Eivind Engebretsen

• Eshete, Million Tesfaye; Tomson, Goran; Ottersen, Ole Petter; Tomson, Tanja; Wanyenze, Rhoda K. & Meng, Qingyue [Show all 7 contributors for this article] (2026). Power in Global Health: A Narrative Review, Relational Framework, and Systems-Based Analysis. International Journal of Health Policy and Management. 15(1), p. 1–15. doi: 10.34172/ijhpm.9698. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Background Power is routinely invoked to explain health inequities and governance failures in global health, yet existing work is conceptually fragmented, weakly connected to empirical analysis, and prone to what is referred to as the “power-as-resource fallacy”: the conflation of power bases (what actors possess) with power relationships (how actors influence one another). This narrative review examines how power is conceptualized and operationalized in global health discourse, identifies systematic analytical gaps, and proposes a relational framework to address them.Methods We conducted a narrative review of literature that explicitly engages with power in relation to global health, governance, or health systems. We synthesized the included texts thematically and, as a supplementary systems-thinking component, developed a causal loop diagram (CLD) based on a subset of quantitative studies to illustrate how different constellations of power interact with health outcomes over time.Results In global health, power is pervasively invoked but rarely operationalized. We organized the reviewed texts into six thematic domains: (1) power as a determinant of health; (2) structural power (class, race, gender, geopolitical hierarchies); (3) power asymmetry; (4) power and governance for health; (5) power and health securitization; and (6) power constellations and health outcomes. Across these domains, we find that discussions of power remain largely qualitative and often stop short of clear operationalization. The CLD translates these insights into interacting feedback loops, illustrating how specific power constellations are associated with particular patterns of policy response and health outcomes, highlighting potential leverage points for governance reform.Conclusion This review maps the existing knowledge on power in global health and provides an actionable framework for future research and governance design. It underscores that power is the fundamental thread connecting global political economy to local health inequities.

• Sturmberg, Joachim; Mormina, Maru; Pfaff, Holger; Russo, Federica; Mercuri, Mathew & Preiser, Rika [Show all 17 contributors for this article] (2026). Systemic path to global health 2050. Bulletin of the World Health Organization. ISSN 0042-9686. 104(7), p. 486–494. doi: 10.2471/BLT.25.293951. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  In 2024, the Lancet Commission on Investing in Health proposed targeting investment in 15 priority conditions through 19 modular interventions to improve global health by 2050. While pragmatic, this approach may not fully capture the complex-adaptive nature of health and health systems, nor their social, economic and political determinants. In an iterative, interpretive analysis, proposed global health investment frameworks were mapped against complexity, systems thinking and health epistemology frameworks; five thematic areas were identified for further development: (i) health as emergent from interdependent, social-biological systems; (ii) the non-biomedical determinants driving inequities; (iii) health systems' adaptive requirements; (iv) epistemic injustices that marginalize non-Western perspectives; and (v) the need for context-sensitive, community-led implementation of health measures. Recent major disruptions to international aid financing, while challenging, present a unique opportunity to redesign health investment on more sustainable and locally grounded foundations, where national governments deliberately invest in the social determinants of health as direct health improvement strategies rather than merely as adjacent social policy. To seize this opportunity, we propose five guiding principles for policy-makers: (i) community co-production of interventions; (ii) adaptive governance structures; (iii) complex systems literacy in workforce training to navigate interdependencies and uncertainty; (iv) cross-sectoral partnerships to address determinants of health; and (v) context-sensitive metrics that incorporate community engagement to support learning within health systems. These are not optional enhancements to existing approaches; they are the foundations without which any health investment strategy will continue to treat the symptoms of inequity rather than its causes.

• Ostherr, Kirsten; Engebretsen, Eivind & Woods, Angela (2026). Ambient scribes as narrative technologies. The Lancet. ISSN 0140-6736. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(26)01381-4. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Ambient scribes, also known as artificial intelligence-powered voice-to-text technology, are widely cited as time-saving tools that reduce administrative burden for clinicians. Yet, in their current use, these tools pose substantial, often unacknowledged risks that threaten to undermine patient-centred care. We argue that ambient scribes are inherently narrative technologies whose risks—and potential benefits—cannot be fully understood without careful attention to the ways that patients tell their stories and the broader context in which those stories are told. Drawing on medical humanities scholarship, we show that current approaches to ambient scribes take a superficial approach to narrative interpretation that omits the clinically relevant aspects of patient experience. We propose three ways to integrate more robust narrative analysis that can increase the value of ambient scribes: centring patient perspectives, accounting for material and social structures that shape narrative, and reframing the clinical encounter as a node in a broader narrative system. We conclude by outlining five priorities for commissioners, administrators, clinical leaders, and practice managers to ensure that the roll-out of ambient scribes does not deepen existing harms, and could instead contribute to more humane and trustworthy care.

• Engebretsen, Eivind & Baker, Mona (2026). Beyond Rhetoric: A Response to Recent Commentaries. International Journal of Health Policy and Management. 15(1). doi: 10.34172/ijhpm.10022. Full text in Research Archive
• Karlsen, Tom Hemming; Hutchinson, Sharon J.; Zelber-Sagi, Shira; Carrieri, Patrizia; Negro, Francesco & Lim, Aaron G. [Show all 48 contributors for this article] (2026). Implementing sustainable liver health in Europe: a second EASL–Lancet Commission. The Lancet. ISSN 0140-6736. 407(10541), p. 1825–1890. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(26)00138-8. Full text in Research Archive
• Eshete, Million Tesfaye; Shrestha, Pami; Ang, Charmaine; Valdera, José María; Heymann, David L. & Nordström, Anders [Show all 15 contributors for this article] (2025). Exploring Grassroots Indicators for Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness, and Response: A Systematic Narrative Review. International Journal of Health Policy and Management. 14(1), p. 1–17. doi: https:/www.ijhpm.com/article_4826.html. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Background The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed how conventional top-down, expert-driven indicators often fail to align with local community realities, marginalising their perspectives, concerns, knowledge, and narratives. However, the limitations of pandemic-related and global health security indicators are not unique but reflect recurring patterns across major social metrics. In response, an alternative paradigm advocates for grassrootsinclusive approaches to developing indicators. Our objective is to assess how and why grassroots-inclusive approaches complement top-down approaches to developing indicators, and to synthesise their theoretical and practical contributions to public health. Methods We conducted a scoping review in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) guidelines. We systematically searched six databases (MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, Web of Science, Scopus, and PsycINFO), as well as Google Scholar, to identify relevant articles published from their inception to September 1, 2024. We included peer-reviewed articles, opinion pieces, and book chapters, narratively synthesising their findings. Results This review included 43 studies from various disciplines. Across these studies, communities co-produced indicators through participatory workshops, interviews, and consensus exercises in areas such as environmental sustainability, disaster resilience, public health, well-being, and local development. The reported strengths included greater local relevance, community ownership, and accountability, alongside challenges in sustaining participation, integrating into top-down systems, and addressing data gaps. Notably, no study applied grassroots-inclusive indicators to health security or pandemic preparedness. Conclusion Despite retrieving and analysing articles from various disciplines, no study has specifically applied grassroots-inclusive indicators to health security or pandemic preparedness. However, the evidence clearly shows that it is both feasible and practical to integrate expert and non-expert perspectives when developing indicators.

• Greenhalgh, Trisha; Engebretsen, Eivind & Sandset, Tony Joakim Ananiassen (2025). What caused the COVID-19 pandemic? In Illari, Phyllis & Russo, Federica (Ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Causality and Causal Methods. Routledge. ISSN 9781032260198. p. 47–62. doi: 10.4324/9781003528937-4. Full text in Research Archive
• Kraaijeveld, Britt; Wieringa, Cornelis Hermannus Sietse; Engebretsen, Eivind & Bussemaker, Jet (2025). How concepts guide policy: an ethnographic study of the meaning making of ‘appropriate care’ in Dutch healthcare. Social Science and Medicine. ISSN 0277-9536. 379, p. 1–9. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.118152. Full text in Research Archive
• Engebretsen, Eivind; Greenhalgh, Trisha & Han, Paul K (2025). Educating healthcare students in the Sustainable Development Goals: from translational science to translational humanities. Medical Humanities. ISSN 1468-215X. 51(4), p. 428–434. doi: 10.1136/medhum-2025-013292. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Healthcare courses typically approach Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) education from a ‘translational science’ perspective. Students are taught about ‘evidence-based’ interventions, which are developed through scientific research (hence, assumed to be politically neutral), implemented with ‘fidelity’ (ie, in a standardised way in diverse contexts) and then ‘rolled out’. Progress is measured using standardised indicators. We argue for a shift to ‘translational humanities’, in which students are supported to engage critically with the cultural and political dynamics and epistemic uncertainties underpinning the setting of SDG targets, the development and implementation of programmes, and the measurement of success. Translational humanities seeks to surface alternative framings and measures of success, especially by giving voice to marginalised and ignored communities. This radical approach, informed by political philosophy, recognises that conflict among stakeholders and the uncertainty it generates are inevitable and can be a productive force (eg, if surfaced and used to inform multifaceted debate and values-driven action). Whereas a translational science approach to SDG education emphasises objectivity, technical precision and (the pursuit of) certainty, a translational humanities approach seeks to foster human and interpretive qualities such as reflection, critical thinking, commitment to human rights and fairness, appreciation of complexity, epistemic humility and flexibility, willingness to examine problems from multiple angles, the capacity to adapt, and tolerance of uncertainty. In a worked example of how this can be achieved, we introduce the ‘critical datathon’—a group exercise in which students engage deeply with case studies of SDGs, examine the assumptions and interests behind conventional solutions, and navigate diverse implementation contexts.

