Facts about the department

The Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics - facts and figures

MEB was founded formally at Karolinska Institutet in March 1997 as the Department of Medical Epidemiology (MEP). Work commenced in August the same year when the Department of Cancer Epidemiology at Uppsala University ceased to exist and moved to Karolinska Institutet. Since the start at KI the size of the department has increased four-fold from 40 to the present number of 200 employees. Furthermore, there has been a dramatic broadening of the research program of the department through strategic recruitments and the move of the Swedish Twin Register to MEP in 1999. The word "medical" in the department's name marks the focus of our research on biological and clinical questions and on basic epidemiological research rather than aspects of public health and intervention strategies.

A strategic move in the history of the department was taken when a biostatististical group with international members was recruited around year 2000. To mark the fundamental importance of this group for the department's research, research training and international alliances, the name was changed in 2002 to the Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics (MEB). Another later strategic step of expansion for our research was the establishment of an internationally leading IT-unit with connections to the central KI Biobank.