Due to copyright issues, an electronic copy of the thesis must be ordered from the faculty. For the faculty to have time to process the order, the order must be received by the faculty at the latest 2 days before the public defence. Orders received later than 2 days before the defence will not be processed. After the public defence, please address any inquiries regarding the thesis to the candidate.
Trial Lecture – time and place
See Trial Lecture.
Adjudication committee
- First opponent: Senior Consultant Carmen Vleggeert-Lankamp, Leiden University Medical Centre, the Netherlands
- Second opponent: Professor Emeritus Claes Olerud, Uppsala University, Sweden
- Third member and chair of the evaluation committee: Professor II Bjørnar Hassel, University of Oslo
Chair of the Defence
Professor II Mathias Toft, University of Oslo
Principal Supervisor
Professor Margreth Grotle, Oslo Metropolitan University
Summary
Outcome and prognosis after surgery for degenerative neck disorders
In recent years, surgical treatment modalities for cervical degenerative disorders have become increasingly more safe and less invasive, and surgical volumes are rising. Although treatment guidelines do exist, there is a call for more knowledge about how, when and to what extent surgery can contribute to symptom relief and physical recovery in patients. There is also a need for a deeper understanding of the complexities involved in measuring quality of care.
In the dissertation “Enhancing Quality in Surgery for Cervical Degenerative Disorders: Benchmarks for Clinical Improvement and Prognostic Models for Nonsuccess”, Christer Mjåset and colleagues has used data from the Norwegian Spine Registry to evaluate surgical results, outcomes and prognosis in patients undergoing surgery for degenerative neck disorders in the Norwegian Health Services.
The results show that certain clinical questionnaires called Patient-Reported Outcome Measures, or PROMs, are well-designed to measure the quality of available surgical treatments. According to these measures, a majority of patients improve after surgery. By producing PROM benchmarks, prognostic factors associated with a nonsuccessful surgical outcome were obtained, and the researchers produced two comprehensive prognostic models for use in shared decision-making processes prior to surgery.
The findings of the thesis will help clinicians enhance appropriateness of care through better patient counseling and improved selection of patients for surgery. The use of PROM benchmarks can contribute to improving healthcare quality and safety and facilitate the development of value-based health care models for financing and reimbursement.
Additional information
Contact the research support staff.