• Engebretsen, Eivind & Greenhalgh, Trisha (2025). Missed SDG targets: from ‘trying harder’ to engaging critically with paradox and conflict. Critical Public Health. ISSN 0958-1596. 35(1). doi: 10.1080/09581596.2025.2463465. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This article explores a radical hypothesis: that our repeated failure to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) signals something inherently paradoxical within the current approach, suggesting that simply doing ‘more of the same’ will not transform the fortunes of the failing SDG mission. We examine four interrelated paradoxes – those of universality, implementation, information, and signification – that characterize the dominant approach to the SDGs. These paradoxes, which apply across all the SDGs, are illustrated through SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities), which seeks to ‘make cities inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable’. We argue for recognizing the political double-voicing embedded in a top-down ‘we’ that imposes obligations on a bottom-up ‘we’ it claims to represent. Furthermore, we contend that implementation plans, rather than being the most efficient route to achieving the SDGs, risk recasting the SDG challenge as a technical issue, overshadowing the political and ethical questions in problem framing. Additionally, we critique the reliance on metrics as straightforward conduits to objective truth, advocating instead for ‘critical datathons’ that question prevailing narratives of truth and progress while exploring alternative perspectives. Finally, we caution against the use of popular terms that have become empty signifiers; having lost their specific meanings, these terms risk confusing, distracting, or even obscuring critical issues. We propose that reframing these paradoxes offers a path toward a deeper understanding of the structural challenges within the SDG mission, suggesting a more reflective and critical approach to sustainable development.

• Engebretsen, Eivind (2025). Beyond the bedside: Re-imagining narrative medicine for knowledge translation. Encounters in translation. doi: 10.35562/encounters-in-translation.965. Full text in Research Archive
• Vandeskog, Hilde Ousland; Buts, Jan; Heggen, Kristin & Engebretsen, Eivind (2025). The (un)targeted gendered vulnerabilities in Norwegian development aid—a corpus-assisted discourse analysis. Development Policy Review. ISSN 0950-6764. 43(1). doi: 10.1111/dpr.12816. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Motivation Gender is a central concept and a buzzword in the development aid discourse. Like many buzzwords, its meaning is malleable. If aid efforts really are to “leave no one behind,” as the Sustainable Development Goals proclaim, we must critically interrogate how the discursive articulation of buzzwords such as gender can both make visible and hide from view vulnerabilities that should be salient for aid programming. In this article, we focus on the extent to which the mobilization of “gender” by Norwegian development aid non-governmental organizations' is able to bring vulnerabilities related to sexual orientation, gender identity, and expression (SOGIE) to the fore. Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine a corpus of Norwegian NGO development aid policy and planning documents to analyse whether and how gender is articulated differently across different types of documents, and what this means in terms of which gendered vulnerabilities become visible. Approach and methods We draw on methods from corpus-assisted discourse studies (CADS) to examine a purpose-built corpus of 88 files pulled from framework funding applications submitted by four Norwegian aid NGOs to the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD). We analyse the results drawing on Laclau and Mouffe's discourse theory to examine how conceptual translation between policy and programme-level documents opens up space for the concept to be assigned changing meanings. Findings While the NGOs at policy level articulate a broad notion of gendered vulnerabilities that include recognition of SOGIE vulnerabilities, this is not translated into practical programme plans. At the programme plan level, gender is articulated as a subject field overwhelmingly concerned with women and firmly attached to a traditional binary sex-gender construct. Policy implications Although SOGIE gendered vulnerabilities are increasingly acknowledged in NGO articulations of their priorities and values, this is not reflected in actual programme plans. We argue that this can lead to a misplaced expectation that these concerns are being addressed in the NGOs' activities, obscuring the neglect of SOGIE vulnerabilities in many development aid gender programmes.

• Vidnes, Tone Karine; Wahl, Astrid Klopstad; Larsen, Marie Hamilton; Meyer, Käthe Birgitte; Engebretsen, Eivind & Hermansen, Åsmund [Show all 10 contributors for this article] (2024). Effectiveness of a health communication intervention on health literacy in the first year following kidney transplantation – A randomized controlled study. Patient Education and Counseling. ISSN 0738-3991. 123. doi: 10.1016/j.pec.2024.108207. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the effect of a new health communication intervention focusing on knowledge management skills on health literacy and medication adherence during the first year following kidney transplantation. Methods: We randomized 195 patients during 2020–2021, to either intervention- or control group. Questionnaires were completed at baseline and at 12 months post-transplantation with a 12-month response rate of 84%. Health literacy was measured by the multidimensional Health Literacy Questionnaire (HLQ) instrument. Medication adherence was measured by the self-reported questionnaire (BAASIS©). Results: Results showed that the intervention group had a significant increase in 2 HLQ domains compared to the control group capturing the “ability to appraise health information” Domain 5, (p-value = 0.002) and the “ability to navigate the healthcare system” Domain 7, (p-value <0.04). The effect sizes of SRM were 0.49 (Domain 5) and 0.33 (Domain 7). Medication adherence was comparable in the groups at any measure points. Conclusions: This study contributes to important knowledge about how a health communication intervention focusing on knowledge translation using motivational interviewing techniques positively strengthens health literacy in kidney transplant recipients. Practical implications: Current patient education practice may benefit from focusing on knowledge translation in combination with motivational interview technique.

• Engebretsen, Eivind (2024). Towards a transformative health humanities approach in teaching the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Medical Humanities. ISSN 1468-215X. doi: 10.1136/medhum-2023-012855. Full text in Research Archive
• Borge, Christine Råheim; Larsen, Marie Hamilton; Osborne, Richard H.; Aas, Eline; Kolle, Ingrid Tryland & Reinertsen, Rikke [Show all 15 contributors for this article] (2024). Impacts of a health literacy-informed intervention in people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) on hospitalization, health literacy, self-management, quality of life, and health costs – A randomized controlled trial. Patient Education and Counseling. ISSN 0738-3991. 123. doi: 10.1016/j.pec.2024.108220. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Objective: To compare the effect of motivational interviewing (MI) and tailored health literacy (HL) follow-up with usual care on hospitalization, costs, HL, self-management, Quality of life (QOL), and psychological stress in people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Methods: A RCT was undertaken in Norway between March 2018-December 2020 (n = 127). The control group (CG, n = 63) received usual care. The intervention group (IG, n = 64) received tailored HL follow-up from MI-trained COPD nurses with home visits for eight weeks and phone calls for four months after hospitalization. Primary outcomes were hospitalization at eight weeks, six months, and one year from baseline. The trial was registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT03216603) and analysed per protocol. Results: Compared with the IG, the CG had 2.8 higher odds (95% CI [1.3 to 5.8]) of hospitalization and higher hospital health costs (MD=€ −6230, 95% CI [−6510 to −5951]) and lower QALYs (MD=0.1, 95% CI [0.10 to 0.11]) that gives an ICER = − 62,300. The IG reported higher QOL, self-management, and HL (p = 0.02- to <0.01). Conclusion: MI-trained COPD nurses using tailored HL follow-up is cost-effective, reduces hospitalization, and increases QOL, HL, and self-care in COPD. Practice implication: Tailored HL follow-up is beneficial for individuals with COPD and the healthcare system.

• Engebretsen, Eivind; Haagensen, Trine Krigsvoll & Ødemark, John (2024). Symmetry, Inscriptions, and the Epistemological Residue of Writing A Deconstructive Reading of Laboratory Life, The Sociology of Translation and the Politics of Sustainability Explorations Across Cultures and Natures. Routledge. ISSN 9781032257914. p. 19–32. doi: 10.4324/9781003285038. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This chapter starts with an analysis of Latour and Woolgar's deconstruction of the distinction implicit in social studies of science between ‘the social’ and ‘the technical’. The next section focuses on one of the methodological and narrative tools used by Latour and Woolgar to deconstruct the opposition between the social and the technical, namely the introduction of the anthropologist observer as part of the narrative. The chapter demonstrates that this attempt deconstructs itself by creating an epistemological residue, that is, an invisible omniscient narrator that observes both the scientists and the observer, a gaze that resists any act of reification. By reifying the observer, Latour and Woolgar fail to account for the epistemological residue in the interval between the observer (which is part of the narrative) and the narrator observing the observer. Finally, the chapter shows that Latour and Woolgar operate with two conflicting notions of inscription that partly undermine their own argument of the social as part of the technical.

• Askheim, Clemet; Engebretsen, Eivind & Haldar, Marit (2024). Living happily alone in Plato's cave? on loneliness, technology and the metaphysics of presence. Medical Humanities. ISSN 1468-215X. doi: 10.1136/medhum-2024-012965. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  In a lot of research on loneliness and technology, there is an underlying premise that actual, physical presence is more real than ’virtual’ presence. This premise is rarely explicit, yet it implies a hierarchy of reality, where the ’here and now’ is always on top. In this theoretical paper, we examine this latent hierarchy and the understandings of presence and mediation it implies. We point towards potential consequences of this understanding for research on the role of technology in reducing loneliness and social isolation. To do this, we draw on the philosophical analysis made by Martin Heidegger and Jacques Derrida of what they called ’the metaphysics of presence’. This is the tendency to privilege presence as the only immediate and truthful access to reality, whereas all forms of mediations constitute mere approximations, derivations and second-rate realities with dubious truth value. First, we present their diagnosis, and then we show how it pertains to research on virtual presence and loneliness by analysing some examples from this research. Finally, we discuss some potential implications of the metaphysics of presence through a case story compiled from our empirical research. Our foundational assertion is that the question of whether anyone experiences loneliness is an empirical and not a metaphysical question. If we want to properly understand loneliness and the potential for alleviating it through the use of teletechnologies, we might get off on the wrong foot if we carry with us assumptions suggesting the existence of ascending levels of reality and presence.

• Engebretsen, Eivind (2024). La preuve de proximité en temps de pandémie. In Goulet, Sarah Anaîs Crevier; Santos, Beatrice; Mock, Keren & Rabain, Nicolas (Ed.), Julia Kristeva : Révolte et reliance. Editions Hermann. ISSN 9791037022820. p. 121–127. Full text in Research Archive
• Engebretsen, Eivind & Greenhalgh, Trisha (2024). Why are the Sustainable Development Goals failing? Overcoming the paradox of unimplementability. The Lancet Global Health. ISSN 2572-116X. 12(7), p. e1084–e1085. doi: 10.1016/S2214-109X(24)00179-7. Full text in Research Archive
• Vallin, Michaela; Tomson, Göran; Kampmann, Beate; Engebretsen, Eivind; Peterson, Stefan Swartling & Wanyenze, Rhoda K. [Show all 7 contributors for this article] (2024). Life Science 2.0: reframing the life science sector for ‘the benefit on mankind’. Global health action. ISSN 1654-9716. 17(1). doi: 10.1080/16549716.2024.2330758. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The COVID-19 pandemic put the life science sector to the test. Vaccines were developed at unprecedented speed, benefiting from decades of fundamental research and now honoured by a Nobel Prize. However, we saw that the fruits of science were inequitably distributed. Most low- and middle-income countries were left behind, deepening the inequalities that the Sustainable Development Goals were set to reduce. We argue that the life science sector must reinvent itself to be better and more equitably prepared for the next health crisis and to ensure fair access to health across current and future generations. Our recommendations include global governance, national strategies and the role of universities and corporations. Improved and more equitable health care should be centre stage for global health action and a core mission of a reframed Life Science sector – what we call Life Science 2.0.

