Tobias Alfvén

Tobias Alfvén

Professor/Senior Physician
Visiting address: Tomtebodavägen 18A, 17177 Stockholm
Postal address: K9 Global folkhälsa, K9 GPH Alfvén, 171 77 Stockholm
Part of:

About me

  • Candidate in KI’s Academic Elections 2026 – for the position of Dean/Deputy Dean of Doctoral Education

    I am seeking the role of Dean of Doctoral Education because I am convinced that doctoral education is one of Karolinska Institutet’s most strategically impactful activities. Over more than three decades at KI, in clinical practice, and within the UN system – as a student, doctoral candidate, paediatrician, supervisor, researcher, and leader – I have seen how essential strong structures, clear leadership, and sustainable conditions are for doctoral students to develop into independent researchers and future leaders in academia, healthcare, and society.

    If entrusted with the role of Dean of Doctoral Education, I would particularly prioritise the following areas:

    ·        Promoting best possible conditions for doctoral students and supervisors, by building on existing structures and the strong work already underway, in close collaboration with doctoral students, supervisors, and KI’s 21 Directors of Doctoral Studies. One model does not fit all institutions or doctoral candidates, and the conditions for clinical doctoral students in particular need to be strengthened.

    ·        Strengthening internationalisation and strategic partnerships, ensuring that KI remains an attractive university for international doctoral education while further enhancing its global societal relevance.

    ·        Purposeful and proportionate administration, where administrative processes are supportive rather than burdensome, guided by the principle of “wise administrative choices”.

    My leadership style is characterised by openness, responsiveness, and dialogue. I aim to build bridges across disciplines, professions, and organisational levels, fostering a culture in which responsibility is shared and experience is valued. Through low-threshold forms of dialogue – such as an open-door policy for the dean for a few hours each week for doctoral students, supervisors, Directors of Doctoral Studies, and other colleagues. I want to contribute to a vibrant, inclusive, and long-term sustainable doctoral education at Karolinska Institutet. My experience of leading complex organisations, including my four-year term as President of the Swedish Society of Medicine, has shown me that transparency, trust, and a long-term perspective are essential for successful leadership.

    If you have ideas or suggestions of your own, please feel free to contact me. Together, we can continue to build a world-leading doctoral education at Karolinska Institutet.

    With collegial regards,
    Tobias

    About me

    I am a clinical professor of global child health and senior consultant in paediatrics. 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 and part of the management 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 as well as the co-chair for The Partnership for International Politics and Diplomacy for Health, joint project together with the Stockholm School of Economics,  https://globalhealthdiplomacy.se/.

    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.

Research

  • 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.

