Massachusetts General Hospital

Biography

Dr. Lee Schwamm is Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School, and Vice Chairman of Neurology at the Massachusetts General Hospital, where he is the Director of Acute Stroke Services. He also acts as Director of the Partners TeleStroke Center, a network which currently provides acute stroke consultation services to 27 rural and community hospitals in Massachusetts and Northern New England. His clinical interests are in Cerebrovascular Diseases, Intensive Care Medicine, Brain Imaging and Applied Healthcare Technology. Dr. Schwamm is a recognized leader in the field on the acute stroke treatment, stroke advocacy, and in the use of telemedicine and other technology strategies to improve the quality of stroke care. He has played a pivotal role in the development and leadership of the American Heart Association's National Get With the Guidelines-Stroke program, and is currently chair of the national steering committee. He also serves as a consultant or technical expert to the Massachusetts Dept of Public Health, the CDC's Paul Coverdell National Acute Stroke Registry, the Joint Commission Primary Stroke Center program, National Quality Forum and Canadian Stroke Registry.

Research

Dr. Schwamm is the author of over 100 publications in the field of cerberovascular disease, with works published in the major academic journals in the field. He serves on the editorial boards of the journals Stroke and Neurocritical Care. His research has been funded by Harvard Medical School, Harvard University, the Aetna Foundation, Dana Foundation, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, The US Dept of HHS Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), Massachusetts Department of Public Health, CIMIT and the Department of the Army.

Publications

View my most recent publications at PubMed

Home for Christmas

One year ago, a team of intensive care experts at Massachusetts General Hospital collaborated to save Karla Leavenworth's life.

Videoconferencing can increase patient access to stroke specialists

Massachusetts General Hospital neurologist Dr. Lee Schwamm leads a national policy endorsing telestroke as an effective means of stroke evaluation.

MGH receives GWTG-Stroke gold award

MGH Hotline 07.31.09 Massachusetts General Hospital has struck gold once again with the 2009 Get With The Guidelines (GWTG)-Stroke Gold Performance Achievement Award, sponsored by the American Stroke Association, a division of the American Heart Association.

Acute Stroke Quality Task Force recognizes fastest treatment time

MGH Hotline 02.04.11 TIME IS BRAIN when it comes to treating stroke.

Care redesign teams move forward with recommendations

The Partners Strategic Initiative is an ongoing effort to improve care and increase efficiency across all Partners institutions, including the MGH.

Robert Leffert, MD, Palliative Care Memorial Lecture established

To care for Robert Leffert, MD, as he faced a terminal cancer diagnosis, Vicki Jackson, MD, MPH, chief of the MGH Palliative Care Service, had to learn about all aspects of who he was – not only an MGH physician and Harvard professor, but also a decorated veteran and kid who grew up in Brooklyn.

Leffert lecture addresses aging population

The second annual Robert Leffert, MD, Palliative Care Memorial Lecture took place Nov. 27 in the O’Keeffe Auditorium, featuring Christine Ritchie, MD, Harris Fishbon Distinguished Professor for Clinical and Translational Research in Aging in the Division of Geriatrics at the University of California San Francisco.

Upping the Odds of Stroke Recovery

Emergency room doctors face a quandary when a patient rolls in with a stroke: is it due to a clot blocking the brain’s blood supply (ischemic) or to a burst blood vessel (hemorrhagic)?

TeleStroke: Real-time Resources for Better Patient Care

Through the TeleStroke network, 30 emergency departments across the northeast have real-time access to stroke experts 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Videoconferencing can increase patient access to stroke specialists

High-quality videoconferencing can increase patient access to stroke specialists; and a transient ischemic attack, once known as a “mini” or “warning” stroke, should be treated with the same urgency as a full-blown stroke, according to two separate statements published today in Stroke.

Blacks less likely than whites, Hispanics to get evidence-based stroke care

Blacks hospitalized with the most common type of stroke are less likely than white or Hispanic patients to receive evidence-based stroke care, according to a new study in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

Mass General receives top honor for stroke patients’ quality of care

Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) has received a top honor from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) for its commitment to improving its quality of care to stroke patients. The “2013 Stroke Collaborative Reaching for Excellence (SCORE) Defect-Free Care Award” recognizes the MGH for providing defect-free care to more than 80 percent of patients admitted with stroke over the course of a year