• Grønneberg, Siv Vea; Engebretsen, Eivind & Løkkeberg, Stine Eileen Torp (2024). Storylines and Positions Theory As a Tool to Identify How Young People Conceptualise Their Positions of Living with ADHD. International Journal of Disability, Development and Education. ISSN 1034-912X. doi: 10.1080/1034912X.2024.2361272. Full text in Research Archive
• Askheim, Clemet; Engebretsen, Eivind & Ødemark, John (2023). CARE AS INTERTEXTUALITY—FROM HUMAN CONDITION TO HOLISTIC DEVICE. Theory Now: Journal of Literature, Critique and Thought. ISSN 2605-2822. 6(1), p. 34–58. doi: 10.30827/tn.v6i1.26280. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Since the Roman mythographer Hyginus composed the fable of Cura in the second century AD, it has been cited and reemployed in literary and philosophical texts by authors like Augustin, Herder, Goethe, Heidegger, Blumenberg and Kristeva. These authors all use the tale about the ambiguous figure of Cura (Care) to reflect upon the fundamentals of the human condition. Later, aspects of these philosophies have been translated into the medical humanities, but often in an ontologically “purified” form, stripping Cura of her ontological ambiguity and more troubling traits such as sorrow, anxiety or dependency. This purification turns care into something easily digestible, fit to “sweeten the pill” of curative medical interventions that can be painful and accompanied by suffering. The ontological, epistemological, and cultural dualisms marking modern medicine are reproduced instead of being problematized, while care is reduced to a soft, psychological, or cultural supplement to “hard” biomedical therapies. How can we restore the original ambiguity and richness of the concept of “care”, making it capable of troubling the current system of medical categories?  To address this question, we will use Kristeva’s notion of intertextuality to explore the inscription and reductionist use of Cura in philosophy and the medical humanities.

• Greenhalgh, Trisha; Engebretsen, Eivind; Bal, Roland & Kjellström, Sofia (2023). Toward a Values-Informed Approach to Complexity in Health Care: Hermeneutic Review. Milbank Quarterly. ISSN 0887-378X. doi: 10.1111/1468-0009.12656. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  More than 20 years ago, a series of articles in the British Medical Journal introduced a novel approach to innovation and change, referred to as “complexity thinking” or “complexity theory,” which emphasized the dynamic and unpredictable nature of health care systems.1-4 That series, along with other conceptual papers published at the time,5-7 have been widely cited and informed policies, programs, and research studies around the world. However, these early articles, which depicted complexity in broadly mathematical terms, missed—or, at best, failed sufficiently to emphasize—a key aspect of complexity in health care systems: human values. In this review paper, we explore the crucial contribution of human values to complex interaction and change. In the form of “simple rules,” we offer some preliminary recommendations for a more contemporary and values-informed approach to complexity in health care. We invite a new generation of research to extend the existing evidence base.

• Sadler, Neil; Baker, Mona & Engebretsen, Eivind (2023). Translation and the political: antagonism and hegemony. Translation Studies. ISSN 1478-1700. doi: 10.1080/14781700.2023.2186944. Full text in Research Archive
• Leirbakk, Maria Jensberg; Engebretsen, Eivind; Dolvik, Stina; Bratli, Elisabeth; Wiborg, Kersti & Magnus, Jeanette H. (2023). Changing praxis from within - an in-depth qualitative exploration of how home visits affected statutory service at a Child Health Clinic. Journal of Pediatric Nursing : Nursing Care of Children and Families. ISSN 0882-5963. doi: 10.1016/j.pedn.2023.06.001. Full text in Research Archive
• Engebretsen, Eivind & Baker, Mona (2023). Health Preparedness and Narrative Rationality: A Call for Narrative Preparedness. International Journal of Health Policy and Management. 12(1). doi: 10.34172/ijhpm.2023.7532. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This conceptual paper argues the need for narrative preparedness, understood as the ability to engage and empathize with peoples’ stories and the values they encode, assess them based on the universe in which people live, and acknowledge the narrative rationality of each story – even when it conflicts with the rationality of science. Expanding ‘health preparedness’ to encompass ‘narrative preparedness’ complements the ideals of patient centeredness, which are sometimes betrayed when implemented into concrete decisions because the rationality of science that underpins medical practice fails to make sense of patients’ stories. We outline the central tenets of narrative preparedness and demonstrate its relevance by discussing various responses to mainstream discourses on COVID-19 as a case in point. We discuss and further develop Fisher’s narrative paradigm, which provides a model that complements traditional, scientific rationality with attention to narrative rationality and a radical democratic ground for health political critique. Applying the narrative paradigm to authentic examples of vaccine hesitancy and anti-vaccination demonstrates how closer attention to the way narratives are assessed by different constituencies might help us mitigate some of the sources of resistance and misunderstanding that continue to plague public communication about important medical issues such as pandemics. Health authorities must acknowledge and engage with the stories people believe in and their reasons for doing so. The crucial question for the success of health policy interventions is not only ‘what are the facts’ but ‘how do these facts make sense to people, and why’. To be prepared for the next pandemic, health professionals must learn to engage with people’s stories and the processes by which they come to be understood and assessed differently by various constituencies.

• Grønneberg, Siv Vea; Engebretsen, Eivind & Løkkeberg, Stine Eileen Torp (2023). When ADHD knocks on the door–discourse theory as a frame to explore subject positions and mental wellbeing before diagnosis. International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-being. ISSN 1748-2623. 18(1), p. 1–13. doi: 10.1080/17482631.2023.2209964. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Purpose: Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is currently the most prevalent childhood psychiatric diagnosis. This article reports how 10 young adults in Norway posi-tioned themselves before they were diagnosed with ADHD either during early childhood or adolescence. A central theme is how these subject-positions relate to societal norms and mental well-being.Method: Individual interviews were conducted, and the transcriptions of the interviews were analysed according to discourse theory.Result: Six central subject positions were identified which in turn related to two major positions: 1) failure with schoolwork and 2) struggle in social interaction. The findings indicated specific emotional and environmental needs and that individuals were confronted with societal norms related to the criteria for ADHD prior to and regardless of whether one had received a formal diagnosis.Conclusion: We argue that analysing subject positions provides important knowledge regarding ADHD that is useful for individuals, parents, teachers, practitioners, policymakers, and helping professionals in the field of mental health and education when it comes to interventions that support children who possess different temperaments

• Grønneberg, Siv Vea; Engebretsen, Eivind & Løkkeberg, Stine Eileen Torp (2023). Stories of Hope: Young People’s Personal Narratives About ADHD Put Into Context of Positive Aspects. Qualitative Health Research. ISSN 1049-7323. 34(1-2), p. 48–60. doi: 10.1177/10497323231206936. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  There is a growing acceptance that ADHD is a multi-dimensional disorder in which not all symptoms are associated with deficits or functional impairments. This article contributes to research on the positive aspects of the diagnosis, specifically understanding the positive aspects of living with ADHD. The empirical data was based on individual interviews and self-narratives of 10 young adults with ADHD. Narrative analysis was implemented when investigating their stories. The findings showed that challenges with the diagnosis were not necessarily stably occupied, and for some, the diagnosis was thought of as a benefit and something they would not have been without. Four stories highlighted particularly the context of positive aspects: (1) insight and strategies, (2) targeted efforts, (3) balanced energy, and (4) social skills. These aspects were correlated to both the individual’s strengths as well as the strengths and support that could be related to their societal and cultural environment.

• Wahl, Astrid Klopstad; Andersen, Marit Helen; Ødemark, John; Reisæter, Anna Varberg; Urstad, Kristin Hjorthaug & Engebretsen, Eivind (2022). The importance of shared meaning-making for sustainable knowledge translation and health literacy. Journal of Evaluation In Clinical Practice. ISSN 1356-1294. 28(5). doi: 10.1111/jep.13690. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The aim of the present paper is to describe and discuss how recent theories about translation, bridging medical and humanistic understandings of knowledge translation, in the medical humanities can bring about a new understanding of health literacy in the context of patient education. We argue that knowledge translation must be understood as active engagement with contextual meaning, considering the understandings, interpretation, and expertise of both patient and health care provider (deconstruction of the distinction between biomedical and cultural knowledge). To illustrate our points, we will describe the case of Jim, a kidney transplant recipient who received standard patient education but lost the graft (the new kidney). If we apply Kristeva's view to this context, graft function is not merely biology but a complex biocultural fact. In this perspective, graft function is seen as a phenomenon that embraces translation between health as a biomedical phenomenon and healing as lived experience, and that opens for shared meaning-making processes between the patient and the health care provider. In Jim's case, this means that we need to rethink the approach to patient education in a way that encourages the patient's idiosyncratic way of thinking and experiencing, and to transform health information into a means for sustaining Jim's singular life – not biological life “in general.” The patient education programme did not take into consideration the singularities of Jim's biographical temporality, with its changes in everyday life, priorities, attitudes, and values. Hence, we claim that health literacy should involve a simultaneous interrogation of the patients and the health professional's constructions of knowledge.

• Ødemark, John & Engebretsen, Eivind (2022). Challenging medical knowledge translation: convergence and divergence of translation across epistemic and cultural boundaries. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications. 9(71). doi: 10.1057/s41599-022-01088-6. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  In this article, and the topical collection accompanying it, we aim to challenge socalled knowledge translation (hereinafter KT) in medicine and healthcare. The abbreviation ‘KT’ refers to a variety of scientific practices and research activities, bound together by the common goal of ‘bridging the gap’ between science in laboratories and clinical application, and, more generally, putting research-based knowledge into policy and practical care. Our objective, then, is to challenge KT by working through and with the convergence and divergences between different translational epistemologies. As KT has had a massive impact on practical healthcare, global health, and knowledge policy, as well as governance relating to sustainability, a critical examination of KT is of huge academic and societal significance. The point of departure for the contributors to this collection is the observation that KT is based upon a reductive understanding of translation and knowledge transmission. Standard models of KT take translation and knowledge transmission as a phenomenon for granted, and accordingly downplay the complexity of translation as an entangled material, textual and cultural process, which inevitably affects the ‘original scientific message’. By contrasting KT with historical, cultural, and epistemic differences from its scientific ‘prehistory’, and by analysing it with reference to broader humanistic and material views of translation, we aim to develop concepts of medical translation that can cope with contemporary epistemic and cultural differences.

