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Sven Halvar Löfgren

Born  1910
Died  1978

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Swedish clinician, born March 1, 1910, Varnums församling, Västergötland; died June 19, 1978.

Biography of Sven Halvar Löfgren

Sven Halvar Löfgren was the second of six children born to August Löfgren, a landowner, and Hilma Elasson. He distinguished himself in school and graduated from the gymnasium with outstanding marks. He studied medicine at the Karolinska institute in Stockholm, becoming a medical licentiate in 1935. He defended his doctoral dissertation at the Karolinska institutet on May 18, 1946 and subsequently became a docent - lecturer - of internal medicine. In 1971 the title of professor, an unusual honour in Sweden for a physician practising outside a university department.

Löfgren spent his entire clinical career at St. Görans sjukhus in Stockholm. At first he was deputy head physician, later he succeeded professor Alf Westergren (1891-1968). However, his medical role model was docent Folke Lindstedt, physician-in-chief at the department of internal medicine at St. Göran. He was also influenced by Jörgen Nilsen Schaumann (1879-1953). In 1963 he hosted a highly successful international congress on sarcoidosis in Stockholm.

Löfgren was a shy, reserved man who loved his family and St. Göran's Hospital. His wife was also a physician and the couple had four children.

Bibliography

  • Folke Lindström, Bertil Lindblom:
    Sven Löfgren. Hans observationer ledde fram til ökad kunnskap om akut sarkoidosartritt.
    Läkartidningen, Stockholm, 1986, 83 (37): 127-128.
    In the series: Mannen bakom syndromet [The Man Behind the Syndrome].
  • D. Geraint James:
    The sarcoidosis movement and its personalities.
    Journal of Medical Biography, 1995, 3 (3): 151-152.

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