Dr. Ira Schwartz is a Professor of Pediatrics, An Associate Dean of medical education and student affairs, and the Director of admissions at Emory University School of Medicine. Dr. Schwartz earned his bachelor’s degree from Union College, his MD from Chicago medical school, did his residency in pediatrics at Children’s Memorial Hospital at Northwestern University medical center, and then complete a fellowship in infectious diseases at the University of Chicago. Somewhere in there he spent a year as part of the international rescue committee in Thailand and 3 years as a member of the epidemic intelligence service in the division of parasitic diseases at the CDC. I have been wanting to have this conversation with Dr. Schwartz for a long time, partly because his career path demonstrates the opportunity for diverse experience in academic medicine, and partly because of his role as the director of admissions. His task, for many years, has been to try to put together a cohesive class of budding physicians and distill down tens of thousands of applications into roughly 150 accepted applicants. Today we discuss his process, and the process of the admissions committee at large, for doing so, while exploring his own unique journey in medicine and how it has shaped his perspective on medicine and those who practice it.

Credits:

Our thanks to Dr. Schwartz for being on the podcast.

Dr. Schwartz’s Faculty Page: https://med.emory.edu/education/emorydocs/bios/ira-schwartz.html

Host: Bejan Saeedi

Executive Producers:

- Bejan Saeedi

- Joe Behnke

- Michael Sayegh

- Carey Jansen

Faculty Advisors

- Dr. Brian Robinson

Twitter: @behindthescope_

Instagram: @behindthemicroscopepod

Facebook: @behindthemicroscope1

Website: behindthemicroscope.com