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Rachel Schwartz, PhD

Title(s)Assistant Professor, Anesthesia
SchoolSchool of Medicine
Emailrachel.schwartz@ucsf.edu
PronounsShe/Her/Hers
ORCID ORCID Icon0000-0001-8125-9492 Additional info
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    Collapse Biography 
    Collapse education and training
    VA Palo Alto Health Care System / Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA2019Health Services Research & Development Fellowship
    AcademyHealth Fellowship, Palo Alto Medical Foundation Research Institute, Palo Alto, CA2016Delivery System Science Fellowship
    McGill University, Montreal, QuebecPhD2015Communication Sciences & Disorders
    UCLA, Los Angeles, CABA2008Linguistics

    Collapse Overview 
    Collapse overview
    Dr. Rachel Schwartz is a mixed-methods Communication Scientist and Health Services Researcher focused on system-level interventions for improving clinician and biomedical scientist retention and well-being, optimizing interprofessional team communication, efficiency of practice, and patient safety. She has expertise in implementation science and focuses on developing evidence-based innovations that facilitate alignment across stakeholders.

    She is the lead editor of Emotion in the Clinical Encounter (McGraw Hill, 2021), a medical education textbook that provides clinicians with tools for navigating psychosocial aspects of the medical encounter.

    Additional areas of interest include improving mentoring & sponsorship in academic medicine, exploring the unique professional needs of physician-scientists, and providing research mentorship on projects focusing on global health and underserved populations.
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    Collapse Research 
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    Customized Research Education for Surgeons and Anesthesiologists Advancing Perioperative Health Equity in Resource-Limited Settings
    UCSF Innovations Funding for Education Jul 1, 2024 - Jun 30, 2025
    Role: Co-I
    Description: Over five billion people lack access to safe surgical care. Lack of professional development opportunities for surgeons and anesthesiologists practicing in resource-limited settings compounds this inequity. To address this need, the UCSF Center for Health Equity in Surgery and Anesthesia (CHESA) curated a one-year, multidisciplinary training program for UCSF trainees and emerging low-and-middle-income (LMIC) leaders in global anesthesia and surgery who demonstrate passion and potential in improving perioperative health equity through education, research and advocacy. The fellowship provides mentorship, funding to implement projects that improve perioperative health equity in their localities and a flexible curriculum to participate remotely or in-person. However, the curriculum lacks supplementary educational resources tailored to those serving vulnerable populations in rural, distant and resource-limited settings. This project will focus on developing, in collaboration with UCSF and international partners, digital, resource-limited setting-centric video- and case-based modules highlighting selected research fundamentals and methodologies.
    Exploring the Impact and Value of Early Medical Students’ Improvement Projects: An Interview Study of Health System Leaders
    UCSF Innovations Funding for Education Jul 1, 2024 - Jun 30, 2025
    Role: Principal Investigator
    Description: The UCSF Clinical Microsystems Clerkship (CMC) is a curricular innovation that embeds all 330 MS1s and MS2s at SFVAHCS, UCSF and ZSFG, contributing over 10,000 person-hours yearly to advancing health systems improvement. While the preceptor and student perspectives of the value of the CMC have been previously explored, the perspectives of health system leaders regarding this health system/medical school collaboration are unknown. This project will explore the value and impact of early medical students’ health systems improvement efforts from the perspective of approximately 20 interprofessional healthcare system and academic leaders with the goal to produce guidelines that inform the development and evaluation of future CMC projects.
    Training to Enhance Researcher Resilience and Adaptability (TERRA)
    NIH NIGMS R25GM153811Apr 1, 2024 - Mar 30, 2026
    Role: Principal Investigator
    Description: Biomedical research scientists face unique career challenges that, if unaddressed, hinder the success, well-being, and ultimately retention of this specialized workforce. This project will provide tailored curricular support to meet these threats to well-being through a comprehensive exploration of the diverse experiences of biomedical research scientists, across specialties and career stages. After testing and refining the educational material, the modules will be made freely available to support the well-being of our biomedical research scientist workforce.

    Collapse ORNG Applications 
    Collapse Featured Publications
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    Collapse Bibliographic 
    Collapse selected publications
    Publications listed below are automatically derived from MEDLINE/PubMed and other sources, which might result in incorrect or missing publications. Researchers can login to make corrections and additions, or contact us for help. to make corrections and additions.
