The Research Institute of the Norwegian Medical Association
The Research Institute of the Norwegian Medical Association is concerned with all aspects of the doctors’ lives and behaviour. Our main products are publications in national and international peer-reviewed journals.

Our research is concerned with doctors’ career choices, psychological, ethical and social aspects of doctoring, the doctor role in general, and work-home balance. We are interested in how organisational changes or political signals may affect the work and health of doctors, and particularly in the discrepancy between how the doctors perceive their professional role, and society’s expectations from the medical profession.

The Research Institute does not have a program or a department that offers treatment or help to the individual doctor. However, we often participate in, or initiate, scientific evaluations of such programs. We also consult and collaborate with other researchers in this field, nationally and internationally.

You will find comprehensive information about our activities – in Norwegian and English – on our homepage: www.legeforeningen.no/lefo. Here you can also search in all our publications.

Much of our quantitative research is based on data from a permanent panel of approximately 1660 active doctors who are surveyed every other year about their career, health and satisfaction, ethical dilemmas, political issues etc. From 2007 we also have a panel with 800 retired doctors.

In addition we use various public registers, or data from our main sponsor, the Sickness Compensation Fund for Doctors in Norway (SOP). We also do an increasing number of qualitative studies on doctors and doctoring. In another group of projects, often on a collaborative basis with other research groups, we evaluate educational efforts or compare doctors with other professions.

So far seven PhD theses from the University of Oslo have their root in our data and/or research.