Tobias Alfvén

I am a medical doctor, with a PhD in Epidemiology and a BSc in Business Administration and Political Science. For the last 25 years I have combined research, teaching, clinical medicine in paediatrics and work for the United Nations both in the field and at the headquarter. Among many responsibilities when working for UNAIDS in Geneva I was representing the organization in the UN expert group on the Millennium Development Goals. I have worked and conducted research in Asia, Africa and Europe, and I am currently involved in projects in Uganda, Cambodia, Nigeria, Viet Nam and Sweden.

At the Department of Global Public Health at Karolinska Institutet I am group leader of the Global Child Health and Sustainable Development Goals group and also part of the management team at the department. At Sachs’ children and youth hospital I am leading the research network in global health and infectious diseases. I am co-chairing the Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Health (CESH), a joint collaboration between Karolinska Institutet and Makerere University in Uganda. Further I have served as the president of the Swedish Society of Medicine and the chair of Agenda for health and prosperity.

Education

- Clinical Professor in Global Child Health 2022
- Licensed pediatrician, Sach´s Children &

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,  

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