    Newest   |   Oldest   |   Most Cited   |   Most Discussed   |   Timeline   |   Field Summary   |   Plain Text
    Altmetrics Details PMC Citations indicate the number of times the publication was cited by articles in PubMed Central, and the Altmetric score represents citations in news articles and social media. (Note that publications are often cited in additional ways that are not shown here.) Fields are based on how the National Library of Medicine (NLM) classifies the publication's journal and might not represent the specific topic of the publication. Translation tags are based on the publication type and the MeSH terms NLM assigns to the publication. Some publications (especially newer ones and publications not in PubMed) might not yet be assigned Field or Translation tags.) Click a Field or Translation tag to filter the publications.
    1. Seven Empathy Myths: Correcting Misconceptions About a Complex Construct. Social and Personality Psychology Compass. 2025. Alison Jane Martingano, Sara Konrath, Danielle Blanch-Hartigan, Mark H. Davis, Judith A. Hall, Mollie A. Ruben, Justin J. Sanders, Rachel Schwartz. . View Publication.
    2. What Is Clinical Empathy in Anesthesiology? Perspectives From Practicing Anesthesiologists. A & A Practice. 2025; 19(9):e02045. Stosic, Morgan D.; Ruben, Mollie A.; Weaver, Adele E.; Blanch-Hartigan, Danielle; Sanders, Justin J.; Schwartz, Rachel; Jeong, Sunny; Lam, Ryan; Hall, Judith A.; Duong, Fred; Meyer, Elaine C.; Waisel, David; Blum, Richard H. View Publication.
    3. Patient Perspectives and Concerns Regarding Cataract Surgery and Cataract Surgery Sedation: A Qualitative Study. Clin Ophthalmol. 2025; 19:2011-2020. Molina L, Lyang N, Schwartz R, Parikh N, Ramanathan S, Huang AJ, Chen CL. PMID: 40599497; PMCID: PMC12212095.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 1  
    4. Clinical team flow in the perioperative environment: a qualitative single-centre study. Br J Anaesth. 2025 Mar; 134(3):882-884. Coss NA, Sinskey JL, van den Hout J, Chang JM, Legrand M, Schwartz R. PMID: 39863471; PMCID: PMC11867068.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions:    Fields:    
    5. Comparing GPT-4 and Human Researchers in Health Care Data Analysis: Qualitative Description Study. J Med Internet Res. 2024 Aug 21; 26:e56500. Li KD, Fernandez AM, Schwartz R, Rios N, Carlisle MN, Amend GM, Patel HV, Breyer BN. PMID: 39167785; PMCID: PMC11375389.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 2     Fields:    Translation:Humans
    6. Looking Across the Drape: A Novel Quality Improvement Approach to Understanding Surgeon and Anesthesiologist Burnout. Ann Surg. 2024 Dec 01; 280(6):e2-e7. Sinskey JL, Schwartz R, Boscardin CK, Chang JM, Kumar SB, Lebares CC. PMID: 38375660.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions:    Fields:    Translation:Humans
    7. Building Authentic Connection in the Patient-Physician Relationship. J Prim Care Community Health. 2024 Jan-Dec; 15:21501319231225996. Fuehrer S, Weil A, Osterberg LG, Zulman DM, Meunier MR, Schwartz R. PMID: 38281122; PMCID: PMC10823846.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 7     Fields:    Translation:Humans
    8. Does Sponsorship Promote Equity in Career Advancement in Academic Medicine? A Scoping Review. J Gen Intern Med. 2024 Feb; 39(3):470-480. Schwartz R, Williams MF, Feldman MD. PMID: 38055164; PMCID: PMC10897109.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 5     Fields:    Translation:Humans
    9. Using Their Words to Shape Curricula: Targeted Well-Being Programming for Graduate Medical Education Trainees. Acad Psychiatry. 2024 Aug; 48(4):365-372. Anand U, Schwartz R, Stonnington CM. PMID: 38017332.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 2     Fields:    Translation:Humans
    10. On the proliferation of the empathy concept in healthcare and medical education research. Patient Educ Couns. 2024 Feb; 119:108041. Hall JA, Duong F, Schwartz R. PMID: 37945425.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions:    Fields:    Translation:Humans
    11. Developing a feedback-rich culture in academic medicine: the effect of coaching and 360-feedback on physician leadership. BMC Med Educ. 2022 Oct 24; 22(1):733. Schwartz R, Weimer-Elder B, Wilkins E, Deka D, Wong S, Dang BK, Brown R, Kline M, Kwan L. PMID: 36280819; PMCID: PMC9590387.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 2     Fields:    Translation:Humans