• Borge, Christine Råheim; Larsen, Marie Hamilton; Osborne, Richard H; Engebretsen, Eivind; Andersen, Marit Helen & Holter, Ingrid Asbjørnsen [Show all 7 contributors for this article] (2022). How to co-design a health literacy-informed intervention based on a needs assessment study in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. BMJ Open. 12(10). doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2022-063022. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Objective To develop a co-designed health literacy (HL)-informed intervention for people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) that enables them to find, understand, remember, use and communicate the health information needed to promote and maintain good health. Design This study used a co-design approach informed by the programme logic of the Ophelia (Optimising Health Literacy and Access) process. The co-design included workshops where possible solutions for an HL-informed intervention were discussed based on an HL needs assessment study. Settings Five workshops were performed in a local community setting in the specialist and municipality healthcare services in Oslo, Norway. Participants People with COPD, multidisciplinary healthcare professionals (HCPs) from the municipality and specialist healthcare services, and researchers (n=19) participated in the workshops. The co-designed HL-informed intervention was based on seven focus groups with people with COPD (n=14) and HCPs (n=21), and a cross-sectional study of people with COPD using the Health Literacy Questionnaire (n=69). Results The workshop co-design process identified 45 action points and 51 description points for possible intervention solutions to meet the HL needs of people with COPD. The final recommendation for an HL-informed intervention focused on tailored follow-up after hospitalisation, which uses motivational interviewing techniques, is based on the individual’s HL, self-management and quality of life needs and is implemented in cooperation with HCPs in both the specialist and municipality healthcare services. Conclusion During the codesign process, the workshop group generated several ideas for how to help patients find, understand, remember, use and communicate health information in order to promote and maintain good health. People with COPD need tailored follow-up based on their individual HL needs by HCPs that have knowledge of COPD and are able to motivate them for self-management tasks and help them to improve their quality of life (QOL) and decrease hospitalisation. Data availability statement No data are available. Norwegian regional ethical guidelines do not give permission to share data from research if they are not anonymous.

• Arnaldi, Marta; Arnaldi, Marta; Engebretsen, Eivind & Forsdick, Charles (2022). Translating COVID-19: From Contagion to Containment. Journal of Medical Humanities. ISSN 1041-3545. 43(3), p. 387–404. doi: 10.1007/s10912-022-09742-5. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This article tests the hypothesis that all pandemics are inherently translational. We argue that translation and translation theory can be fruitfully used to understand and manage epidemics, as they help us explore concepts of infectivity and immunity in terms of cultural and biological resistance. After examining the linkage between translation and coronavirus disease from three different yet interlinked perspectives—cultural, medical, and biocultural—we make a case for a translational medical humanities framework for tackling the multifactorial crisis brought about by the SARS-CoV-2 infection. This innovative entanglement of perspectives has the merit of carving out a new space for translation research at the intersection of the sciences and the humanities, providing sustainable ways to conceptualize the production of science at times of crisis, and challenging conventional views of translation as a primarily linguistic and cultural phenomenon that traditionally does not engage with science.

• Ahlsen, Birgitte; Mengshoel, Anne Marit & Engebretsen, Eivind (2022). Legitimacy in clinical practice: How patients with chronic muscle pain position themselves in the physiotherapy encounter. Journal of Evaluation In Clinical Practice. ISSN 1356-1294. p. 1–8. doi: 10.1111/jep.13768. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Rationale, Aims & Objective Patients who seek healthcare for long-lasting pain and symptoms without a detectable disease must put in extra work to be taken seriously and gain recognition as a patient. However, little is known about how patients' help-seeking is performed in clinical practice. The aim of the current study was to gain knowledge about the ways in which patients with chronic muscle pain position themselves as help-seekers during their first physiotherapy encounter. Method The material consisted of observation of 10 therapist-patient clinical interviews in primary care clinics and was analyzed using perspectives from discourse theory and the concept of positioning. Results The study highlights how the patients positioned themselves in continually shift between two discourses: that of disease (considering the patient as an object under study) and that of illness (positioning the patient as an active and participating but also troubled individual). This shifting of position was negotiated in interaction with the therapist: patients' opportunities to position themselves within the discourse of illness were limited by therapists' focus on facts and causal relationships within the discourse of disease. Conclusion Patients with chronic muscle pain seek to establish their legitimacy through the positivistic discourse of medicine and also through their compliance with the moral discourse of the patient as someone active, willing to take responsibility for their own health—and therefore worthy of treatment.

• Sandset, Tony Joakim Ananiassen & Engebretsen, Eivind (2022). Sustainable Healthcare Education as a Practice of Governmentality? Sustainability. 14(22). doi: 10.3390/su142215416. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Sustainability as a concept is found across a multitude of sectors in today’s society. This ‘sustainability turn’ as we might call it, has made its entry into educational paradigms such as ‘education for sustainable development’. The healthcare sector has embraced the notion of sustainability primarily by emphasizing how climate change impacts human health. Epitomized in the new paradigm of sustainable healthcare education (SHE), or education for sustainable healthcare (ESH), the sustainability turn has arrived with full force within medical education. This article will argue that sustainable healthcare education may be analyzed as a governmental practice. We ask: by what governmental techniques does one seek to create sustainable health subjects, i.e., self-leading future doctors? On the one hand, sustainability is a call for global engagement that goes beyond the health of the singular patients within the paradigm of SHE. On the other hand, it can risk producing individual doctors and students that are responsibilized in the name of sustainability to take on ever-increasing tasks to foster human and planetary health. In this way, we argue that the SHE paradigm might risk transferring responsibility from the state to the individual to achieve ‘sustainable health’. Keywords: sustainability; Foucault; governmentality; healthcare education; higher education

• Greenhalgh, Trisha & Engebretsen, Eivind (2022). The science-policy relationship in times of crisis: An urgent call for a pragmatist turn. Social Science and Medicine. ISSN 0277-9536. 306. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.115140. Full text in Research Archive
• Berg, Henrik; Askheim, Clemet; Heggen, Kristin; Sandset, Tony Joakim Ananiassen & Engebretsen, Eivind (2022). From evidence-based to sustainable healthcare: Cochrane revisited. Journal of Evaluation In Clinical Practice. ISSN 1356-1294. 28(5), p. 741–744. doi: 10.1111/jep.13698. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Evidence-based healthcare is the prevailing model for healthcare services. In Cochrane's seminal thinking, political context was included with the purpose of promoting healthcare equity. However, the subsequent evidence-based healthcare models marginalized political context. In this paper, we argue that current models of evidence-based healthcare fail to respond to emerging healthcare challenges. We claim that reintegration of political context is crucial to make healthcare sustainable. Global communities are anticipating ecological crises with immense repercussions for healthcare. This prospect illustrates that healthcare models failing to integrate political context also risk neglecting some of the most relevant healthcare issues of our time.

• Borge, Christine Råheim; Larsen, Marie Hamilton; Osborne, Richard H; Engebretsen, Eivind; Andersen, Marit Helen & Holter, Ingrid Asbjørnsen [Show all 8 contributors for this article] (2021). Exploring patients’ and health professionals’ perspectives on health literacy needs in the context of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Chronic Illness. ISSN 1742-3953. doi: 10.1177/1742395321999441. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Objective Persons with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) require complex follow-up by healthcare professionals (HCPs) and may experience several health literacy (HL) needs. This study aimed to explore such needs in people with COPD and the HCPs who care for them. Methods From October 2016 to August 2017 a qualitative study with four focus groups (FG) were performed in people with COPD (n = 14) and three in multidisciplinary HCPs (n = 21). An inductive thematic analysis was used to investigate HL needs. Results Four HL needs emerged: 1) strengthening the feeling of security; 2) combating the burden of insufficient knowledge on COPD and lack of informational flow; 3) supporting motivation for endurance and self-management; and 4) strengthening dignity. Discussion This study highlights a gap between people with COPD who express important HL needs and HCPs’ capabilities to care for these needs. For HCPs to increase HL in such cases, HCPs need to improve their own HL. It is essential to find solutions on how to improve HL in HCPs who care for people with COPD and to increase the availability of interventions that increase HL in COPD. Education programs, health organizations, and governments should be aware of HL needs in such situations.

• Otterlei, Marte Tonning & Engebretsen, Eivind (2021). Parents at war: A positioning analysis of how parents negotiate their loss after experiencing child removal by the state. Qualitative Social Work. ISSN 1473-3250. 21 (4), p. 765–782. doi: 10.1177/14733250211048546. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This study explores how parents involved in care order processes in Norway perceive being positioned by Child Welfare Services (CWS) in this process, how they negotiate these positions and whether their loss is perceived as legitimate or illegitimate in the face of societal expectations of parenthood. The data consist of qualitative interviews with 13 parents who have experienced child removals initiated by CWS. Drawing on positioning theory, the article provides an analysis of parental experiences of being positioned by CWS and investigates how cultural notions may affect their perceptions. The analysis showed that parents experienced being at war against a highly powerful CWS, which they felt dehumanised them and positioned them as failing. Moreover, parents challenged such positions by introducing alternative explanations that presented themselves as victims. However, the analysis also showed that parents would adopt positions of becoming their own judge and internalising the stigma. Parents experienced disenfranchisement of their grief due to the perception of their loss as illegitimate. Nonetheless, several parents launched a position of becoming a renewed parental figure by turning their prior parental failure into a storyline of growth and prosperity. The article concludes that parents, through language, challenge stigmatising positions to negotiate parental failure, which could be interpreted as valuation work of their identities and parenthood.

