Dr. Peter Schwartz, M.D., Ph.D.
Email: phschwar@iupui.edu
Center office: 317-278-4037
Dr. Peter Schwartz is a Faculty Investigator at the Indiana University Center for Bioethics and Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of General Internal Medicine at the Indiana University School of Medicine. He is also Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the IU School of Liberal Arts, at Indianapolis and practices adult outpatient medicine at the Primary Care Center (PCC) at Wishard Hospital.
Dr. Schwartz received his B.A. in Biology from Harvard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and his Ph.D. in Philosophy and his M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. During residency in Internal Medicine at the Brigham and Women's Hospital, in Boston, Massachusetts, he also served as an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Philosophy Department at Boston University.
Among the fellowships and awards that Dr. Schwartz has received are a Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) Fellowship (1992-6) and, in 1999, the Theodore Friedmann Prize for research in medical ethics by a graduating medical student at University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Schwartz's published articles and book chapters address topics in bioethics, philosophy of medicine, and philosophy of biology.
Dr. Schwartz's current research focuses on ethical and policy issues in the following areas:
- Preventive Medicine
- Informed consent, shared decision-making, and patient understanding
- Design and evaluation of Decision Aids, and
- Evolving concepts of risk and disease
- Predictive Health Research | About PredictER
- Informed consent and regulation of population-based genetic research ("biobanks")
- Introduction of possible discoveries into clinical medicine
- Treatment vs. Enhancement in the Genetic Era (including attempts to use definitions of "health" and "disease" to clarify healthcare justice in this area)
Selected Papers and Presentations
- Preventive Medicine
- Presentations:
- "Risk and Disease," Future Horizons for Philosophy of Medicine, symposium, Boston University Center for the Philosophy and History of Medicine, Boston, MA, Sept. 24, 2007.
- "Autonomy and Beneficence in Pay-for-Performance," Case Vignette presented at Society of General Internal Medicine, Midwest Regional Meeting, Chicago, IL, Sept. 28, 2007.
- "Increased Risk and Medical Decision-Making," Philosophy of Medicine, roundtable, University of Alabama, Birmingham, AL. March 29, 2008.
- "Patient Decision Aids and Autonomy," as part of panel on The Future of Consent (co-panelists Carl Schneider, JD, and Simon Whitney, MD), at American Society for Bioethics and Humanities, Annual Meeting, Cleveland, OH. October 26, 2008.
- Papers:
- Schwartz PH. Defining dysfunction: natural selection, design, and drawing a line. Philosophy of Science. July 2007;74(3):364-385. [PDF - 165 KB]
- Schwartz PH. Silence about screening. [Open Peer Commentary] American Journal of Bioethics 2007 (7): 46-48.
- Schwartz PH and Meslin EM. The ethics of information: Absolute risk reduction and patient understanding of screening. Journal of General Internal Medicine 2008; 23(6): 867-870. [Post-print; PDF - 99 KB]
- Schwartz PH. Risk and disease. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 2008; 51(3): 320-34.
- Schwartz PH. Disclosure and rationality: Comparative risk information and decision-making about prevention. Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics 2009; 30(3): 199-213. [Post-print; PDF - 175 KB]
- Presentations:
- Predictive Health Research
- Presentations:
- "Predictive Health Research and Patient Understanding of Risk," as part of panel on: Ethics and Regulation of Predictive Health Research: A New Translational Paradigm? (co-panelists Scott Denne, MD, and Timothy Caulfield, JD), American Society for Bioethics and Humanities, Annual Meeting, Washington, DC. October 21, 2007.
- "Changing the Rules? Consent and Re-Consent in Predictive Health Research," noon seminar, Department of Medical and Molecular Genetics, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, March 26, 2008.
- "PredictER: Indiana University's Experience in Translating Predictive Health Ethics Research into Practice," Translating 'ELSI': Ethical, Legal and Social Implications of Genomics, conference, Cleveland, OH. May 3, 2008.
- Upcoming: "Consent and Conversation in Population-Based Genetic Research," the Walter C. Randall Lecture on Biomedical Ethics, American Physiological Society - Experimental Biology annual meeting, New Orleans, LA, April 21, 2009.
- Papers:
- Schwartz PH. The value of information and the ethics of personal-genomic screening. Am J Bioeth. 2009 Apr;9(4):26-7. Open Peer Commentary. [Preprint; PDF - 36 KB]
- Presentations:
- Treatment vs. Enhancement in the Genetic Era (including attempts to use definitions of "health" and "disease" to clarify healthcare justice in this area)
- Presentations:
- "A Concept of Dysfunction in Clinical Medicine," Philosophy and Medicine, conference, University of Alabama, Birmingham, AL, May 15, 2004.
- "Demarcating Dysfunction: Natural Selection, Design, and Drawing a Line," Metaphysics and Medicine, conference, University of Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, November 13, 2004.
- "Treatment and Enhancement: Human Growth Hormone for Short Stature," (with Linda DiMeglio), Fairbanks Lecture Series, Charles Warren Fairbanks Center for Medical Ethics, Riley Hospital, Indianapolis, IN, November 28, 2007.
- "Slowing Aging: Treatment or Enhancement?" Ethics at Lunch series, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, February 26, 2008.
- Papers:
- Schwartz PH. Genetic breakthroughs and the limits of medicine: Short stature, growth hormone, and the idea of dysfunction. St. Thomas Law Review 2001; 13(4): 965-978.
- Schwartz PH. Defending the distinction between treatment and enhancement. [Open Peer Commentary] American Journal of Bioethics 2005; 5 (3): 17-19.
- Schwartz PH. Decision and discovery in defining 'disease.' In: H. Kincaid and J. McKitrick, eds. Establishing Medical Reality: Essays in the Metaphysics and Epistemology of Biomedical Science, Dordrecht: Springer, 2007. pp. 47-64. [Preprint; PDF - 120 KB]
- Presentations:
