKST / DOI
  • Catherine Robson, Olaug S Lian :
    “Blaming, shaming, humiliation”: Stigmatising medical interactions among people with non-epileptic seizures.
    Wellcome Open Research 2017 ARKIV / FULLTEKST / DOI
  • Anne-Sofie Sand, Anne-Sofie Furberg, Olaug S Lian, Christopher Sivert Nielsen, Gunn Pettersen, Anne Winther et al.:
    Cross-sectional study of the differences between measured, perceived and desired body size and their relations with self-perceived health in young adults: The Tromsø Study - Fit Futures 2
    Scandinavian Journal of Public Health 2017 ARKIV / FULLTEKST / DOI
  • Anne Helen Hansen, Olaug S Lian :
    Experiences of general practitioner continuity among women with chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis: a cross-sectional study
    BMC Health Services Research 14. November 2016 ARKIV / DOI
  • Olaug S Lian, Jan Grue :
    Generating a Social Movement Online Community through an Online Discourse: The Case of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis
    Journal of Medical Humanities 08. April 2016 FULLTEKST / DOI
  • Anne Helen Hansen, Olaug S Lian :
    How do women with chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis rate quality and coordination of health care services? A cross-sectional study
    BMJ Open 2016 ARKIV / DOI
  • Olaug S Lian, Frances Rapport :
    Life according to ME: Caught in the ebb-tide
    Health 10. January 2016 FULLTEKST / ARKIV / DOI
  • Catherine Robson, Olaug S Lian :
    “Are you saying she’s mentally ill then?” Explaining medically unexplained seizures in clinical encounters
    Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung 2016 FULLTEKST / ARKIV
  • Olaug S Lian, Geir F Lorem :
    “I do not really belong out there anymore”: Sense of being and belonging among people With medically unexplained long-term fatigue
    Qualitative Health Research 2016 ARKIV / FULLTEKST / DOI
  • Olaug S Lian, Hilde Bondevik :
    Medical constructions of long-term exhaustion, past and present
    Sociology of Health and Illness 2015 FULLTEKST / ARKIV / DOI
  • Olaug S Lian, Sarah Nettleton :
    United we stand: Framing myalgic encephalomyelitis in a virtual symbolic community?
    Qualitative Health Research 08. December 2014 FULLTEKST / DOI
  • Anne-Sofie Sand, Nina Emaus, Olaug S Lian :
    Overweight and obesity in young adult women: A matter of health or appearance? The Tromsø study: Fit futures
    International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-being 22. October 2015 FULLTEKST / ARKIV / DOI
  • Olaug S Lian, Anne Helen Hansen :
    Factors facilitating patient satisfaction among women with medically unexplained long-term fatigue: A relational perspective
    Health 2015 ARKIV / DOI
  • Olaug S Lian :
    Når helse blir en vare. Medikalisering og markedsorientering i helsetjenesten (E-utgave)
    Cappelen Damm Akademisk 2022 FULLTEKST
  • Olaug S Lian :
    Samfunn og sykdom. Bokanmeldelse av "Medicinsk sociologi: sociale faktorers betydning for befolkningens helbred", redigert av Rikke Lund, Charlotte Juul Nilsson, Ulla Christensen og Lars Iversen.
    Michael 2022 ARKIV
  • Olaug S Lian :
    Ny ME-veileder innebærer en kursendring i behandlingen av kroniske utmattelsestilstander
    Forskning.no 13. November 2021 ARKIV / FULLTEKST
  • Sarah Graham, Olaug S Lian :
    Women are still branded ‘hysterical’ because of chronic illnesses which are under-researched and under-funded
    16. March 2021 FULLTEKST
  • Olaug S Lian, Dowrick Christopher :
    (Co-)construction of illness narratives in medical encounters characterised by uncertainty
    2019
  • Olaug S Lian :
    Contextualising health narratives as situated action.
    2019
  • Olaug S Lian :
    Sosio-logiske helseulikheter i breddeformat.
    2019
  • Nina Strand, Olaug S Lian :
    Sykdommen vi ikke kan snakke om
    02. July 2018 FULLTEKST
  • Olaug S Lian, Maria Pettrém :
    Nå kan sorg være en sykdom
    27. June 2018 FULLTEKST
  • Olaug S Lian :
    Biomedical hegemony: a critical perspective on the cultural imperialism of modern biomedical perspectives on human life.
    2017
  • Olaug S Lian :
    Gendered perspectives on contested chronic conditions.
    2017
  • Olaug S Lian :
    ”I do not really belong out there anymore.” Sense of being and belonging among people with medically unexplained long-term fatigue.
    2015
  • Lisbeth Nilsen, Olaug S Lian :
    ME-debatten: Mener legene bør starte dialogen
    10. February 2015 FULLTEKST
  • Olaug S Lian :
    Når etikken stopper forskningen
    07. August 2015 FULLTEKST
  • Olaug S Lian :
    Far og sønn. Bokanmeldelse av Aksel Fugelli: Per Glimt av min far, Oslo: Cappelen Damm 2014.
    Tidsskrift for Den norske legeforening 2015
  • Olaug S Lian, Beate Sletvold Øistad :
    ME: Mannssjukdommen som vart kvinnesjukdom
    05. February 2014 FULLTEKST
  • Olaug S Lian :
    “United we stand.” The discursive framing of online negotiations of ME in a virtual symbolic community.
    2014
  • Olaug S Lian, Catherine Robson :
    Negotiating medically unexplained seizures (PNES) in clinical encounters.
    2014
  • Olaug S Lian :
    Kvalitet på helsetjenester til ME-syke: et brukerperspektiv.
    2014