• Urstad, Kristin Hjorthaug; Wahl, Astrid Klopstad; Moum, Torbjørn Åge; Engebretsen, Eivind & Andersen, Marit Helen (2021). Renal recipients’ knowledge and self efficacy during first year after implementing an evidence based educational intervention as routine care at the transplantation clinic. BMC Nephrology. 22. doi: 10.1186/s12882-021-02468-x. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Background Following an implementation plan based on dynamic dialogue between researchers and clinicians, this study implemented an evidence-based patient education program (tested in an RCT) into routine care at a clinical transplant center. The aim of this study was to investigate renal recipients’ knowledge and self-efficacy during first year the after the intervention was provided in an everyday life setting. Methods The study has a longitudinal design. The sample consisted of 196 renal recipients. Measurement points were 5 days (baseline), 2 months (T1), 6 months (T2), and one-year post transplantation (T3). Outcome measures were post-transplant knowledge, self-efficacy, and self-perceived general health. Results No statistically significant changes were found from baseline to T1, T2, and T3. Participants’ levels of knowledge and self-efficacy were high prior to the education program and did not change throughout the first year post transplantation. Conclusion Renal recipients self-efficacy and insight in post-transplant aspects seem to be more robust when admitted to the hospital for transplantation compared to baseline observations in the RCT study. This may explain why the implemented educational intervention did not lead to the same positive increase in outcome measures as in the RCT. This study supports that replicating clinical interventions in real-life settings may provide different results compared to results from RCT’s. In order to gain a complete picture of the impacts of an implemented intervention, it is vital also to evaluate results after implementing findings from RCT-studies into everyday practice.

• Buts, Jan; Baker, Mona; Luz, Saturnino & Engebretsen, Eivind (2021). Epistemologies of evidence‑based medicine: a plea for corpus‑based conceptual research in the medical humanities. Medicine, Health care and Philosophy. ISSN 1386-7423. doi: 10.1007/s11019-021-10027-2. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Evidence-based medicine has been the subject of much controversy within and outside the field of medicine, with its detractors characterizing it as reductionist and authoritarian, and its proponents rejecting such characterization as a caricature of the actual practice. At the heart of this controversy is a complex linguistic and social process that cannot be illuminated by appealing to the semantics of the modifier evidence-based. The complexity lies in the nature of evidence as a basic concept that circulates in both expert and non-expert spheres of communication, supports different interpretations in different contexts, and is inherently open to contestation. We outline a new methodology that combines a social epistemological perspective with advanced methods of corpus linguistics and elements of conceptual history to investigate this and other basic concepts that underpin the practice and ethos of modern medicine. The potential of this methodology to offer new insights into controversies such as those surrounding EBM is demonstrated through a case study of the various meanings supported by evidence and based, as attested in a large electronic corpus of online material written by non-experts as well as a variety of experts in different fields, including medicine.

• Andersen, Marit Helen; Urstad, Kristin Hjorthaug; Larsen, Marie Hamilton; Henrichsen, Gina Fraas; Engebretsen, Eivind & Ødemark, John [Show all 10 contributors for this article] (2021). Intervening on health literacy by knowledge translation processes in kidney transplantation: A feasibility study. Journal of Renal Care. ISSN 1755-6678. p. 1–9. doi: 10.1111/jorc.12379. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Background Patients awaiting kidney transplantation need to be prepared ahead of the upcoming transplantation by developing targeted pre- and post-transplant knowledge. On this background, we designed a new health literacy intervention, including a film and a counselling session, based on motivational interviewing for dialysis patients provided by dialysis nurses. Aim To explore patients' and nurses' experiences of the feasibility and acceptability of the intervention, focusing on the patient as a prepared knowledge actor. Design An explorative qualitative study. Participants and Methods Data included in-depth interviews with nine patients and three nurses who participated in the intervention. The interviews were audiotaped and analysed following Kvale and Brinkmann's method for thematic data analysis. Findings Three main themes were identified: a different kind of health intervention stimulating new insight; a challenging kind of health conversation and changed relationships and increased security. Conclusions Both the patients and the nurses had an overall positive attitude toward the intervention, providing a kind of dialogue to prepare dialysis patients going through kidney transplantation. The nurses found the MI methodology to be challenging. When introducing a comprehensive communication method like MI, potential training and supervision needs for the nurses must be addressed.

• Sandset, Tony Joakim Ananiassen; Villadsen, Kaspar; Heggen, Kristin & Engebretsen, Eivind (2021). Discipline for pleasure: a new governmentality of HIV prevention. BioSocieties. ISSN 1745-8552. doi: 10.1057/s41292-021-00257-1. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This article explores recent HIV prevention campaigns for pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), focusing on how they integrate pleasure and desire in their calls for self-discipline through a continual use of pharmaceuticals. This emerging type of health promotion, here represented by ads promoting the preventive use of pharmaceuticals, no longer simply approaches target groups with demands to abstain from harmful substances or practices and thus control risks, but also includes messages that recognize individuals’ habits, values, and their desires for pleasure. Drawing on Foucault’s work concerning discipline and security, we suggest that a novel, permissive discipline is emerging in contemporary HIV prevention. Further guided by Barthes’s theory of images, we analyse posters used in prevention campaigns, scrutinizing their culture-specific imagery and linguistic messages, i.e. how the words and images interact. We conclude that these campaigns introduce a new temporality of prevention, one centred on pleasure through the pre-emption and planning that PrEP enables.

• Wieringa, Sietse; Engebretsen, Eivind; Heggen, Kristin & Greenhalgh, Trisha (2021). Clinical guidelines and the pursuit of reducing epistemic uncertainty. An ethnographic study of guideline development panels in three countries. Social Science and Medicine. ISSN 0277-9536. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.113702. Full text in Research Archive
• Buts, Jan; Baker, Mona; Luz, Saturnino & Engebretsen, Eivind (2021). Epistemologies of evidence-based medicine: a plea for corpus-based conceptual research in the medical humanities. Medicine, Health care and Philosophy. ISSN 1386-7423. doi: 10.1007/s11019-021-10027-2. Full text in Research Archive
• Engebretsen, Eivind; Wahlberg, Anna & Ottersen, Ole Petter (2021). Counter Innovations: The Responsibility of Universities to Act on the SDGs. In Brink, Chris (Eds.), The Responsive University and the Crisis in South Africa. De Gruyter Brill. ISSN 9789004465619. p. 106–119. doi: 10.1163/9789004465619_006. Full text in Research Archive
• Ødemark, John; Henrichsen, Gina Fraas & Engebretsen, Eivind (2021). Knowledge Translation. In Sebnem, Susan & Spišiaková, Eva (Ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Translation and Health. Routledge. ISSN 9781138335349. Full text in Research Archive
• Engebretsen, Eivind & Ottersen, Ole Petter (2021). Vaccine Inequities, Intellectual Property Rights and Pathologies of Power in the Global Response to COVID-19. International Journal of Health Policy and Management. 11(11), p. 2773–2775. doi: 10.34172/ijhpm.2021.57. Full text in Research Archive
• Vandeskog, Hilde Ousland; Heggen, Kristin & Engebretsen, Eivind (2021). Gendered vulnerabilities and the blind spots of the 2030 Agenda’s ‘leave no one behind’ pledge. Critical Policy Studies. ISSN 1946-0171. 16(4), p. 424–440. doi: 10.1080/19460171.2021.2014342. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Agenda 2030 with the Sustainable Development Goals makes the transformative pledge to ‘leave no one behind.’ This paper asks how Agenda 2030 bring certain gendered vulnerabilities to light and make others invisible, and how this affects that transformative pledge. Through a close reading supported by Chantal Mouffe and Ernesto Laclau’s discourse theory we explore the concept of gender in Agenda 2030 and how it captures gendered vulnerabilities. For contrast, we analyzed a statement by Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity and Expression (SOGIE) activists.

• Løvgren, André; Røssberg, Jan Ivar; Engebretsen, Eivind & Ulberg, Randi (2020). Improvement in Psychodynamic Psychotherapy for Depression: A Qualitative Study of the Patients’ Perspective. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (IJERPH). ISSN 1661-7827. 17(18). doi: 10.3390/ijerph17186843. Full text in Research Archive
• Engebretsen, Eivind & Gladhaug, Ivar Prydz (2020). Er det plass til et sykepleievitenskapelig fagmiljø på et medisinsk fakultet? Tidsskrift for Den norske legeforening (Tidsskriftet). ISSN 0029-2001. 140(9), p. 1–3. doi: 10.4045/tidsskr.20.0311. Full text in Research Archive
• Lillehagen, Ida; Heggen, Kristin; Tomson, Göran & Engebretsen, Eivind (2020). Implementing the UN Sustainable Development Goals: How Is Health Framed in the Norwegian and Swedish Voluntary National Review Reports? International Journal of Health Policy and Management. doi: 10.34172/ijhpm.2020.221. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Background The United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are parts of an ambitious framework for global development, the 2030 Agenda. Voluntary national reviews (VNRs) are described as “cornerstones” in the follow-up system, which is premised on international sharing of knowledge and experience. Norway and Sweden are among the world’s most sustainable countries, aiming to be leaders in the implementation of the SDGs. The objective of this article is to investigate and compare how health is framed in the VNRs of these two high-income countries, and to discuss the implications of these framings for potential actions. Methods Discourse analysis inspired by the concept of ‘framing,’ which refers to the discursive presentation of an issue where certain problem definitions and solutions are privileged over others. Frames are structures that organise and direct attention to particular aspects of reality, and define what is seen. Results Our analysis demonstrates that in the Norwegian VNR (NVNR), the issue of health is simplistically framed, focusing on the favourable situation of the majority, thus providing weak grounds for transformative action. In the Swedish VNR (SVNR), health is framed to highlight health as inextricably tied to societal inequalities. This underscores the need for integrated political action and leadership to counteract structural differences with negative consequences for health. Conclusion Analysis of the two VNRs studied found a difference in how health is framed in these documents and these frames point to differences in approach and capacity to address health inequities and realise the holistic and integrative concept of health promoted in the 2030 Agenda. To realize the Agenda’s vision of “leaving no one behind” discourses of implementation that support the Agenda’s inclusive and holistic ambition must be developed. Further development of the follow-up and review system should acknowledge and address how frames can limit or enable integrative actions and are therefore important drivers of change.

