The Dartmouth Institute Honors the Legacy of Professor Lisa Schwartz

Her pioneering research helped improve the communication of medical information to physicians, policymakers, media, and the public

Lisa Schwartz, MD, MS, a professor of The Dartmouth Institute and of Community and Family Medicine at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth passed away on November 29 after a lengthy illness. Dr. Schwartz’s innovative research in medicine in the media, the science of effective risk communication, overdiagnosis, prescription drugs, and the marketing of medicine—done in conjunction with her husband and research partner Professor Steven Woloshin—is internationally renowned. As the co-director, along with Dr. Woloshin, of the Center for Medicine and Media at The Dartmouth Institute, she worked tirelessly to improve the communication of medical evidence to clinicians, journalists, policymakers, and the public.

“What we are hoping to change in medical communication is for people to get closer to the truth,” she said in an interview published earlier this year by a Finnish journal. “A lot of what you read about medicine sounds too good to be true, or sometimes even too bad to be true. Our goal has been to give people a realistic sense of what is known and what is not known—how hopeful or worried they should be.”

Dr. Schwartz’s seminal work on risk communication and health literacy helped to establish the field of health-related numeracy. She and Dr. Woloshin created the "drug facts box," drug-benefit and harm-data summaries shown in clinical trials to improve consumer decision-making. They also collaborated with the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in creating the Know Your Chances website based on their work developing “risk charts." The charts, and the website, help people understand their chance of developing cancer, the magnitude of the chance, and how it compares with the chance of developing other diseases.

 Dr. Schwartz co-authored two books, Know Your Chances and Overdiagnosed, and was a frequent contributor to major media outlets, including The Washington Post and New York Times. Last year, when announcing that Dr. Schwartz (and Dr. Woloshin) had received one of the American Medical Writers Association’s highest honors, the John P. McGovern Award for preeminent contributions to medical communication, President Lori Alexander said, “These two physicians are my heroes because of their commitment to improving the quality of messages directed at lay audiences.”

 Dr. Schwartz was a founding member of the Steering Committee for Preventing Overdiagnosis, an annual, international conference to advance research, stimulate policy change, and foster open communication on overdiagnosis. She also served as an advisory board member of AllTrials—a project advocating that all clinical trials should be listed in a clinical trials registry, and their results should always be shared as open data.

 “Lisa was an exceptional educator, mentor, collaborator, and communicator. Her contributions to The Dartmouth Institute and to the field of medicine were numerous and invaluable,” said Dartmouth Institute Interim Director Anna Tosteson, ScD. “Although we take comfort in the lasting impact of her work, her loss will be deeply felt by all of us in The Dartmouth Institute community for a long time to come.”

POSTED 12/3/2018 AT 01:53 PM IN #legacy