  • The 50 latest publications is shown on this page. See all publications in Cristin here →


    Research interests

    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

    Teaching

    HEL-8043

    HEL-3005


    Member of research group



    CV

    Professor in medical sociology

    Academic degree

    Dr. Polit. 1999 (sociology)

    Cand. Polit. 1993 (sociology and philosophy)

    Current academic roles

    • Professor in medical sociology, Department of Community Medicine, University of Tromsø (since 2013)
    • Research advisor (20%) at the University hospital of Northern Norway (since 2003)
    • Member of International advisory board, Sociology of health & illness
    • Reviewer for 16 journals: Sociology of health & illness, Social Science & Medicine, SSM - Qualitative Research in Health, Qualitative Health Research, Social theory & health, Patient education and counselling, Scandinavian journal of public health, British Journal of Social Psychology, Journal of Psychosomatic Research, BMC Health Services Research, BMC Family Practice, Medical Humanities, Sosiologisk tidsskrift, Tidsskrift for samfunnsforskning, Tidsskrift for Den norske legeforening and Michael. 

    Previous academic positions

    • Various academic positions at University of Tromsø from 1993 to 2004 (PhD fellow/post. doc./researcher/)
    • Associate professor at University of Tromsø 2004 - 2013
    • Editor Sosiologisk tidsskrift [Journal of sociology] in 2014
    • Visiting scholar, Department of sociology, University of York, from March to May 2012.
    • Research manager (20%), The Health Service Research Program of the Norwegian Research Council (2008-2010)
    • Member of several committees working to elaborate a new curriculum for medical studies at University of Tromsø (from 2006 to 2011)
    • Visiting scholar, Czech Association for Health Services Research, Prague, The Czech Republic (3 months during 2005)
    • Visiting scholar, Health Services Manage­ment Centre, University of Birmingham, UK (12 months during 2000 and 2001)
    • Member of expert panel on social inequalities in health appointed by The Norwegian Directorate of Health (2005-2013)
    • Researcher at University of Oslo, Department of health sciences, 10% (2018-2021)

    Research grants as project manager

    • Quality, accessibility and coordination of health care in Norway for people with chronic illnesses - seen from the users’ point of view, research project (1/2011 – 12/2014), Norwegian Research Council, grant no. 212987 (5 mill. Norwegian crowns).
    • Pasienterfaringer i allmennlegetjenesten før og etter fastlegeordningen, research project, (10/2002 – 12/2003), Norwegian Research Council, grant no. 151318/330.
    • When health becomes commodified, post. doc. project (07/1999 – 06/2002), Norwegian Research Council, grant no. 129173/330.
    • Convergence or divergence? Reforming primary care in Norway and United Kingdom, research project (07.2000 – 07/2001), Norwegian Research Council, grant no. 137351/300.
    • Nyere helsepolitiske reformer - fordelingsvirkninger og normative problemstillinger, PhD-project (02/1995 – 03/1999), Norwegian Research Council, grant no. 108243/330.

    Invited speeches and paper presentations (selection, since 2012)

    • Symptoms in clinical interaction: constructing risk, conceptualising uncertainty, and taming chance. Key-note speech at SymPCa conference 2023, Sommarøya 21. September 2023.
    • (Co-)construction of illness narratives in medical encounters characterised by uncertainty (with Christopher Dowrick, Sarah Nettleton and Åge Wifstad), SymPCa conference, Sheffield UK, 27. September 2019.
    • Contextualising health narratives as situated action. CANCUL seminar University of Oslo, 28. October 2019.
    • Sosio-logiske helseulikheter i breddeformat. Invitert foredrag, Vinterseminaret, Norsk Sosiologforening, Storefjell 1.2.2019.
    • Biomedical hegemony: a critical perspective on the cultural imperialism of modern biomedical perspectives on human life. Paper presentation at The 6th Euroacademia Global Forum of Critical Studies - Asking Big Questions Again, Lucca, Italy, 23-25 November 2017.
    • Gendered perspectives on contested chronic conditions. Invited speaker at the conference ”Embodying the gender regime: health, illness and dis-ease across the life course”, University of Liverpool UK, 22 September 2017.
    • ”I do not really belong out there anymore.” Sense of being and belonging among people with medically unexplained long-term fatigue. Paper presented at the 12th ESA conference, Prague, Czech Republic, 28 August 2015.
    • “United we stand.” The discursive framing of online negotiations of ME in a virtual symbolic community. Speech given at the ESRC seminar series on the sociology of diagnosis, University of York, 27. January 2014.
    • Negotiating medically unexplained seizures (PNES) in clinical encounters. Paper presented at the 67.th BSA Annual Conference 2014 in Leeds, England, 23. April 2014 (with Catherine Robson).
    • Kvalitet på helsetjenester til ME-syke: et brukerperspektiv. Regional nettverkskonferanse CFS/ME, Helse Nord, Tromsø 13. november 2014.
    • Medical constructions of exhausted women – today and yesterday. Paper presented at the 66.th BSA Annual Conference 2013 in London, England, 5. April 2013.
    • Negotiating ME in Norwegian Virtual Symbolic Communities. Paper presented at the BSA Medical Sociology Group Annual Conference, York 12. September 2013 (with Sarah Nettleton)
    • Illness without disease – a challenge to the paradigm of modern medicine. Paper presented at the 14th biennal congress of ESHMS in Hannover, Germany, 31. August 2012.
    • Illness without disease – a challenge to the paradigm of modern medicine. Paper presented at the 26th conference of the Nordic sociological association, Reykjavik, Island, 18. August 2012.

    Publications: see Cristin