    12. Retaining Providers with Women's Health Expertise: Decreased Provider Loss Among VHA Women's Health Faculty Development Program Attendees. J Gen Intern Med. 2022 09; 37(Suppl 3):786-790. Farkas AH, Merriam S, Frayne S, Hardman L, Schwartz R, Kolehmainen C. PMID: 36042098; PMCID: PMC9427435.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 2     Fields:    Translation:Humans
    13. Reply to "Empathic communication: The premise of inclusive care for historically excluded populations". Cancer. 2022 07 15; 128(14):2838-2839. Schwartz R, Blanch-Hartigan D, Valbuena G, Weil A, Dubey M, Catzen HZ, Hall JA, Sanders JJ. PMID: 35471702.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions:    Fields:    Translation:Humans
    14. Physicians, emotion, and the clinical encounter: A survey of physicians' experiences. Patient Educ Couns. 2022 07; 105(7):2299-2306. Schwartz R, Osterberg LG, Hall JA. PMID: 35287992.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 2     Fields:    Translation:Humans
    15. Reference-free discovery of nuclear SNPs permits accurate, sensitive identification of Carya (hickory) species and hybrids. Appl Plant Sci. 2022 Jan-Feb; 10(1):e11455. Literman RA, Ott BM, Wen J, Grauke LJ, Schwartz RS, Handy SM. PMID: 35228913; PMCID: PMC8861591.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 2  
    16. Empathy, an important but problematic concept. J Soc Psychol. 2022 Jan 02; 162(1):1-6. Hall JA, Schwartz R. PMID: 34978951.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 6     Fields:    Translation:Humans
    17. The effect of a relationship-centered communication program on patient experience and provider wellness. Patient Educ Couns. 2022 07; 105(7):1988-1995. Altamirano J, Kline M, Schwartz R, Fassiotto M, Maldonado Y, Weimer-Elder B. PMID: 34772532.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 9     Fields:    Translation:Humans
    18. Emotion in the Clinical Encounter. 2021. Schwartz, Rachel Hall, Judith A. Osterberg, Lars G. View Publication.
    19. Using ethnographic methods to classify the human experience in medicine: a case study of the presence ontology. J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2021 08 13; 28(9):1900-1909. Maitra A, Kamdar MR, Zulman DM, Haverfield MC, Brown-Johnson C, Schwartz R, Israni ST, Verghese A, Musen MA. PMID: 34151988; PMCID: PMC8363802.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 1     Fields:    Translation:Humans
    20. What is empathy? Oncology patient perspectives on empathic clinician behaviors. Cancer. 2021 Nov 15; 127(22):4258-4265. Sanders JJ, Dubey M, Hall JA, Catzen HZ, Blanch-Hartigan D, Schwartz R. PMID: 34351620.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 16     Fields:    Translation:Humans
    21. Physician empathy according to physicians: A multi-specialty qualitative analysis. Patient Educ Couns. 2021 10; 104(10):2425-2431. Schwartz R, Dubey M, Blanch-Hartigan D, Sanders JJ, Hall JA. PMID: 34330597.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 8     Fields:    Translation:Humans
    22. Harnessing the Chaplain's Capacity to Identify Unmet Palliative Needs of Vulnerable Older Adults in the Emergency Department. J Palliat Care. 2022 Oct; 37(4):480-485. Hamill Howard E, Schwartz R, Feldstein B, Grudzen M, Klein L, Piderman KM, Wang D. PMID: 33818162.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 1     Fields:    Translation:Humans
    23. What is clinical empathy? Perspectives of community members, university students, cancer patients, and physicians. Patient Educ Couns. 2021 05; 104(5):1237-1245. Hall JA, Schwartz R, Duong F, Niu Y, Dubey M, DeSteno D, Sanders JJ. PMID: 33234440.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 11     Fields:    Translation:Humans
    24. Retaining VA Women's Health Primary Care Providers: Work Setting Matters. J Gen Intern Med. 2021 03; 36(3):614-621. Schwartz R, Frayne SM, Friedman S, Romodan Y, Berg E, Haskell SG, Shaw JG. PMID: 33063204; PMCID: PMC7947068.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 5     Fields:    Translation:Humans
    25. How do laypeople define empathy? J Soc Psychol. 2021 Jan 02; 161(1):5-24. Hall JA, Schwartz R, Duong F. PMID: 32870130.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 4     Fields:    Translation:Humans
    26. Addressing Postpandemic Clinician Mental Health : A Narrative Review and Conceptual Framework. Ann Intern Med. 2020 12 15; 173(12):981-988. Schwartz R, Sinskey JL, Anand U, Margolis RD. PMID: 32822206; PMCID: PMC7450528.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 34     Fields:    Translation:HumansCellsPHPublic Health
