The changing role of gatekeepers: Rationing and shared decision-making in primary care

Contributors This PhD project has been a cooperation between the following units at The University of Bergen. ISF has provided main supervision of the candidate through professor Ole Frithjof Norheim and has administrated the PhD training activities. Department of Economics (IFØ) IFØ has provided co-supervision of the candidate through associate professor Arild Aakvik and has provided office at IFØ for the candidate. The Rokkan Centre has employed the candidate and administered the project. Acknowledgements This thesis is the result of an interdisciplinary process. I have been part of several research environments and wish to thank a number of people and groups. Above all, I am indebted to Ole Frithjof Norheim, my main supervisor. I could not have wished for a better one. Thank you for always starting with the good news (that actually works!), for being reliable and honest, and for your generosity. Your open academic mind and your knowledge of several disciplines made my multidisciplinary work much easier. Your comments are always to the point and your suggestions have helped me transform extensive, poetic, anthropological thoughts to 2000-word IMRD style manuscripts. I also need to thank Arild Aakvik, my co-supervisor, for accepting the challenge of dragging an anthropologist through the econometric exercises, and for having so much faith in me. Thank you for making me feel able to burst into your office at any time and throw my problems onto your desk even when I have been at my most self-absorbed. I am also sincerely grateful to: Alf Erling Risa, for always finding me convincing and for supporting me no matter which hat you have been wearing or in which direction I have been heading. Claire Glenton, my very good friend and fellow multi-anthropologist, for mixing work and gossip and for your invaluable help with the English language and with making messy qualitative research data edible for the medical journals. Jan Erik Askildsen, for always putting aside urgent matters for a valuable discussion, and for finding a place for me among the economists at HEB. John Cairns for meticulous reading, helpful advice, good wine and for being a door-opener to your British colleagues. Hilde Lurås and Tor Iversen, for sharing your extensive knowledge about Norwegian primary care and for inspiring collaboration. Hilde, for generous advice on the literature, and Tor, for helpful comments on the health economic perspective. Sturle Naess for competent advice about the questionnaires. Gaute Torsvik, for …