• Bondevik, Hilde & Engebretsen, Eivind (2020). Kunnskapsbasert praksis og translasjon: Om kunnskapstyper og standardisering. In Jenssen, Dag; Kjørstad, Monica; Seim, Sissel & Tufte, Per Arne (Ed.), Vitenskapsteori for sosial- og helsefag. Gyldendal Akademisk. ISSN 9788205518377. p. 55–78. Full text in Research Archive
• Engebretsen, Eivind (2020). John Ødemark Professor. Ethnologia Scandinavica. A Journal for Nordic Ethnology. ISSN 0348-9698. Full text in Research Archive
• Haldar, Marit; Ødemark, John & Engebretsen, Eivind (2020). Helseprioriteringer i endring. Nytt Norsk Tidsskrift (NNT). ISSN 0800-336X. 37(3). doi: 10.18261/issn.1504-3053-2020-03-04. Full text in Research Archive
• Andersen, Marit Helen; Urstad, Kristin Hjorthaug; Larsen, Marie Hamilton; Engebretsen, Eivind; Ødemark, John & Eriksen, Anne [Show all 7 contributors for this article] (2020). Processes of knowing in the translation of a health communication intervention for dialysis patients awaiting kidney transplantation. Patient Education and Counseling. ISSN 0738-3991. 104(3), p. 1–7. doi: 10.1016/j.pec.2020.09.009. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Objective To strengthen patients’ health literacy and their role as active knowledge actors, we developed a health communication intervention including a film-viewing and counselling session for patients awaiting kidney transplantation. We aimed to explore processes of knowing in the translation of the intervention. Methods We applied an ethnographic research approach, observing nine intervention sessions with patients and dialysis nurses. Afterwards, the patients and the nurses were interviewed in-depth. Data were analysed using Engebretsen’s modified version of Lonergans’ four-step model of knowing. Results The following knowing processes were identified: i) Knowing as meaning-making; ii) Knowing as acquiring confidence; and iii) Accessing professionals’ and peer experts’ knowledge. Divergent considerations were taken by the different knowledge actors, which had a direct influence on the knowing processes and knowledge translation. Conclusions The findings support active interactions between patients and healthcare providers in processes of knowing. These include self-conscious approaches and critical questioning in both parties. Practice implications For transplant professionals, this study demonstrates knowing processes in a real-life context. It also spotlights professional skills and attitudes regarding the importance of self-conscious questioning and a critical interrogating position (for both patients and providers).

• Dahl, Kari Gire; Andersen, Marit Helen; Urstad, Kristin Hjorthaug; Falk, Ragnhild Sørum; Engebretsen, Eivind & Wahl, Astrid Klopstad (2020). Identifying Core Variables Associated With Health Literacy in Kidney Transplant Recipients. Progress in transplantation. ISSN 1526-9248. 30(1), p. 38–47. doi: 10.1177/1526924819893285. Full text in Research Archive
• Løvgren, André; Røssberg, Jan Ivar; Engebretsen, Eivind & Ulberg, Randi (2020). Multiple Mutuality. Positions and Storylines in Adolescent Psychodynamic Psychotherapy. Journal of Infant, Child, and Adolescent Psychotherapy (JICAP). ISSN 1528-9168. doi: 10.1080/15289168.2020.1771530. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  In the psychodynamic psychotherapy of adolescents, a mutual relationship is a central and often reoccurring theme. However, what this mutuality consists of and how adolescents experience this seems to have been the subject of scant investigation or conceptualization. Thus, the aim of the present study was to obtain a more comprehensive insight into mutuality by innovatively applying interdisciplinary positioning theory to the analysis of adolescents’ experiences of psychotherapy. Qualitative, post-treatment interviews with nine female adolescents receiving psychodynamic psychotherapy for depression in the Norwegian First Experimental Study of Transference Work – In Teenagers were conducted. Drawing on positioning theory, unique characteristics of mutuality with a focus on storylines and positions were identified within the patients’ descriptions of their therapy. Adolescents in psychodynamic psychotherapy experience multifarious forms of mutuality and partake in the co-creation of shifting positions. They also constantly evaluate and negotiate what to say and disclose in therapy. These negotiations offer both desired and unattractive positions, dependent on each individual adolescent’s norms and moral perceptions. From the study, it was found that adolescents pass through different forms of mutuality. These are discussed, illuminating how the power of positions and storylines may be used by therapists to promote therapeutic, mutual relationships.

• Engebretsen, Eivind; Henrichsen, Gina Fraas & Ødemark, John (2020). Towards a translational medical humanities: introducing the cultural crossings of care. Medical Humanities. ISSN 1468-215X. doi: 10.1136/medhum-2019-011751. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  n this introductory essay, we will present a translational medical humanities approach where the humanities are not only an auxiliary to medical science and practice, but also an interdisciplinary space where both medicine and the humanities mutually challenge and inform each other. First, we explore how medicine’s attempt to tackle the nature–culture divide is emblematically expressed in the concept and practice of knowledge translation (hereinafter KT). Second, we compare and contrast KT as an epistemic ideology and a socio-medical practice, with concepts and practices of translation developed in the human sciences. In particular, we emphasise Derrida’s understanding of translation as inherent in all meaning making, as a fundamentally textual process and as a process necessarily creating difference rather than semantic equivalence. Finally, we analyse a case from clinical medicine showing how a more refined notion of translation can enlighten the interaction between biomedical and cultural factors. Such a translational medical humanities approach also requires a rethinking of the concept of evidence in medicine.

• Engebretsen, Eivind (2020). EVIDENCE-BASED MEDICINE AND THE IRREDUCIBLE SINGULARITY OF BEING—KRISTEVA’S CONTRIBUTION TO THE MEDICAL HUMANITIES. In Beardsworth, Sara G (Eds.), The Philosophy of Julia Kristeva: The Library of Living Philosophers, Volume 36. Open Court Publishing Company. ISSN 9780812694895. p. 659–675. Full text in Research Archive
• Steuernagel, Carolina Rau; Engebretsen, Eivind; Kristiansen, Hans Wiggo & Moen, Kåre (2019). Ethnography of texts: a literature review of health and female homosexuality in Brazil. Medical Humanities. ISSN 1468-215X. p. 1–10. doi: 10.1136/medhum-2018-011544. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This paper reviews the literature on health and female homosexuality in Brazil and, along the way, outlines an alternative approach to reviewing academic literature. Rather than summarising the contents of previously published papers, we relate to these publications primarily as partakers in the creation of knowledge. Inspired by Actor-Network Theory (ANT), we apply ethnographic methods to understand the papers as study participants endowed with action. We also draw on the notions of inscription and intertextuality to trace the complex relationship between the findings in the articles and the realities outside of them. We claim that ‘evidence’ is the product of translational processes in which original events, such as experiments, blood tests and interviews, are changed into textual entities. In addition, text production is seen as an absorption of everything else surrounding its creation. When events are turned into articles, the text incorporates the political environment to which original events once belonged. We thus observe a political text inscribed into the written evidence of sexually transmitted infections, and the practice of publishing about scientific vulnerabilities emerges as political action. In contrast with traditional ways of reviewing literature in medical scholarship, this article offers a reminder that although there is a connection between textual evidence and the reality outside publications, these dimensions are not neutrally interchangeable.

• Løvgren, André; Røssberg, Jan Ivar; Nilsen, Liv; Engebretsen, Eivind & Ulberg, Randi (2019). How do adolescents with depression experience improvement in psychodynamic psychotherapy? A qualitative study. BMC Psychiatry. 19. doi: 10.1186/s12888-019-2080-0. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Background There is emerging evidence for the effectiveness of psychodynamic psychotherapy for depressive disorders. However, we know less of how this relation-focused therapy mode is experienced and what the patients themselves identify as helpful. Hence, the purpose of this study is to explore adolescents’ experiences of factors promoting improvement in psychodynamic therapy. Methods Eight female patients participating in a Norwegian study on psychodynamic therapy, the First Experimental Study of Transference Work – In Teenagers (FEST-IT), were included. The participants were offered a total number of 28 sessions. Semi-structured qualitative interviews about experiences with therapy were then conducted and analysed with systematic text condensation and hermeneutic interpretation. Results The analysis revealed four main themes. ‘Exploring oneself’ comprises autonomy and acknowledgment, openness, insight and acceptance of oneself. ‘Therapist relation and characteristics’ includes confidence and trust in and support from the therapist as well as having a trustworthy and experienced therapist. ‘Focusing on everyday life’ includes learning and practical orientation. ‘Time factors’ refers to duration and frequency. Conclusions Together with a supportive and listening therapist, the adolescents improve by exploring themselves within the frames of a time-limited treatment period. Improvement seems to be experienced through better relations to oneself and to others and by finding one’s place in the family, or at school. Adolescents value problem solving and help with concrete challenges. Hence, therapy should be tailored to the needs of adolescents with depression and incorporate the challenges they face in their everyday life.

• Juritzen, Truls I; Engebretsen, Eivind & Solvang, Per Koren (2019). The enactment of multiple return-to-work bodies in labour and welfare administration: a qualitative study of compulsory stakeholder meetings. Nordic Social Work Research. ISSN 2156-857X. 11(1), p. 48–62. doi: 10.1080/2156857X.2019.1604407. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This article explores how caseworkers in a Scandinavian street-levellabour and welfare administration run their return-to-work program.Observations and interviews from compulsory meetings between thewelfare administration, the person on sick leave, the employer and thesick-listing GP are analysed. The analysis draws on the philosopherAnnemarie Mol’s theory of multiple bodily enactments and rendersvisible how the stakeholders enact different bodies and how thesebodies are negotiated and coordinated to make sure that they arehandling the same situation and condition. Four bodies are enacted inthe meetings: a suffering body, a diagnosed body, a working body andan active body. An in-depth analysis of selected cases demonstrates thenegotiations that take place between the individual, the workplace andthe health and welfare institutions based on their interests and under-standings. The analytical approach of this article is founded on Mol’stheoretical approach on multiple bodily enactment and the translation ofit from the hospital setting into the predominantly linguistic practices ofthe welfare administration. The aim is to broaden the understanding ofdialogical practices in this type of meeting and to expand the knowledgebase of professional work in return-to-work processes–processes whichare often confused by unclear roles and responsibilities.

