
- 2019 Award in Excellence in Clinical Pharmacology
- 1982 Faculty Development Award in Clinical Pharmacology
Janice B. Schwartz, MD, a Professor of Medicine in Geriatrics and Clinical Pharmacology at the University of California, San Francisco, is a board-certified internist and cardiologist with a distinguished record of leadership and research in clinical pharmacology and geriatric medicine.
Dr. Schwartz received her medical degree from Tulane University School of Medicine and completed an internship in internal medicine at LAC/USC Medical Center and internal medicine residency training at Cedar Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles. She began cardiology training at Cedar Sinai followed by a combined clinical and research cardiology fellowship at Stanford University, where she focused on evaluation of new cardiovascular drugs in clinical populations.
She began her faculty career in the Department of Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in the Divisions of Cardiology and Clinical Pharmacology. It was here that she received her first research funding from the AHA and a faculty development funding grant from the PhRMA Foundation, allowing her to combine her clinical research with training in clinical pharmacology and laboratory procedures to pursue her goal of understanding alterations in drug responses in older patients. Following three years at Baylor, she became a faculty member at the University of California, San Francisco with joint appointments in the Schools of Medicine and Pharmacy. She spent her Assistant Professor through Associate Professor years at the University of California, where she was a core faculty member for the clinical pharmacology fellowship training program throughout. She completed mid-career training in geriatrics at UCLA in 1990, led the UCSF Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine Training Program from 1991-1995 and served on the Scientific Advisory Committee to the General Clinical Research Center. In 1995, she became Professor of Medicine and Chief of Geriatrics and Chief of Clinical Pharmacology at Northwestern University Medical School and Professor of Molecular Pharmacology and Biological Chemistry. She was also Chair of the Northwestern Hospital Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee and Director of the Drug Assay laboratory and Associate Director, Buehler Center on Aging, McGaw Medical Center and Director, Geriatric Medicine Fellowship Program.
Dr. Schwartz returned to the University of California, San Francisco in 2000 as Professor of Medicine and Pharmacy and Director of Research at the Jewish Home San Francisco, where she has served as a core faculty member of the clinical pharmacology training program as well as a member of the graduate training programs in pharmacy and medicine.
She has been an active member of cardiology, clinical pharmacology and geriatric professional societies, including serving as President of the Society for Geriatric Cardiology and Vice President of the American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics (ASCPT), past member of the Board of Directors and a former member of the ASCPT Editorial Board. She was a recipient of the William B. Abrams Award in Geriatric Clinical Pharmacology from ASCPT. She has served on NIH peer review committees for more than sixteen years during her career and served on the Advisory Panel on Geriatrics, USP Pharmacopeial Convention, Inc., and on the Institute of Medicine’s Committee on Pharmacokinetics and Drug Interactions in the Elderly.
She was a member of the Technical Expert Panel on Chronic Disease and Preventive Services, Doctor’s Office Quality Project, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and a Member and Safety Officer, Data Safety and Monitoring Board, Addiction Pharmacology Research Program, California Pacific Medical Center.
Dr. Schwartz’s research has focused on understanding drug responses to medications and especially factors leading to altered drug responses in older people. She has utilized laboratory and clinical investigations to investigate changes in cardiovascular function and rhythm, the autonomic system, and drug pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics in models of healthy aging and in patient populations including the frail elderly. Her work has improved the understanding of age and disease-related effects that can lead to improved use of therapeutic medications. She has also elucidated gender differences in drug metabolism and responses that are especially pertinent in the clinical care of patients. Working within both the research and clinical worlds has provided the opportunity to translate research findings into clinical practice and to train and mentor others. Her goal of improving medication therapy for older patients has also led to efforts beyond research in the form of contributing to textbooks for health care professionals, creating on-line educational content for health care professionals, and writing on medication and health- related issues in the lay press.
Dr. Schwartz has received continuous funding from the National Institutes of Health since 1985 that has resulted in over 140 publications in scientific peer reviewed journals. She has authored 18 book chapters, including one on treatment of the elderly with cardiovascular disease in the premier textbook of cardiology for the past three editions. She has served on the editorial boards of a number of scientific journals and is currently an Associate Editor of Trends in Cardiovascular Medicine. Her writings have also reached out to the public to improve patient-centered care through an Expert Advice Health column for the San Francisco Chronicle and to improve the lives of older adults living in the community as a Board member of At Home with Growing Older, a Bay Area non-profit.