Richard Schwartz

Department Chair

Professor

Academic Appointment(s)

Bio

Dr. Schwartz is a 1989 graduate of Wayne State University School of Medicine. He completed his internship at William Beaumont Army Medical Center and then completed his Emergency Medicine Residency training at Madigan Army Medical Center in Tacoma, Washington. He has extensive military operational experience. He served with the 5^th Special Forces Group (Airborne) during Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm. He also served with the 1^st Special Warfare Training Group (Airborne) and the Joint Special Operations Command (Airborne). Dr. Schwartz was Chief of Emergency Medicine at Eisenhower Army Medical Center before joining the MCG faculty and received numerous awards during his Army service including the bronze star and two meritorious service medals.

Dr. Schwartz was recruited to the Medical College of Georgia, Department of Emergency Medicine as the Residency Program Director in 1998 and was promoted to Director of Academic Programs in December 2001. In January 2003, Dr. Schwartz was named Director for the Center of Operational Medicine within the Department of Emergency Medicine. The Center embodies EMS, Tactical and Military Medicine, Disaster Medicine, International Medicine, Wilderness and Survival Medicine, Event Medicine, and Maritime Medicine. Dr. Schwartz was named Chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine at the Medical College of Georgia in August 2004 and remains in that position today.

While at MCG, he has been instrumental in curriculum development. He was one of the original developers of the National Disaster Life Support Courses. These innovative courses such as Basic and Advanced Disaster Life Support (BDLS and ADLS) bridge the gap between numerous military and civilian groups that may need to work together during major disasters. The courses have been taught in forty-eight states leading to the training of over one hundred thousand providers. More recently he has worked on the development of standardized training for tactical emergency medical support. He is very active in research pertaining to improving the methods employed in austere and disaster medical situations. His relevant publications include three Disaster Medicine textbooks (editor) and chapters in three additional texts. Dr. Schwartz has published extensively in the field with numerous abstracts and peer-reviewed articles pertaining to Disaster Medicine. Dr. Schwartz was an active participant in the Terrorism Injuries, Information, Dissemination and Exchange (TIIDE) project with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). This project has helped lead effort for standardized disaster triage through the National Association for EMS Physicians (NAEMSP). He has led the development of a Georgia Tele-Emergency Medicine program, linking rural hospitals with state of the art emergency care. He is also a medical device innovator and has developed a unique video airway management system and hemorrhage control device. He holds fourteen patents.

Specialty Focus: Disaster Medicine, Tactical Medicine, Military Medicine, Airway Management, Hemorrhage Control, Tele-Medicine