• Haraldstad, Kristin; Wahl, Astrid Klopstad; Andenæs, Randi; Andersen, John Roger; Andersen, Marit Helen & Beisland, Elisabeth Grov [Show all 24 contributors for this article] (2019). A systematic review of quality of life research in medicine and health sciences. Quality of Life Research. ISSN 0962-9343. 28(10), p. 2641–2650. doi: 10.1007/s11136-019-02214-9. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Purpose Quality of life (QOL) is an important concept in the field of health and medicine. QOL is a complex concept that is interpreted and defined differently within and between disciplines, including the fields of health and medicine. The aims of this study were to systematically review the literature on QOL in medicine and health research and to describe the country of origin, target groups, instruments, design, and conceptual issues. Methods A systematic review was conducted to identify research studies on QOL and health-related quality of life (HRQOL). The databases Scopus, which includes Embase and MEDLINE, CINAHL, and PsycINFO were searched for articles published during one random week in November 2016. The ten predefined criteria of Gill and Feinstein were used to evaluate the conceptual and methodological rigor. Results QOL research is international and involves a variety of target groups, research designs, and QOL measures. According to the criteria of Gill and Feinstein, the results show that only 13% provided a definition of QOL, 6% distinguished QOL from HRQOL. The most frequently fulfilled criteria were: (i) stating the domains of QOL to be measured; (ii) giving a reason for choosing the instruments used; and (iii) aggregating the results from multiple items. Conclusion QOL is an important endpoint in medical and health research, and QOL research involves a variety of patient groups and different research designs. Based on the current evaluation of the methodological and conceptual clarity of QOL research, we conclude that the majority QOL studies in health and medicine have conceptual and methodological challenges

• Ahlsen, Birgitte; Engebretsen, Eivind; Nicholls, David & Mengshoel, Anne Marit (2019). The singular patient in patient-centred care: Physiotherapists' accounts of treatment of patients with chronic muscle pain. Medical Humanities. ISSN 1468-215X. p. 1–8. doi: 10.1136/medhum-2018-011603. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  A patient-centered approach has gained increasing interest in medicine and other health sciences. Whereas there are discussions about the meaning of a patientcentered approach and what the concept entails, little is known about how the patient as a person is understood in patient-centered care. This mticle investigates understandings of the patient as a self in patient-centered care through physiotherapy of patients with chronic muscle pain. The material consists of interviews with five Norwegian physiotherapists working in a rehabilitation clinic. Drawing on Kristeva's discussion of subjectivity in medical discourse, the study highlights two different treatment storylines that were closely entwined. One storyline focuses on open singular healing processes in which the treatment was based on openness to a search for meaning and sharing. In this storyline, the "person" at the center of care was not essentialized in terms of \ i biological mechanisms, but rather considered as a vulnerable, in-ational and moving self. By contrast, the second storyline focused on goal-oriented interventions aimed at restoring the patient to health. Here, the person in the center of the treatment was shaped according to model narratives about "the successful patient"; the empowered, rational, choosing and self-managing individual. As such, the findings revealed two conflicting concepts of the individual patient inherent in patientcentered care. On the one hand, the patient is seen as being a person in constant movement, and on the other, they are captured by more standardized te1ms designed to focus on more stable notion of outcome of illness. Therefore, our study suggests that the therapists' will to recognize the individual in patient-centered care had a counterpmt involving a marginalization of the singular.

• Dahl, Kari Gire; Engebretsen, Eivind; Andersen, Marit Helen; Urstad, Kristin Hjorthaug & Wahl, Astrid Klopstad (2019). The trigger-information-response model: Exploring health literacy during the first six months following a kidney transplantation. PLOS ONE. 14(10). doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0223533. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The main objective of this study was to explore how kidney transplant recipients find, understand, and use health information, and make decisions about their health—also known as health literacy. Kidney transplant recipients must take an active part in their health following the transplantation, since a new organ requires new medication and focus on lifestyle to prevent side-effects and signs of organ rejection. Consequently, it is of major clinical relevance to explore how kidney transplant recipients understand and relate to health literacy. Ten kidney transplant recipients were interviewed at three weeks and again at six months post-transplantation. Design and analysis were inspired by constructivist grounded theory. The results of the study are presented through a model consisting of three phases: the trigger phase, the information phase, and the response phase. The participants were influenced by context and personal factors as they moved between three phases, as information seekers, recipients, and sharers. This study illustrates health literacy as an active process. It gives new insight into what motivates kidney recipients to find, share, and receive information, and how a hierarchy of resources is built and used.

• Haldar, Marit; Ilstad, Janne Thu & Engebretsen, Eivind (2019). Hva er velferdstekster, og hvordan studere dem? In Aamodt, Hilde Anette; Dahl, Espen; Gubrium, Erika; Haldar, Marit & Hermansen, Åsmund (Ed.), Sosialt arbeid og sosialpolitikk i samhandling. Fagbokforlaget. ISSN 9788245023572. p. 144–160. Full text in Research Archive
• Andersen, Marit Helen; Wahl, Astrid Klopstad; Engebretsen, Eivind & Urstad, Kristin Hjorthaug (2019). Implementing a tailored education programme: renal transplant recipients’ experiences. Journal of Renal Care. ISSN 1755-6678. 45(2), p. 111–119. doi: 10.1111/jorc.12273. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Background Patient‐centred education is a key element in the care of patients undergoing kidney transplantation. We implemented a tailored, evidence‐based education programme for the post‐transplant phase. Objective The aim of the study was to explore renal transplant recipients’ experiences of participating in a new, tailored, evidence‐based education programme. Methods An explorative qualitative design was chosen to elicit knowledge, insight and understanding of the renal transplant recipients’ perspectives. Twelve renal transplant recipients participated in semi‐structured interviews about eight weeks post‐transplant. The interviews were audiotaped and analysed using thematic data analysis inspired by Kvale and Brinkmann's method for meaning condensation. Findings Two main themes emerged: ‘Situated tailoring to the person's everyday life knowledge’, and ‘Tailoring as a standard procedure regardless of the person’. Conclusion The findings of the present study indicate that the renal transplant recipients experienced the new education programme to be tailored to individual needs. Our study also revealed that the recipients experienced the health care personnel to take different considerations into account when educating. Viewing knowledge as continuously changing from controlled study contexts into clinical settings, we here demonstrate the need to evaluate new knowledge also after being implemented.

• Kristeva, Julia; Moro, Marie Rose; Ødemark, John & Engebretsen, Eivind (2019). The cultural crossings of care: A call for translational medical humanities. In Bleakley, Alan (Eds.), Routledge Handbook of the Medical Humanities. Routledge. ISSN 9781351241779. doi: 10.4324/9781351241779. Full text in Research Archive
• Urstad, Kristin Hjorthaug; Wahl, Astrid Klopstad; Engebretsen, Eivind; Larsen, Marie Hamilton; Vidnes, Tone Karine & Stenwig, Anne G K [Show all 10 contributors for this article] (2018). Implementation of a new patient education programme for renal transplant recipients. Journal of Renal Care. ISSN 1755-6678. 44(2), p. 106–114. doi: 10.1111/jorc.12236. Full text in Research Archive

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• Ødemark, John; Resløkken, Åmund Norum; Lillehagen, Ida & Engebretsen, Eivind (2024). The Sociology of Translation and the Politics of Sustainability, Explorations Across Cultures and Natures. Routledge. ISBN 9781003285038. 240 p. Full text in Research Archive
• Ødemark, John; Resløkken, Åmund Norum; Lillehagen, Ida & Engebretsen, Eivind (2024). The Sociology of Translation and the Politics of Sustainability Explorations Across Cultures and Natures. Routledge. ISBN 9781032257914. 240 p. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This book uses sustainability to explore the interfaces between translation studies, the cultural history of knowledge, and Science and Technology studies (STS). The volume examines various material, cultural and epistemic translation practices where sustainability serves as a boundary object between natural and cultural inquiry. By turning to the intellectual traditions that influenced but were left behind by STS and actor-network theory (ANT), we aim to challenge and expand the Sociology of Translation developed in ANT. Concepts such as ‘inscription’ (Derrida), ‘actant’, ‘narrative’ (Greimas), and ‘world/worlding’ (Heidegger, Spivak) were reemployed – translated – in the canonical STS-texts. What networks of meaning were left behind in this reemployment? The book showcases a combination of cultural and knowledge historical perspectives on the construction of the Sociology of Translation and practical experiments across the registers of nature and culture is novel. There have been brilliant individual attempts to realign the Sociology of Translation with narratives and modes of enunciation, but none has related the Sociology of Translation to the networks and traditions which enabled it but to which it erased its relations and debts.

• Engebretsen, Eivind; Umachandran, Priya; Ødemark, John & Greenhalgh, Trisha (2022). In what ways do cultural contexts influence the knowledge translation process for health decision-making and what are the implications for policy and practice? World Health Organization. Regional Office for Europe. ISBN 9789289058353. 61 p. Full text in Research Archive
• Engebretsen, Eivind & Baker, Mona (2022). Rethinking Evidence in the Time of Pandemics - Scientific vs Narrative Rationality and Medical Knowledge Practices. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781316516607. 108 p. doi: 10.1017/9781009030687. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This book interrogates the assumption that evidence means the same thing to different constituencies and in different contexts by outlining a more nuanced and socially responsive approach to medical expertise that incorporates scientific and lay processes of making sense of the world and deciding how to act in it. In so doing, it provides a point of orientation for clinicians working at the coalface, whose experience is sometimes at odds with the type of rationality that underpins evidence-based medicine and that guides researchers conducting randomized controlled trials. The argument elaborated also has implications for policy makers in the healthcare system, who have to navigate similar pressures and contradictions between scientific and lay rationality to produce meaningful guidelines in the midst of a runaway pandemic. Debates within and beyond the medical establishment on the efficacy of measures such as mandatory face masks and lockdowns are examined in detail, as are various degrees of hesitancy towards vaccines and other pharmaceutical interventions. The authors demonstrate that it is ultimately through narratives that knowledge about medical and other phenomena is communicated to others, enters the public space, and provokes discussion and disagreements. Importantly, effective narratives can enhance the reception of that knowledge and reduce some of the sources of resistance and misunderstanding that continue to plague public communication about important medical issues such as pandemics.

