Dr. Jonas F. Ludvigsson is a distinguished medical epidemiologist and pediatric gastroenterologist holding simultaneous appointments at Sweden's premier academic and clinical institutions. He serves as Professor at the Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Karolinska Institutet, a position he has held since 2013, while maintaining his clinical practice as Senior Physician in the Department of Pediatrics at Örebro University Hospital. Dr. Ludvigsson received his medical degree from Linköping University in 1995 and completed his PhD in Medicine in 2001 with a thesis on perinatal gastrointestinal disease epidemiology. His academic trajectory has been marked by significant leadership positions including his chairmanship of the Swedish Society of Pediatrics from 2014 to 2016 and his current role as scientific secretary of the Swedish Medical Society since June 2023.
Dr. Ludvigsson's research program centers on gastrointestinal epidemiology, with particular expertise in celiac disease, inflammatory bowel disease, microscopic colitis, and liver disease, generating influential findings published in the highest-impact medical journals including New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet, JAMA, and BMJ. His methodological contributions to epidemiological research are substantial, most notably his external review and validation of the Swedish National Inpatient Register, which established rigorous standards for using registry data in clinical research. Dr. Ludvigsson has coordinated multiple validation studies of inflammatory bowel disease diagnoses and leads the Scandinavian CANcer-in-Inflammatory Bowel Disease study, a major collaborative effort examining cancer complications in IBD patients. His work on the ESPRESSO study, examining histopathology data to investigate conditions including cancer precursors and disease phenotypes, has provided critical insights into the natural history of gastrointestinal disorders.
Beyond his research contributions, Dr. Ludvigsson has shaped the field through his leadership roles including chairing the Swedish Epidemiological Association from 2011 to 2014 and serving on the steering group of the Swedish Inflammatory Bowel Disease Register since 2005. His international recognition is evidenced by his appointment as Honorary Professor at Columbia University School of Medicine and his previous honorary position at Nottingham University School of Medicine. Dr. Ludvigsson maintains an active research program with ongoing projects investigating complications in inflammatory bowel disease, intrahepatic cholestasis during pregnancy, and the epidemiology of IgA deficiency. His dual expertise in clinical pediatrics and epidemiological methodology continues to advance our understanding of gastrointestinal diseases across the lifespan, bridging the gap between population-level insights and individual patient care.
