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Profiles

Brian Schwartz

Brian Schwartz
Image source: University of Toronto Department of Family and Community Medicine

Brian Schwartz is a Canadian emergency and public health physician. He is vice-president of Public Health Ontario[1] and an associate professor in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto.[2] During the declared COVID-19 pandemic, Schwartz served as co-chair of the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table (OST).[3]

History

Before entering public health, Schwartz practiced emergency medicine for over 30 years in community and academic settings. He was director of the [Sunnybrook Centre for Prehospital Care from 1996 to 2009.

Schwartz served as vice-chair of the Ontario SARS Scientific Advisory Committee in 2003.[4]

Schwartz served as Scientific Advisor to the Emergency Management Branch of the Ontario Ministry of Heath and Long-Term Care from 2004 to 2011. He was chair of the Ontario Scientific Response Team during the declared 2009 swine flu pandemic.[2:1]

Schwartz served as co-Incident Manager for health consequence management for the 2010 G8 Health System Coordination Committee.[2:2][5]

Schwartz obtained his medical degree and Master of Science in Community Health from the University of Toronto in 2012. He received his certification in emergency medicine from and is a fellow of the College of Family Physicians of Canada.

Schwartz has been a member of the Canadian Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Task Group since its inception.[6] He has attended meetings within Ontario related to pandemic preparedness, for which his expenses have been repaid by the Public Health Agency of Canada.[7]

In 2015, Schwartz co-authored authored a study that concluded that the “evidence base for public health emergency preparedness (PHEP) is weak” alongside Bonnie Henry and Eileen de Villa.[8] He also co-authored a May 2016 study finding that insufficient evidence existed to determine whether N95 masks were superior to surgical masks in protecting healthcare workers against acute respiratory infections.[9]

Schwartz has also contributed to research on communications strategies around climate change and extreme weather, funded by Public Health Ontario.[10]

COVID-19

Schwartz helped lead Ontario's response to the declared COVID-19 pandemic as co-chair of the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table (OST) alongside Adalsteinn Brown.[3:1]

Schwartz is a supervisor for a project titled “AI-driven solutions to mitigate the social and psychological impact of COVID-19”, which includes engaging with “vaccine advancement models” to “address the COVID-19 data misinformation.”[11]

Publications

  1. Dr. Brian Schwartz. Public Health Ontario. Retrieved January 25, 2022, from http://archive.vn/2022.01.25-082238/https://www.publichealthontario.ca/en/about/research/our-researchers/brian-schwartz ↩︎

  2. Schwartz, Brian. Dalla Lana School of Public Health. Retrieved January 25, 2022, from http://archive.vn/2022.01.25-082601/https://www.dlsph.utoronto.ca/faculty-profile/schwartz-brian/ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎

  3. About Us. Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table. Retrieved January 24, 2022, from https://covid19-sciencetable.ca/about/#schwartz-brian ↩︎ ↩︎

  4. Zoutman, D., & Schwartz, B. (2003). The Ontario SARS Scientific Advisory Committee. Government of Ontario. http://www.archives.gov.on.ca/en/e_records/sars/hearings/03Wed.pdf/Wed_12_45_The_Ontario_SARS_Scientific_Advisory_Committee.pdf ↩︎

  5. 2010 G8 Summit SMDHU Preparedness & Response Plan. (2010, June). Simcoe Muskoka Health. https://www.simcoemuskokahealth.org/docs/default-source/topic-emergencyprep/g8_summit_plan ↩︎

  6. Henry, B on behalf of the Canadian Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Task Group. (2019). Canadian pandemic influenza preparedness: Public health measures strategy. Canada Communicable Disease Report, 45(6), 159–163. https://doi.org/10.14745/ccdr.v45i06a03 ↩︎

  7. Schwartz, B. (2020). Declaration of Interest. Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table. https://covid19-sciencetable.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Declaration-of-Interest_Science-Table_Brian-Schwartz.pdf ↩︎

  8. Khan, Y., Fazli, G., Henry, B., de Villa, E., Tsamis, C., Grant, M., & Schwartz, B. (2015). The evidence base of primary research in public health emergency preparedness: a scoping review and stakeholder consultation. BMC Public Health, 15(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-015-1750-1 ↩︎

  9. Smith, J. D., MacDougall, C. C., Johnstone, J., Copes, R. A., Schwartz, B., & Garber, G. E. (2016). Effectiveness of N95 respirators versus surgical masks in protecting health care workers from acute respiratory infection: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Canadian Medical Association Journal, 188(8), 567–574. https://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.150835 ↩︎

  10. MacIntyre, E., Khanna, S., Darychuk, A., Copes, R., & Schwartz, B. (2019). Evidence synthesis - Evaluating risk communication during extreme weather and climate change: a scoping review. Synthèse des données probantes - Évaluation de la communication des risques en présence de changements climatiques et de phénomènes météorologiques extrêmes : examen de la portée. Health promotion and chronic disease prevention in Canada : research, policy and practice, 39(4), 142–156. https://doi.org/10.24095/hpcdp.39.4.06 ↩︎

  11. AI-driven solutions to mitigate the social and psychological impact of COVID-19. (2021, September 1). Canadian Research Information System. http://archive.vn/2022.05.19-000500/https://webapps.cihr-irsc.gc.ca/cris/detail_e?pResearchId=9769934&p_version=CRIS&p_language=E&p_session_id=3693158 ↩︎