• Sandset, Tony Joakim; Engebretsen, Eivind & Heggen, Kristin (2020). Sustainable Sexual Health Analysing the Implementation of the SDGs. Routledge. ISBN 9780367179076. 134 p. Full text in Research Archive

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• Tubeuf, Sandy; Valdivia, Alejandro; Tavoschi, Lara; Empana, Jean-Philippe & Engebretsen, Eivind (2025). The responsibility of health: shifting the focus from individuals to systems. The Lancet Public Health. ISSN 2468-2667. 10(3), p. 170–170. doi: 10.1016/s2468-2667(25)00013-1. Full text in Research Archive
• Engebretsen, Eivind & Baker, Mona (2025). Narrative Preparedness; A Response to Recent Commentary. International Journal of Health Policy and Management. 14. doi: 10.34172/ijhpm.9001. Full text in Research Archive
• Karlsen, Tom Hemming; Rutter, Harald Roderick; Carrieri, Patrizia; Zelber-Sagi, Shira; Engebretsen, Eivind & Hutchinson, Sharon [Show all 16 contributors for this article] (2024). The EASL–Lancet Commission on liver health in Europe: prevention, case-finding, and early diagnosis to reduce liver-related mortality. The Lancet. ISSN 0140-6736. 403(10436). doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(24)00204-6. Full text in Research Archive
• Engebretsen, Eivind & Baker, Mona (2024). The Rhetoric of Decolonizing Global Health Fails to Address the Reality of Settler Colonialism: Gaza as a Case in Point. International Journal of Health Policy and Management. 13(1). doi: 10.34172/ijhpm.2024.8419. Full text in Research Archive
• Maric, Filip; Engebretsen, Eivind; Heggen, Kristin; Øilo, Marit & Bonnevie, Tora (2024). Samarbeid om bærekraft i helseutdanningene. 144(9). doi: 10.4045/tidsskr.24.0124. Full text in Research Archive
• Bakke, Jostein; Langford, Malcolm; Børrud, Elin; Cotner, Sehoya Harris; Engebretsen, Eivind & Graver, Fredrik (Georg Fredrik) [Show all 14 contributors for this article] (2023). Fremtidens høyere utdanning trenger en oppgradering - ikke budsjettkutt! Full text in Research Archive
• Otterlei, Marte Tonning & Engebretsen, Eivind (2023). Parents at war - Parents perceptions of care order proceedings in Norway. Full text in Research Archive
• Engebretsen, Eivind; Sørly, Rita; Lengle, Emma Joanna; Walsh, Tricia; Clark, Helen & Helm, Sarah [Show all 7 contributors for this article] (2023). Webinar - Minimising social and health harms from methamphetamine use in Norway and New Zealand. [Internet]. zoom seminar. Full text in Research Archive
• Engebretsen, Eivind; Sharma, Ritika; Sandset, Tony Joakim Ananiassen; Heggen, Kristin; Ottersen, Ole Petter & Clarke, Helen [Show all 7 contributors for this article] (2023). Teaching sustainable health care through the critical medical humanities. The Lancet. ISSN 0140-6736. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(23)00809-7. Full text in Research Archive
• Takian, Amirhossein; Mousavi, Arefeh; McKee, Martin; Yazdi-Feyzabadi, Vahid; Labonté, Ronald & Tangcharoensathien, Viroj [Show all 20 contributors for this article] (2022). COP27: The Prospects and Challenges for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). International Journal of Health Policy and Management. 11(12), p. 2776–2779. doi: 10.34172/ijhpm.2022.7800. Full text in Research Archive
• Johannessen, Lars E. F.; Engebretsen, Eivind; Hughes, Gemma Lucille; Köhler-Olsen, Julia; Rasmussen, Erik Børve & Haldar, Marit (2021). Protocol for ‘virtual presence’: a qualitative study of the cultural dialectic between loneliness and technology. BMJ Open. 11. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2020-047157. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Introduction: Most research on loneliness comes from the health sciences, statistically seeking to measure the health-related effects of feeling alone or isolated. There is a need to expand on this understanding and explore loneliness as a more complex social phenomenon. In this article, we present a qualitative design for studying the intersection between loneliness, technology and culture. Conceptualising this as the cultural dialectic between loneliness and technology, we aim to unpack the reciprocal ways by which understandings of loneliness shape technology, while technologies also affect society’s understandings of loneliness. In elucidating this dialectic, we aim to develop new knowledge and a novel theoretical framework for understanding loneliness and its technological solutions, which, in turn, can enable better solutions to contemporary problems of loneliness. Methods and analysis: We will adopt a qualitative approach that combines interviews, participant observation and textual analysis to explore loneliness and its technological solutions from the perspectives of policy-makers, producers, professionals and users in Norway and the UK. The data will be analysed through an analytical framework combining insights from discourse theory and philosophical debates on presence, which will allow us to capture and rethink fundamental assumptions about loneliness and technology. Outcomes will be revised understandings of loneliness, relevant to researchers, entrepreneurs, policy-makers, clinicians, educators and the broader public. Ethics and dissemination: The project has been evaluated and approved by the data protection officer at Oslo Metropolitan University and by the Norwegian Social Science Data Services. Additional ethical approval for data collection in the UK has been provided by the University of Oxford Interdivisional Research Ethics Committee. Informed consent will be obtained from all participants. Findings will be disseminated through peer-reviewed publications, international conference presentations and lay media.

• Engebretsen, Eivind & Gladhaug, Ivar Prydz (2020). Er det plass til et sykepleievitenskapelig fagmiljø på et medisinsk fakultet? Full text in Research Archive
• Gladhaug, Ivar Prydz & Engebretsen, Eivind (2020). Unyansert oppgjør med fortiden. Full text in Research Archive
• Aryeetey, Ernest; Engebretsen, Eivind; Gornitzka, Åse; Maassen, Peter & Stølen, Svein (2020). Vaccine inequities expose fault lines in North-South collaboration. University World News. Full text in Research Archive
• Ottersen, Ole Petter & Engebretsen, Eivind (2020). COVID-19 puts the Sustainable Development Goals center stage. Nature Medicine. ISSN 1078-8956. doi: 10.1038/s41591-020-1094-y. Full text in Research Archive
• Sandset, Tony Joakim & Engebretsen, Eivind (2020). En bærekraftig livspolitikk. Full text in Research Archive
• Sandset, Tony Joakim & Engebretsen, Eivind (2020). Skyter seg selv i foten. Dagbladet. ISSN 0805-3766. Full text in Research Archive
• Aryeetey, Ernest; Engebretsen, Eivind; Gornitzka, Åse; Maassen, Peter & Stølen, Svein (2020). A step backwards in the fight against global vaccine inequities. The Lancet. ISSN 0140-6736. 397(10268). doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)32596-4. Full text in Research Archive
• Sandset, Tony Joakim; Heggen, Kristin; Engebretsen, Eivind & Engebretsen, Eivind (2020). What we need is a sustainable politics of life. The Lancet. ISSN 0140-6736. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)31378-7. Full text in Research Archive
• Engebretsen, Eivind (2020). Act now, wait for perfect evidence later, says ‘high priestess’ of U.K. COVID-19 masking campaign. [Journal]. Science. Full text in Research Archive
• Heggen, Kristin; Sandset, Tony Joakim & Engebretsen, Eivind (2020). COVID-19 and sustainable development goals. Bulletin of the World Health Organization. ISSN 0042-9686. 98(10). doi: 10.2471/BLT.20.263533. Full text in Research Archive
• Engebretsen, Eivind (2018). Evidence-based medicine and the irreducible singularity of being - Julia Kristeva’s contribution to the medical humanities. Full text in Research Archive
• Engebretsen, Eivind & Ødemark, John (2018). Closing lecture. Full text in Research Archive
• Leirbakk, Maria Jensberg; Magnus, Jeanette H.; Torper, Johan & Engebretsen, Eivind (2025). Development of a salutogenic early intervention home visiting program integrated in public child health clinic service in a multiethnic population in Norway. Universitetet i Oslo. ISSN 9788234806520. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This dissertation is in the field of public health, specifically early childhood health promotion, and involves developing a salutogenic early-intervention home visit program integrated within public Child Health Clinic (CHC) services. It addresses three main issues: (1) the feasibility of implementing a universal, non-stigmatizing home visiting program within existing CHC structures; (2) the key elements of program praxis required for effective delivery by public health nurses (PHNs); and (3) the program’s acceptability to first-time parents. Qualitative methods were applied across three studies. Data were collected through focus group discussions and interviews with users of the CHC, program participating first-time parents, public health nurses (PHN) and stakeholders, as well as a scoping review and reviews of relevant service guidelines. The data were analyzed to evaluate program feasibility, praxis, and user acceptability. Key findings: Integrating a salutogenic, home visiting program into existing CHC services is feasible. Trust-building between PHNs and parents was fundamental; PHNs also reported improved role clarity and job satisfaction from deeper engagement. Parents, initially sceptical, grew to appreciate the consistent, empathetic support provided in their homes. The program’s universal design (offered to all first-time families) successfully engaged families who might not be identified as at-risk through routine screening. In conclusion, a co-created home visiting program can be effectively integrated into standard CHC services and is well received by families and PHNs. The dissertation highlights the importance of trust-building, continuity of care, early prenatal engagement, and a universal approach to avoid stigma. It also underscores the value of academic–public sector collaboration and active user involvement in developing public health interventions. These findings contribute to public health by offering a blueprint for implementing the program within existing services.

• Engebretsen, Eivind & Løkkeberg, Stine Eileen Torp (2025). How am I me? Young adults` personal narratives of living with ADHD. Universitetet i Oslo. Full text in Research Archive
• Ødemark, John & Engebretsen, Eivind (2023). Collection. Challenging medical knowledge translation – convergence and divergence of translation across epistemic and cultural boundaries. Springer Nature. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This Collection aims to develop contemporary knowledge translation (KT) in medicine by challenging it with current cultural and humanistic theories of translation. In the process of doing this, however, we will also challenge theories of translation within the humanities by juxtaposing them with the scientific practice of KT. Different notions of “translation” have become increasingly important in the contemporary natural and human sciences. The turn to translation can be traced across a number of human sciences, such as cultural studies, anthropology and science and technology studies (STS). Translation has lately also become institutionalized in the field of medicine, leading to the development of so-called knowledge translation and ‘translational research’. These concepts refer to a set of research activities bound together by the common goal of “bridging the gap” between science in laboratories and clinical application – and more generally, putting research-based knowledge into practice. While translation in the human sciences has emerged as a key theoretical concept, and could be seen as an index of current epistemological predicaments and the almost obligatory requirement to cross-disciplinary and cultural boundaries in a “global age”, its materialization in medical discourse is of an entirely different nature. KT denotes a scientific and purportedly non-cultural practice that defines social and cultural difference as a “barrier” to the transmission of the logos of medical science. The aim of KT is to bring “pure” scientific knowledge from “bench to bedside” by testing its validity in clinical practice – while at the same time keeping the scientific knowledge intact throughout the process of translation across various social fields and sectors of the healthcare system across the globe. However, KT implies little theoretical reflection over translation as a process of meaning production. — show all

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