Tobias Alfvén

I am a paediatrician and clinical professor of global child health. For the past 25 years, I have combined research, teaching and clinical medicine in paediatrics. Between 2020-2024 I was President of the Swedish Society of Medicine and since 2022 I am President of the Agenda for Health and Prosperity. Furthermore, I have also worked for the United Nations, both in the field and at headquarters. Among many responsibilities while working for UNAIDS in Geneva, I represented the organisation in the UN Expert Group on the Millennium Development Goals.

At the Department of Global Public Health at Karolinska Institutet, I am the research group leader of the Global Child Health and the Global Goals group. I supervise several PhD students and the group has around 30 research projects ranging from newborn to adolescent health, infectious diseases, technology and innovation and climate change impact on child health.

I am co-chair of the virtual Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Health (CESH), a joint collaboration between Karolinska Institutet and Makerere University in Uganda.

At Sachs' Children and Youth Hospital, I work as a paediatrician in the emergency department and lead the research network in global health and infectious diseases. I supervise residents and was awarded the Resident Supervisor of the Year 2020.

Education

- Clinical Professor in Global Child Health 2022
- Licensed pediatrician, Sach's Children and Youth Hospital 2017
- Assoicate professor in Global Health 2017
- Licensed physician, Karolinska Hospital 2003
- PostDoc in Epidemiology, Karolinska Institutet, 2003-04
- PhD in Medical Science, Karolinska Institutet, 2002
- Bachelor in business, including Business Economics, National Economics and Political Science, Stockholm and Uppsala University 2001
- Medical Degree, Karolinska Institutet, 2000 

My research aims to reduce child mortality and morbidity with research projects mostly in low-income-countries, such as Uganda, Cambodia, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia and Viet Nam, but also in Sweden. I am involved in projects around prevention, new diagnostics and treatment of pneumonia, novel diagnostics of infectious diseases and improved neonatal survival. I am also involved in projects related to inter-disciplinary work around the Sustainable Development Goals, climate change effects on child health and wellbeing, and how to reach children without access to the formal health care system.

I teach global health and global child health at all different levels at Karolinska Institutet, and I am also involved in teaching related to climate change and health, neglected infectious diseases, the Sustainable Development Goals and Sustainable health. Further I teach clinical paeditrics at Sachs' Children and Youth Hospital to medical students and junior colleagues. I am further engaged in educational development related to global and sustainable health and the new medical degree programme at Karolinska Institutet. 

Selection of my teaching at Karolinska Institutet

Introductary day for all students at KI
The patient of the future: Challenges and Possibilities for ​Local and Global Health (together with Helena Nordenstedt and Lars Frelin) 

Medicine programme
The disease panorama and the determinants of health in Sweden and globally (1st semester)
Panel discussion on the future for health care in Sweden (1st semester)
Paediatric infectious diseases in a global perspective (4th semester)
The disease panorama in Sweden from a historical and global perspective (11th semester)
Prevention in practice (seminair 11th semester) 

Master programme in Global Health
Mother and child health in a global perspective (3GB013)
Neglected Infectious Diseases 

Master programme in Public Health in disasters
Global child health - The major killers among children 

Elective course in Sustainable Health and development

An introduction to Sustainable Health and the Sustainable Development Goals
Climate change and child health