Björn Zoëga (born 26 April 1964 ) is an Icelandic orthopedic surgeon, a former director of the Landspitali National University Hospital of Iceland and current director of Karolinska University Hospital in Sweden.

Björn Zoëga
Born (1964-04-26) 26 April 1964 (age 60)
Alma materUniversity of Iceland
OccupationOrthopedic surgeon
Years active1990–present
Basketball career
Career information
Playing career1982–1990
Career history
1982–1990Valur
Career highlights and awards

Life and work edit

Björn was born on 26 April 1964 in Reykjavík. The family name Zoëga can be traced to the Dane Jóhannes Zoëga who moved to Iceland in 1787.[1] Björn graduated from Reykjavik Junior College in 1984. He studied medicine at the University of Iceland and graduated from there in 1990. He received his doctorate from Gothenburg University in Sweden in 1998.[2]

He studied orthopedic surgery at Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Gothenburg, Sweden and received a specialist license in 1996. He was chief physician of the spinal surgery department of orthopedics at Sahlgrenska from 1999 to 2002.[3]

He was the chief physician of Landspítali's operating room in Fossvogur from 2002[4] and the director of the hospital's surgery department since 2005. Björn was appointed Chief Medical Officer at Landspítali from 2009 to 2013.[5] He had previously served as Chief Medical Officer from 2007.[3] He was the director of Landspítali from 2010 to 2013.[5] He had previously served as director from April to October 2008.[3] Björn was the chairman of the Valur in 2014–15.[6]

Since 2016, he has worked for the Swedish healthcare group GHP, which operates hospitals and clinics in the Nordic countries and in the United Arab Emirates. He was the director of their spinal surgery departments in Stockholm and Gothenburg. From 2017 to 2019 he was Secretary General of therapeutic areas of GHP[7] and in 2019 he was appointed as the director of Karolinska University Hospital.[8]

Basketball career edit

Björn played basketball for Valur in the Icelandic top-tier Úrvalsdeild karla from 1982 to 1990, winning the Icelandic championship and Icelandic Cup in 1983 and playing in the Úrvalsdeild finals in 1984 and 1987.[9][10] He played 7 games for the Icelandic junior national teams.[11] He served as the team doctor of the Iceland men's national basketball team at EuroBasket 2015.[10]

References edit

  1. ^ "Nýjar bækur". Morgunblaðið (in Icelandic). 7 July 2000. p. 28. Retrieved 4 January 2024 – via Tímarit.is. 
  2. ^ Læknar á Íslandi. Útgáfufyrirtækið Þjóðsaga, 2000. Gunnlaugur Haraldsson.
  3. ^ a b c Björn áfram lækningaforstjóri. Morgunblaðið, 12. febrúar 2009.
  4. ^ Björn Zoëga sviðsstjóri lækninga á skurðlækningasviði. Fréttabréf Landspítalans, 8. apríl 2005.
  5. ^ a b Björn Zoëga lætur af störfum. Morgunblaðið, 27. september 2013.
  6. ^ Ármannsson, Bjarki. "Björn Zoëga nýr formaður Vals - Vísir". visir.is. Retrieved 2021-03-22.
  7. ^ Ráðinn aðalframkvæmdastjóri lækningasviðs. Viðskiptablaðið, 2. nóvember 2017.
  8. ^ "Björn Zoëga tekur við sem forstjóri Karólínska". Fréttablaðið. 29 January 2019.
  9. ^ Runólfur Trausti Þórhallsson (12 July 2023). "Sjáðu þegar Björn Zoëga kom úr stúkunni og kippti Ólafi Kristófer aftur í lið". Vísir.is (in Icelandic). Retrieved 13 July 2023.
  10. ^ a b "Landsliðinu til halds og trausts". Morgunblaðið (in Icelandic). 10 September 2015. p. 44. Retrieved 13 December 2021 – via Tímarit.is. 
  11. ^ "Unglinga- og drengjalandsleikir". kki.is (in Icelandic). Icelandic Basketball Association. Retrieved 13 December 2021.

External links edit