!! MOVED TO ANOTHER DATE !! PhD defence L. (Leonie) de Munter

Trauma, defined as a physical injury, is a global public health problem and is a leading cause of death among young adults. Patient and injury characteristics can be combined in one model to predict outcome after trauma. These prediction models can be valuable for medical research purposes and for medical practice, e.g. for health care providers, health insurers, researchers and policymakers. The models can compare outcomes to support evaluation of quality of care between populations, hospitals, regions or countries and are often applied on population-based data. Besides, prediction models can target the individual patient who is in need for intervention. It can help with decision-making and could give information that can be useful for communication among physicians and patients. As part of the inclusive trauma care system, the Dutch Trauma Registry (DTR) was introduced in 2007 to measure and improve the quality of trauma care in the Netherlands. The DTR collects characteristics of the patient and the injury, admission related variables and outcome of all patients who are admitted to a hospital within 48 hours after trauma. Patients who were dead on arrival at the hospital were not registered in the DTR. In 2017, approximately 79.000 patients were hospitalized and registered in the DTR due to trauma. The mortality rate in the Netherlands is 2%, indicating that 98% of the trauma population survives. The main aim of this thesis is to evaluate, develop and validate models for predicting fatal and non-fatal outcome after trauma in the Netherlands.

The public defence will take place at the Prof. Andries Queridoroom, 3rd floor Education Center, Erasmus MC. The ceremony will begin exactly at 13.30 hrs. In light of the solemn nature of the ceremony, we recommend that you do not take children under the age of 6 to the first part of the ceremony.