About

Alan Jay Schwartz, MD, MSEd, is an Adjunct Professor of Anesthesiology and Critical Care at the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine. He completed his undergraduate studies in Biology at Temple University in 1968, earned his MD from Temple University School of Medicine in 1972, and obtained a Master’s in Education from the University of Pennsylvania in 1983. His clinical expertise includes Pediatric Anesthesiology and Cardiac Anesthesiology. Schwartz is associated with the Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania. His professional focus encompasses pediatric anesthesia, cardiac anesthesia, and medical education, contributing to both clinical practice and academic scholarship in these fields.

Research topics

• Medicine
• Family medicine
• Political Science
• Medical education
• Nursing
• Library science
• Linguistics
• Law
• Psychology

Selected publications

• ACGME Milestone Levels for Residents Who Withdraw or are Dismissed from Pediatric Residency Programs

  Academic Pediatrics · 2025-11-01

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Does Burnout Persist? Tracking Burnout from Residency to Early Career Pediatrician

  Academic Pediatrics · 2025-11-01

  article
  PublisherDOI

• A History of the Journal of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Anesthesia: Nearly 40 Years and Counting

  Journal of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Anesthesia · 2025-02-25

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Attaining Anesthesiology Clinical Competence during Graduate Medical Education: Can We Rely on What We See?

  Anesthesiology · 2025-04-08

  articleSenior authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Corrigendum to ‘A History of the Journal of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Anesthesia: Nearly 40 Years and Counting’ [Journal of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Anesthesia Volume 39, Issue 6 (2025) Pages 1389 – 1400]

  Journal of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Anesthesia · 2025-11-16

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Hektoen International: A Journal of Medical Humanities

  Anesthesiology · 2024 · 14 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Political Science
  • Medicine
  • Library science

  Imagine this. You just completed a very full week of sometimes stressful activities navigated by anesthesiologists. Day after day, you provided high-acuity operating room anesthesia or intensive care unit patient care. Simultaneously you taught these patient care activities to trainees, your future colleagues. Having more than care and education to tap your efforts, you plowed forward with research activities, crafted manuscripts for submission, and negotiated administrative land mines. To cap off such an industrious week, you believe you must read one of the numerous available professional journals to stay current.Now you have to solve the dilemma of which journal to select. Your problem stems from the reality that medical publishing has grown exponentially. More than 30,000 “…active scholarly peer-reviewed English-language journals in mid2018…[are] collectively publishing greater than 3 million articles a year…[with] 11,811…fully open access journals listed on the Directory of Open Access Journals.”1 These numbers, which have undoubtedly grown since the 2018 report, boggle the mind! What to do?From the myriad of available publications, Hektoen International: A Journal of Medical Humanities2 might be an ideal choice. Hektoen International is most likely an unknown to you. Because of your unfamiliarity with Hektoen International, this review is intended to address this privation and whet your appetite for a different publication that will expand your knowledge, cater to your personal interests in addition to anesthesiology practice, and offer some entertaining and life-expanding topics that break the stronghold of intense research-based journals.The National Institutes of Health (Bethesda, Maryland) article “The Origin of NIH Medical Research Grants,” published in Hektoen International,3 concisely described this relatively unknown journal:Hektoen International is comprised of 40 sections that include and are not limited to such topics as “Moments in History—Vignettes,” “Education,” “Hospitals of Note,” “Surgery,” and “Women in Medicine.” Articles in these sections provide glimpses of unusually described and detailed topics. A few examples will expose Hektoen’s appeal.Are you a music aficionado? Consider music and how it relates to health care. Vincent de Luise’s “Euterpe Deconstructed: Reflections on the Health, Illness, and Legacy of Wolfgang Mozart”5 discusses this musical wizard and how his medical status influenced his genius.Are you an avid reader? Consider important authors and whether their medical maladies influenced their writing. Lea Mendes explores the obsessive compulsive disorder, depression, and dyslexia of Charles Dickens in “The Medical Journey of Charles Dickens.”6 Mendes also highlights the illnesses about which Dickens wrote including drunkenness, mesmerism (anesthesiologists certainly employ hypnotic techniques as they care for patients), “…tuberculosis, chronic bronchitis, asthma, restless leg syndrome, Parkinson’s disease, chorea, Tourette’s syndrome, cerebellar ataxia, torticollis, supranuclear palsy, stroke, epilepsy…”6Do you unwind viewing competitive sports? Consider soccer. Krzyś Stachak, “an accountant, consultant, adventurer, and student of the world,” broadens our understanding of “Achilles and His Famous Tendon.”7 Next time you anesthetize an athlete with a torn Achilles tendon, you will know more about Greek mythology and how the hero of The Iliad sustained this debilitating injury.Do medical curiosities fascinate you? Consider conjoined twins. Howard Fischer’s Hektoen essay, “Dr. Doyen Separates Conjoined Twins in 1902,”8 describes a surgical separation that predates, by more than 65 yr, the modern era of such feats. This article expands the knowledge of this complicated surgery that modern pediatric anesthesiology practice has experienced with increasing frequency and success since the 1970s.Is the inevitable aging process of personal interest? Consider geriatric care. George Dunea’s Hektoen International discussion recounts “The Medical History of Ronald Reagan.”9 It details more about the maladies of the President than were known by most during his political career. In light of current events, this Hektoen article has relevance.Do the modern-day viewpoints surrounding diversity, gender, and race have an impact upon your life? Consider women in medicine. Katie King’s Hektoen essay, “Mary Josephine Hannan: Portrait of a Pioneer,”10 portrays the struggles and successes of this female medical pioneer. Mary Hannan was a staunch advocate for public health measures that especially benefitted women and children.Hektoen International also includes an archives section in which meaningful quotations and numerous resource links expand the articles and enlighten readers.When there are “too many” journals upon which your eyes can wander, turn to an alternative by entering your free subscription request11 and peruse Hektoen International. When you browse Hektoen, you will not only expand your horizons but also gain a new understanding both of topics of interest to you and of those that your multidimensional patient population may know about. This will give you entrée to engage in meaningful conversation with your charges to divert their attention from the anxiety of their treatment.

  PublisherDOI

• Edward Robinson Squibb: an early anaesthesia pioneer

  British Journal of Anaesthesia · 2024-04-05

  letterOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Authors and Editors Must Consider Appropriate Use of Acronyms and Initialisms, or Text Will Be DOA (Dead on Arrival)

  Anesthesiology · 2023-02-01

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  As an author, it is essential to craft text that is TTP (To The Point). To that end, I have uncritically employed acronyms and initialisms.As an editor, it is essential to assure that readers comprehend text. To that end, I implore avoidance of acronyms and initialisms especially when they are unknown to or may mislead readers.Anesthesiology offers guidance for the use of acronyms and initialisms. “Do not use any nonstandard abbreviations…Refer to the List of Standard Abbreviations.”1How can authors and editors BOLO (Be On the Lookout) for acronyms and initialisms?Understanding the origins and implementation of AIDA (Acronyms, Initialisms and Abbreviations Dictionary) will assist authors and editors in effective and appropriate UTIL (utilization) of these shortcuts. The Hektoen Institute of Medicine (https://www.hektoen.org/) publishes Hektoen International, A Journal of Medical Humanities (https://hekint.org/at-a-glance/). Its purpose is to bring, “…culture into medicine…exposing healthcare professionals to art, ethics, literature, history, anthropology, literature, philosophy, religion, and sociology.”2 An informative issue offers a concise SMRY (Summary) of concerns when considering the use of acronyms and initialisms.3 To paraphrase the New England Journal of Medicine,4 “Authors should realize that their mission is to reach a large readership by a clear and simple presentation of their investigative result or educational message, and anything that hinders communication (e.g., ambiguous symbols and abbreviations that defy comprehension of ideas) defeats the purpose for which a medical article has been written.”Support was provided solely from institutional and/or departmental sources.The author declares no competing interests.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• A Retrospective and Prospective Cohort Study Comparing Pediatric Patients With Cleft Lip and Palate From the United States and Guatemala

  Journal of Craniofacial Surgery · 2023-07-14 · 5 citations

  article

  Orofacial clefts (OFC) remain among the most prevalent congenital abnormalities worldwide. In the United States in 2010 to 2014, 16.2 of 10,000 live births are born with OFC compared with 23.6 of 10,000 in Alta Verapaz, Guatemala in 2012. Demographics and cleft severity scores were retrospectively gathered from 514 patients with isolated OFC at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia scheduled for surgery from 2012 to 2019 and from 115 patients seen during surgical mission trips to Guatemala City from 2017 to 2020. Risk factors were also gathered prospectively from Guatemalan families. The Guatemalan cohort had a significantly lower prevalence of cleft palate only compared with the US cohort, which may be a result of greater cleft severity in the population or poor screening and subsequent increased mortality of untreated cleft palate. Of those with lip involvement, Guatemalan patients were significantly more likely to have complete cleft lip, associated cleft palate, and right-sided and bilateral clefts, demonstrating an increased severity of Guatemalan cleft phenotype. Primary palate and lip repair for the Guatemalan cohort occurred at a significantly older age than that of the US cohort, placing Guatemalan patients at increased risk for long-term complications such as communication difficulties. Potential OFC risk factors identified in the Guatemalan cohort included maternal cooking-fire and agricultural chemical exposure, poor prenatal vitamin intake, poverty, and risk factors related to primarily corn-based diets. OFC patients who primarily rely on surgical missions for cleft care would likely benefit from more comprehensive screening and investigation into risk factors for more severe OFC phenotypes.

  PublisherDOI

• Opioids: The Elephant in the Room

  Anesthesiology · 2022-10-13

  article1st authorCorresponding

  America is currently immersed in an opioid crisis brought on by the overprescription and misuse of oral outpatient opioids. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Atlanta, Georgia) current data report reveals that “More than 932,000 people have died since 1999 from a drug overdose. Nearly 75% of drug overdose deaths in 2020 involved an opioid.”1 The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (San Antonio, Texas) annual report noted that, “Among people aged 12 or older in 2020, 3.4% (or 9.5 million people) misused opioids [and]…an estimated 667,000 people misused prescription pain relievers and used heroin in the past year.”2 Some physicians and specifically anesthesiologists may think they fully grasp this calamity because they prescribe opioid analgesics. Unfortunately, some have firsthand experience with the devastating consequences of the opioid crisis. Others may not fully grasp this or are somewhat blind to the depth and breadth of the opioid crisis. I have a suggestion for all of us that is bound to aid understanding of the opioid crisis.American poet John Godfrey Saxe (1816 to 1887) graced us with his retelling of the Indian parable, “The Blind Men and the Elephant.”3 This tale reveals the very different accounts of what the elephant is as explained by the blind men who each touched a different part of the mammoth creature and described their impressions. Each was sure, yet none had seen the elephant. There certainly is some truth that beauty originates from the eyes (more than touch) of the beholder. I encourage you to read two current books about the opioid crisis to realize some of the parts of this multifaceted crisis.If you were the blind man feeling the economic arm of the opioid crisis, reading Patrick Keefe’s “Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty” will open your eyes. This book recounts the saga of siblings, Arthur, Mortimer, and Raymond Sackler, all well-educated physicians, who bought a small somewhat insignificant pharmaceutical company and cultivated it, with their children and faithful employees, into Purdue Pharma. Mortimer and Raymond focused on growing the company into a money-making powerhouse, peddling powerful analgesics, with the aid of Arthur’s expertise in medical advertising, a potent combination. Relaunching OxyContin treatment, Purdue Pharma executives instructed the company sales representatives to characterize its clinical properties as nonaddicting and more effective with increasing dose regimes. Reading on, the story recounts unscrupulous sales force strategies, such as those brought to the clinical community’s attention in 2009,4 that exploded OxyContin prescriptions yielding total sales of 35 billion dollars from 1996 to the present. As visible through Keefe’s book, the opioid crisis is a catastrophe attributable to the avarice of a family, who rationalized their behavior through their benefactor largesse, working side-by-side with lawyers and corporate executives who prioritized the bottom line, rather than patient benefit priorities.Beth Macy’s “Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company That Addicted America” offers a different glimpse of this elephant. This tome recounts the emotionally disturbing saga of people impacted by opioid use disorder. Dopesick is a collection of narratives of the patients and their families and friends who lived and grieved the consequences of the opioid abuse. The narrative expounds the personal stories chronicling the development of the crisis in rural Appalachia, a story universal to all communities attempting to cope with this malady. “Because many die [from opioid abuse] prematurely…surviving family members and communities lose out on benefits from an individual’s lifetime earnings. Opioid use disorder also results in costs associated with added health care expenses, criminal justice, lost productivity, and reduced quality of life. In 2017, these costs totaled an estimated $1.02 trillion—54% was attributed to overdose deaths and 46% to opioid use disorder…”5Keefe writes his text sensing the opioid crisis in a manner focused on and critical of the pharmaceutical industry; Macy writes her text focused on sensing the opioid crisis as a sadly disturbing empathetic concern about the personal stories of the victims. Elements of each author’s perspective appear in each other’s book. It is the emphasis on the economic versus human fallout that urges one to read both books to gain a more complete understanding of the elephant. “Empire of Pain” and “Dopesick” are written to provide astonishing detail that enables the blind man to see the elephant in the room, the opioid crisis.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• David R. Jobes

  Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

  19 shared

• Allan F. Simpao

  University of Pennsylvania

  18 shared

• Norig Ellison

  University of Pennsylvania

  15 shared

• Oksana A. Jackson

  Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

  15 shared

• Justin L. Lockman

  14 shared

• Elizabeth B. Card

  Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

  13 shared

• Juanma Ramírez

  University of the Basque Country

  13 shared

• Leonard R. Friedland

  GlaxoSmithKline (India)

  13 shared

Education

• B.A., Biology

  Temple University

  1968

• M.D.

  Temple University School of Medicine

  1972

• Other

  University of Pennsylvania

  1983