Teaching

  • 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

Selected publications

Articles

All other publications

Grants

  • European Commission
    1 March 2025 - 31 August 2028
    Urinary Tract Infections (UTIs) and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) pose significant global health threats, characterised by high incidence and mortality. However, in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), there is often a lack of accessible diagnostics to guide proper treatment and therapy monitoring. Our objectives are as follows: (1) Develop and validate a two-tier diagnostic toolbox: (a) Implement a Lateral Flow Test (LFT) for detecting urinary biomarkers at primary care for triage
    (b) Deploy a compact, portable Point-of-Care (POC) instrument for secondary care (hospitals, clinics), integrating pathogen detection via isothermal nucleic acid amplification and host-response biomarker quantification for evidence-based therapy and antibiotic prescription
    (c) Introduce novel (self)-sampling cards for transport without the need for a cold chain
    (d) Establish a digital health platform for clinical decision support. (2) Evaluate the toolbox's field deployability, acceptance, usability, and integration into clinical practice. (3) Maximise the adoption, implementation, and accessibility of the proposed diagnostic toolbox. (4) Prepare for post-project regulatory approval and market launch. (5) Enhance capacity building and surveillance structures through local manufacturing transfer and improvement of the supply chain and logistics. We will recruit diverse patient groups, including under-represented segments of society, from various African settings to ensure the broad applicability, sustainability, and customisability of our solutions. This project is expected to have a significant impact, improving the quality of UTI/AMR diagnostics, reducing unnecessary antibiotic use, preventing resistance, strengthening health systems and their response to epidemics, and increasing accessibility and quality of diagnostics through interdisciplinary and robust industrial collaboration.
  • Critical care with a focus on the perinatal period to scale up research, capacity building and implementation at Phu San Hanoi Hospital, Vietnam
    Carl Bennet AB
    1 January 2025 - 31 December 2028
    This project aims to scale up research, capacity building and implementation at Phu San Hospital Vietnam. The following research and training activities in maternal and newborn care are planned for 2025-2028, based on the collaboration to date between the Karolinska Institutet and Vietnam Phu San Hanoi Hospital. including four components. The NeoSpirit SALSA Trial The trial aims to recruit 230 preterm infants in need of surfactant over a period of 2-3 years. This major undertaking will be the first and largest randomized controlled trial (RCT) globally investigating surfactant delivery through a laryngeal mask airway (LMA) to extremely low birth weight infants. The results will be of great importance for the care of premature newborns all over the world. Further, the research project is building capacity in research and clinical care of newborns. PhD twinning program To strengthen the clinical aspects of the trial, support for two Vietnameses PhD candidates Center of Excellence Simulation Lab Expanding the collaboration to include simulation and team training in Vietnam by building a Centre of Excellence Simulation lab at Phu San. The work would move beyond the trials, to other areas of critical care, with focus on newborns and serve as a hub for advanced training, enabling healthcare professionals to hone their skills in a controlled, realistic environment. Celebrating Vietnam – Sweden 50 years of collaboration in health care and health research – a bilateral seminar event in Hanoi including business and health care during 2026.
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 January 2022 - 31 December 2023
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 December 2020 - 31 December 2022
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 December 2020 - 31 December 2022
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 January 2019 - 31 December 2022
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 January 2019 - 31 December 2020
  • Assessing a Supraglottic Device Versus Endotracheal Intubation in Neonatal Resuscitation in Vietnam – a Randomized Phase III Clinical Trial (NEO-SPIRIT)
    Swedish Research Council
    1 January 2019 - 31 December 2022
  • Swedish Research Council for Environment Agricultural Sciences and Spatial Planning
    1 December 2018 - 30 November 2019
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 November 2017 - 30 November 2017
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 January 2016 - 31 December 2018
  • HoliCare: A holistic approach in patient management and epidemic surveillance through convergence of diagnostic technologies, capacity building and stakeholder engagement
    European Commission as part of the Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Programme

Employments

  • Professor/Senior Physician, Department of Global Public Health, Karolinska Institutet, 2022-
  • Senior Consultant in paediatrics, Sachs’ Children and Youth Hospital, Stockholm South Hospital, 2013-
  • Senior Lecturer/Specialist Physician, Department of Global Public Health, Karolinska Institutet, 2017-2022

Degrees and Education

  • Docent, Karolinska Institutet, 2017
  • Doctor Of Philosophy, Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, 2002
  • Bachelor in Business Economics, National Economics and Political Science, Uppsala University, 2001
  • University Medical Degree, Karolinska Institutet, 2000

Leadership and responsibility assignments

Supervision

  • Supervision to doctoral degree

    • Alma Nordenstam, Critical Illness Among Children in Indonesia, 2025-
    • Kun Arifi Abbas, Exploring Emergency and Critical Care Services in East Java Indonesia, 2025-
    • Wurry Ayuningtyas, Neonatal mortality and neonatal care from pre-hospital to hospital in Surabaya, Indonesia, 2025-
    • Steven Kabwama, COVID-19 disruptions to essential health services in Uganda : access, interventions and lessons for emergency, https://doi.org/10.69622/30103825, 2025
    • Tina Dempsey, Surviving birth : resuscitation practice in Vietnam and the development of a supraglottic airway device, https://doi.org/10.69622/29921291, 2025
    • Anna Theresia Ekman, Early childhood disability : Evaluating the burden and generating evidence for enhanced screening and support, https://doi.org/10.69622/28565015, 2025
    • Erik Larsson, Risk Stratification and Evidence-Based Treatment of Febrile Neutropenia in Children with Cancer, 2024-
    • Toàn Nguyen, Obstetric care challenges: experience from two large obstetric hospitals in Vietnam and Sweden, 2024-
    • Hien Vu, Surfactant administration via smaller laryngeal mask airways and RAM-cannula treatment, two novel approaches to respiratory distress syndrome in neonates in a Large Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in Hanoi, Vietnam, 2024-
    • Daniel Helldén, Impact of non-health sector determinants on child health, the role of the Sustainable Development Goals : models, practices and perceptions in Cambodia and globally, https://hdl.handle.net/10616/49063, 2024
    • Tran Hang, Clinical and experimental implementation of standardized hypothermic treatment for neonatal asphyxia in low-income settings, https://hdl.handle.net/10616/49182, 2024
    • Mattias Schedwin, Child health in the Democratic Republic of the Congo : exploring subnational disparities and inequities in illnesses and mortality, https://hdl.handle.net/10616/49114, 2024
    • Adonis Sotoodeh, Sociodemographic determinants of prevention and management of severe infections, 2023-
    • Phuthumani Mlotshwa, The bottom-up approach: strengthening links between infectious diseases diagnostic research for capacity development in Sub-Saharan Africa, 2023-
    • Giulia Dallagiacoma, Identifying High-risk populations for next Generation Immunoprophylaxis to prevent severe Respiratory Syncytial Virus infections and improve antimicrobial stewardship in children, 2023-
    • Irene Wanyana, Multisectoral Approaches to Sustainable Health in Uganda. A focus on the role of climatic variabilities on maternal and child health, 2023-
    • Juliet Mwanga-Amumpaire, Quality of care for children seeking care in the private sector in the Mbarara region, Uganda, 2023
    • Ioannis Orfanos, Fever in infants below two months of age: epidemiology clinical management and outcome in Sweden, 2023
    • Reza Rasti, Point-of-care diagnostics of childhood central nervous system infections, with a focus on usability in low-resource settings, https://hdl.handle.net/10616/47871, 2022
    • Susanna Myrnerts Höök, m-health and new ways to support performance and decision-making during neonatal resuscitation, 2021
    • Nicolas Pejovic, Advanced interventions to improve neonatal outcome after intra-partum related events in low-resource settings: the role of LMA, 2020
    • Annika Eklundh, Diagnosing Community-Acquired Pneumonia in Children, differentiating between bacterial and viral pneumonia, the potential role of new point-of-care diagnostics, 2019-
    • Kevin Baker, Can improved paediatric pneumonia diagnostic aids support frontline health workers in low resource settings? Large scale evaluation of four respiratory rate timers and five pulse oximeters in Cambodia, Ethiopia, South Sudan and Uganda, https://hdl.handle.net/10616/46833, 2019
    • Ann Lindstrand, Impact of pneumococcal conjugate vaccine on pneumococcal disease, carriage and serotype distribution : comparative studies in Sweden and Uganda, https://hdl.handle.net/10616/45093, 2016
    • Mirja Vetander, Severe reactions to foods in childhood : clinical perspectives, epidemiology and risk management, https://hdl.handle.net/10616/41898, 2014
    • Joan Nakayaga, Integrated community case management of malaria and pneumonia in eastern Uganda : care-seeking, adherence, and community health worker performance, https://hdl.handle.net/10616/41757, 2013

  • Supervision of postdoctoral researcher

    • Nicolas Pejovic, 2021-
    • Kelly Elimian, 2020-2024
    • Samuel Rhedin, 2020-
    • Hampus Holmer, 2019-
    • Giulia Gaudenzi, 2019-
    • Atsumi Hirose, 2016-2017
    • Jesper Gantelius, 2014-2017

Committee work