Lina Davies Forsman

About me

~~I am a Senior Consultant in Infectious Disease and Internal Medicine at the Infectious Disease department of Karolinska University Hospital, Solna, Sweden. My main research interest is tuberculosis (TB), especially multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB), an interest set in motion by working for a year as a Senior Medical Officer in Tugela Ferry, Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa, Ten years after working in South Africa I successfully completed my thesis in Clinical Epidemiology, specialising in MDR-TB, at Karolinska Institutet, in 2018. I have been a member of the steering group of the Karolinska Institutet TB research centre and the National Advisory Board for TB in Sweden for several years. I also have an interest in other difficult to treat mycobacterial infections, including M.abscessus and MAC, and I am the chair of the Scandinavian NTM Expert Group.

I'm currently working in the University of Sydney, Australia, for an international postdoc with Professor Jan-Willem Alffenaar.

After my postdoc, I will return to Sweden as a research fellow, funded by Region Stockholm. My research group consists of three PhD students, for whom I am the main supervisor of two.

Research description

~~My research has focused on difficult to treat mycobacteria and treatment optimization, through repurposed and individualized therapy with therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM). In addition, I am interested in definitions of M.tuberculosis resistance and determination of the level of resistance, i.e. the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC). Since my appointment as an adjunct lecturer at KI, I am also interested in evauating different pedagogical tools, such as team-based learning.

I am also interested in social determinants for tuberculosis and Global Public Health, sparked by my experiences from working with tuberculosis in a high-endemic country such as South Africa. I have several international collaborations, including Fudan University, Shanghai, China, the University of Sydney, Australia and Friends for International TB Relief, Vietnam. Currently, I coordinate a randomized controlled trial (RCT) in Sydney, Australia, investigating a new alternative for the treatment of pulmonary TB (NCT05664568) and initiating another RCT in Vietnam studying the feasibility of a shorter one month treatment of TB infection. I also lead microbiological, genomic, qualitative, prospective cohort studies and diagnostic accuracy studies.

Areas of interest:

Tuberculosis, multidrug-resistant tuberculosis, tuberculosis infection (latent TB)

Non-tuberculous mycobacterium Epidemiology Global Public Health Clinical trials Pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics Mycobacterial microbiology

Qualitative evaluation

Pedagogical methods  

Teaching portfolio

Adjunct lecturer responsible for the Infectious Disease Course in the Medical Programme, Karolinska Institutet. 

Main organiser of the national course  "Tuberculosis" for residents in Infectious Diseases

Co-organiser of the Europe and Advanced Clinical Course of Tuberculosis (EACCTB) in Stockholm, 2017 and 2023

 

Education

Postdoc University of Sydney, 2022-2023

Postdoc Region Stockholm, 2020-2022

Master of Global Public Health, 2020

Leading for change KI/KS, 2020-21

PhD Clinical Epidemiology, 2018

Research school for clinicians in Epidemiology, Karolinska Institutet, 2014-16

Consultant Infectious Disease, 2012

Consultant Internal Medicine, 2011

Registered Medical Practitioner, 2006  

Academic honours, awards and prizes

2015 Pfizer scholarship 2014 Göran Sterner scholarship 2009 – 2022 Voted ”Best lecturer” 12 times by Karolinska medical students 2018 Nominated for the “Exemplary employee award”, Karolinska University Hospital (15 000 employees)