    27. Can Patient-Provider Interpersonal Interventions Achieve the Quadruple Aim of Healthcare? A Systematic Review. J Gen Intern Med. 2020 07; 35(7):2107-2117. Haverfield MC, Tierney A, Schwartz R, Bass MB, Brown-Johnson C, Zionts DL, Safaeinili N, Fischer M, Shaw JG, Thadaney S, Piccininni G, Lorenz KA, Asch SM, Verghese A, Zulman DM. PMID: 31919725; PMCID: PMC7351919.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 38     Fields:    Translation:Humans
    28. Practices to Foster Physician Presence and Connection With Patients in the Clinical Encounter. JAMA. 2020 01 07; 323(1):70-81. Zulman DM, Haverfield MC, Shaw JG, Brown-Johnson CG, Schwartz R, Tierney AA, Zionts DL, Safaeinili N, Fischer M, Thadaney Israni S, Asch SM, Verghese A. PMID: 31910284.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 98     Fields:    Translation:Humans
    29. Developing institutional infrastructure for physician wellness: qualitative Insights from VA physicians. BMC Health Serv Res. 2020 Jan 03; 20(1):7. Schwartz R, Shanafelt TD, Gimmler C, Osterberg L. PMID: 31900137; PMCID: PMC6942336.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 8     Fields:    Translation:Humans
    30. What is clinician presence? A qualitative interview study comparing physician and non-physician insights about practices of human connection. BMJ Open. 2019 11 03; 9(11):e030831. Brown-Johnson C, Schwartz R, Maitra A, Haverfield MC, Tierney A, Shaw JG, Zionts DL, Safaeinili N, Thadaney Israni S, Verghese A, Zulman DM. PMID: 31685506; PMCID: PMC6858153.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 14     Fields:    Translation:Humans
    31. Neurologist Strategies for Optimizing the Parkinson's Disease Clinical Encounter. J Geriatr Psychiatry Neurol. 2019 09; 32(5):246-256. Schwartz R, Trivedi R, Gray C, Lorenz KA, Zulman D. PMID: 31046525.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 6     Fields:    Translation:Humans
    32. Transdisciplinary Strategies for Physician Wellness: Qualitative Insights from Diverse Fields. J Gen Intern Med. 2019 07; 34(7):1251-1257. Schwartz R, Haverfield MC, Brown-Johnson C, Maitra A, Tierney A, Bharadwaj S, Shaw JG, Azimpour F, Thadaney Israni S, Verghese A, Zulman DM. PMID: 31037542; PMCID: PMC6614234.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 8     Fields:    Translation:Humans
    33. "It's a disease of families": Neurologists' insights on how to improve communication and quality of life for families of Parkinson's disease patients. Chronic Illn. 2020 09; 16(3):201-211. Schwartz R, Zulman D, Gray C, Goldstein MK, Trivedi R. PMID: 30208725.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 5     Fields:    Translation:Humans
    34. Empathy present and future. J Soc Psychol. 2019; 159(3):225-243. Hall JA, Schwartz R. PMID: 29781776.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 71     Fields:    Translation:Humans
    35. Changing the Game for Hand Hygiene Conversations. Hosp Pediatr. 2018 03; 8(3):168-169. Schwartz R, Sharek PJ. PMID: 29437888.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 1     Fields:    Translation:HumansPHPublic Health
    36. Unaltered emotional experience in Parkinson's disease: Pupillometry and behavioral evidence. J Clin Exp Neuropsychol. 2018 04; 40(3):303-316. Schwartz R, Rothermich K, Kotz SA, Pell MD. PMID: 28669253.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 3     Fields:    Translation:Humans
    37. Current trends in the diagnosis and management of gestational diabetes mellitus in the United States. J Matern Fetal Neonatal Med. 2017 Nov; 30(21):2607-2612. Bimson BE, Rosenn BM, Morris SA, Sasso EB, Schwartz RA, Brustman LE. PMID: 27819164.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 4     Fields:    Translation:Humans
    38. When emotion and expression diverge: The social costs of Parkinson's disease. J Clin Exp Neuropsychol. 2017 Apr; 39(3):211-230. Schwartz R, Pell MD. PMID: 27548715.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 6     Fields:    Translation:Humans
    39. Mechanisms of change in cognitive therapy for obsessive compulsive disorder: role of maladaptive beliefs and schemas. Behav Res Ther. 2015 Feb; 65:5-10. Wilhelm S, Berman NC, Keshaviah A, Schwartz RA, Steketee G. PMID: 25544403; PMCID: PMC4313532.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 20     Fields:    Translation:Humans
    40. Emotional speech processing at the intersection of prosody and semantics. PLoS One. 2012; 7(10):e47279. Schwartz R, Pell MD. PMID: 23118868; PMCID: PMC3485297.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 7     Fields:    Translation:Humans
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