Preface* This thesis was carried out during my employment as PhD fellow at the Department of Research & Development, Prehospital Emergency Medical Services, Central Denmark Region. The Prehospital Emergency Medical Services, Central Denmark Region, the Health Research Fund of Central Denmark Region, the Research Center for Emergency Medicine, the Danish Heart Foundation, the Lundbeck Foundation and Spydspidspuljen at Aarhus University Hospital funded the work behind this PhD. I thank them all for financial support and I thank the Prehospital Emergency Medical Services for providing a unique organization to carry out research in. I wish to express my sincere gratitude to my four supervisors. I thank my main supervisor, Christian Juhl Terkelsen, for support, guidance, and constructive criticism. Thank you for sharing your tremendous knowledge on epidemiology and clinical research and for day-to-day discussions on an often very short notice. You have been the perfect main supervisor – never watching over me like a hawk or bickering when things when wrong, but always supplying the right answers on how to solve problems and get to the next step in my research. I thank Erika Frischknecht Christensen for believing in me, for mentoring me since medical school, and for many interesting talks – and debates – about everything from research to health politics. Thank you Hans Kirkegaard for encouragement, for sharing your large network, for providing invaluable input to protocols, methods and manuscripts and for always putting things into a greater emergency medicine perspective. Thank you Thorbjørn Grøfte for believing in me, for drafting research protocols with me during late hours of multiple night shifts at the Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine at Randers Regional Hospital, for starring on the PreBNP video and for general advice. Concurrently, I thank the fantastic colleagues in Randers for back up and for teaching me clinical anesthesiology and intensive care medicine. I look forward to come back to all of you! Thank you to all of my collaborators. Thank you Mikkel Strømgaard Andersen and Carsten Stengaard for collaboration and for adjudicating endpoints. Thank you Erik Parner for pointing out the shortcomings of the Cox regression and for teaching me next-generation survival analysis. Thank you Ken Peter Kragsfeldt for illustrations. I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to the prehospital critical care anesthesiologists and emergency medical technicians in the Central Denmark Region, who made PreBNP possible. Thank you to the local site investigators who spent their days, evenings and weekends gathering informed consents from patients and to Jacob Hjort at the Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University – you are truly a data wizard. Thank you Bo Nees Iversen, Troels Martin Hansen, Leif Rognås, Alf Møl Christensen, Annette Hostrup, Bjarne Larsen, Rikke Mærkedal, and Poul Lenler-Petersen for support. Thank you Tinna Østergaard, Kenneth Henriksen, Kaj-Ole Bloch Andersen, Thomas Holm, Oliver Kring, Lars Skovgaard, Kenneth Stampe Grann, Birger Mundbjerg, and Mikkel Lien for practical assistance. Thank you Søren Holmgård Knudsen, Carsten Stie, and Casper Nielsen for assistance and for starring on the PreBNP video. I thank everyone at the Emergency Medical Communication Center for helping out with PreBNP inclusion reminders upon dispatch. Last, but not least, a very special thanks to Maren Tarpgaard Jørgensen, who has included PreBNP patients, gathered informed consents, and adjudicated endpoints like no other. I owe a special thanks to my colleagues and friends at the Department of Research and Development. Ingunn Skogstad Riddervold, Nikolaj Raaber, Sophie-Charlott Seidenfaden, Kristian Friesgaard, and Kirstine Krushave Lehm - it has truly been a pleasure and I look forward to spend more time with you guys. Thank you Bo Elbæk Pedersen, Niels-Christian Emmertsen, Jette Zaupper, Mariann-Ann Lund Pedersen, Anja Jørgensen, Olaf Barfoed, Johannes Traberg Christensen, Stine Lyngborg Heslop and Per Sabroe Nielsen for an inspiring environment and for cozy coffee- and lunch breaks. Thank you Pernille Robl for taking care of the finances. Thank you Lars Knudsen, Thomas Dahl Nielsen, and Erik Sloth for letting me in and for teaching me stuff I need to know to become a good anesthesiologist. Finally, I would like to thank my family and friends for always being there – even when I was not. Thank you to my father and mentor, Hans Erik Bøtker for overall advice and for teaching me the art of scientific writing. Thank you to my motherin-law, Hanne Jensen, for endless support with childcare. Thank you Josefine and Silke for your smiles, happiness and love. Thank you does not cover the gratitude I feel towards you, Pernille Lykke Bøtker. You are my best friend and my love.
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