Nothing Discrete about CHERE’s reputation

Trine Kjaer, a PhD student at The University of Southern Denmark will spend 6

months with CHERE furthering her understanding of different aspects of discrete choice experiments (DCEs). 

A PhD student with the Department of Health Economics, Trine’s scholarship is jointly sponsored by the Faculty of Social Science and Centre for Applied Health Services Research and Technology Assessment (CAST).  “As a PhD student you are required to attend some courses and to participate in research activities, such as visiting another research institution. With the opportunity to travel anywhere in the world, CHERE was an obvious choice to me because the Centre is internationally known for its research in DCE. It was an obvious choice.”

During Trine’s visit to CHERE, Ms Rosalie Viney, Deputy Director of CHERE will be Trine’s supervisor.  “I first met Rosalie in 2003, when I attended the workshop “Advancing the methodology of DCEs in health economics” at the University of Oxford. It was a fortunate meeting, and gave me the opportunity to discuss the possibility of working and collaborating with CHERE as part of my PhD programme.”

Trine started as a PhD student after receiving her Master in Environmental and Natural Resource Economics from The Royal and Agricultural University, Denmark. Her current research interests include health economic evaluation and methodological, theoretical and econometric aspects of stated preference measurement with emphasis on discrete choice experiments.

Trine comes to CHERE with experience in conducting DCEs in a range of health care areas, with her PhD focussing on the application of DCEs and the investigation of a variety of methodological issues relating to the use of DCEs.   Her other research projects have included elicitation of individuals’ preferences for psoriasis treatments; cardiac rehabilitation; and dentist services.  

Trine’s stay at CHERE will include attending a course in choice modelling lectured by Professor Jordan Louviere, Professor of Marketing at the Faculty of Business, UTS.

“My visit provides a unique opportunity for me to learn more about the aspects of DCEs and share some of my thoughts on these matters with researchers of high excellence.”  

When Trine returns to Denmark, she hopes to complete her PhD by October 2006 and to continue research on methodological issues of stated preference methods.