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The RRI/PPI Node

The RRI/PPI Node is developing a model of human suffering. Suffering involves conceptions of human affliction that places disease within a larger frame of burdens and carrying capacities of patients and their caregivers. Such conceptions are crucial for the node’s ongoing work on the RRI and PPI of precision medicine (PM).

The Responsible Research and Innovation & Patient and Public Involvement (RRI/PPI) Node 

Node leaders: Jan Reinert Karlsen and Caroline Engen 

Jan Reinert Karlsen is an associate professor at the Centre for the Studies of the Sciences and the Humanities at the University of Bergen. His research includes the RRI of post-genomic medical research and conceptions of suffering across different thought traditions. He has a long track record in interdisciplinary research and teaching.

Caroline Engen is a postdoctoral fellow (50%) and specialist in training (psychiatry) (50%). She has previous experience from the development of personalised molecular therapy for acute myeloid leukaemia and is currently focusing on RRI of precision medicine and philosophy of suffering.

Node activities 

The RRI/PPI Node is responsible for these projects/activities:

  • A research project entitled “Philosophy of precision medicine in severe chronic neurological diseases (POS-PM).”
  • A teaching subject called “The nature of disease and suffering and the goals of precision medicine (NEUROSYSM940)”, which is part of the Neuro-SysMed research school. Initially introduced in the spring of 2023, it was also delivered in the autumn of 2024, and it in March/April 2026.
  • During the Spring of 2025, Engen and Karlsen continued to work on their co-authored monograph (working title: Precision and Suffering), leading to the decision to compartmentalize the work into a monograph (written by Engen), and papers by Karlsen.

In August 2025, Engen discontinued her postdoc after having been promoted to a permanent academic position as an associate professor at the Department of Global Public Health and Primary Care, UiB. Engen will continue the project, though in a reduced capacity.

Selected dissemination activities from 2025:

  1. Schei, E., Heath, I., Dorward, P., & Engen, C. (Eds.). (2025). Making a Good Doctor: Sources of Strength and Wisdom (1st ed.). CRC Press. https://
    doi.org/10.1201/9781003593294
  2. Engen, C. “Doctors must live”: a care ethics inquiry into physicians’ late modern suffering. Med Health Care and Philos 28, 275–290 (2025). https://doi.
    org/10.1007/s11019-025-10258-7
  3. Karlsen J.R. “After education: Is source criticism in the age of generative AI obsolete?” ‘Kildekritikkens dag’, Faculty of Law, UiB, 2025-3-13
  4. Karlsen, J.R. “Lightness and education: Reflections on generative AI and the normative assumptions and preconditions for universities”, Faculty of Psychology, UiB, 2020-5-23
  5. Karlsen, J.R. “The easy death in complex societies”, ‘Fagseminar i Palliasjon’, Haukeland University Hospital, 2025-11-6
  6. Karlsen, J.R. “Surface education and disciplinary depth in the age of generative AI?”, Faculty of Psychology, UiB, Solstrand Hotel, 2025-11-13
Last updated 7/9/2026