Associate Professor of Medicine and Community and Family Medicine, Dartmouth Medical School; Co-Director of the White River Junction Outcomes Group

Research Interests:
Dr. Schwartz is a general internist whose research focuses on improving the communication of medical information to patients, physicians, journalists and policymakers. Together with Dr. Woloshin, she has worked to address two important barriers to good communication: (1) many patients and providers are limited in their ability to interpret medical data; and (2) exaggerated and incomplete health messages are common. Her career has been devoted to creating and testing practical solutions to enhance the communication of medical data (e.g. a NIH sponsored workshop for journalists, working with the FDA to improve the data in direct-to-consumer drug advertisements, developing a materials for patients to help them understand "numbers in health").

Selected Publications:

1. Schwartz LM, Woloshin S, Welch HG. Misunderstandings about the effect of race and sex on physicians' referrals for cardiac catheterization. N Engl J Med 1999; 341:279-83.


2. Schwartz LM, Woloshin S, Sox HC, Fischhoff B, Welch HG. US women's attitudes to false positive mammography results and detection of ductal carcinoma in situ: cross sectional survey. BMJ 2000;320:1635-40.


3. Schwartz LM, Woloshin S, Baczek L. Media coverage of scientific meetings: Too much, too soon? JAMA 2002;287(21):2859-63.


4. Schwartz LM, Woloshin S. Participation in mammography screening: Women should be encouraged to decide what is right for them, rather than being told what to do. BMJ 2007;335:731-2.