PhD defence by Pi Vejsig Madsen

Causal Inference for Evaluation of the Forthcoming Mary Elizabeth's Hospital for Children

Assessment Committee:
Professor Thomas Scheike (Chairperson)
Associate professor Anders Stockmarr
Professor Jon Michael Gran

Supervisors:
Clinical Professor Lone Graff Stensballe
Associate Professor Frank Fredric Cebastian Eriksson
Senior Researcher Andreas Jensen,

Department:
Department of Clinical Medicine

Graduate Programme:
Biostatistics and Bioinformatics

Place:
CSS building 1, Room: 1.1.18, Øster Farimagsgade 5, 1353 København K

Email address to gain access to the thesis: pi.vejsig.madsen@regionh.dk
You will either receive a copy of the thesis or be informed where you can read a physical copy.

Short description of the thesis:
Mary Elizabeth's Hospital, a new hospital for children, adolescents, and expecting families, will open at Rigshospitalet in 2027. This thesis considers practical and methodological challenges in determining the causal effect of this new hospital using data from the nationwide Danish registers. The situation before the opening is studied in a descriptive overview of pediatric contacts at the Danish tertiary hospitals during 2000-2018, and by developing statistical methods for fair hospital comparisons using recurrent event outcomes (such as repeated outpatient visits). The thesis also estimates the effect of the first Danish children's hospital, the Hans Christian Andersen Children's Hospital at Odense University Hospital, on hospital-level activity outcomes using synthetic control methods and on patient-level health outcomes using three different approaches.