Dr. Carolyn E. Schwartz has been involved in research on psychosocial factors in health for over a decade, with an emphasis on developing new measures and new quantitative methods which are patient-centered. This work has included the psychometric development of a number of new measures of constructs including coping flexibility (Schwartz, Peng, Lester, Daltroy, and Goldberger, 1998), self-efficacy (Schwartz, Coulthard-Morris, Zeng et al. 1996), neurologic function (Schwartz, Vollmer, Lee, and NARCOMS, 1999), and importance ratings (Schwartz, Mathias, Pasta, Colwell, Rapkin, Genderson, and Henning, 1999). It has also included the development of the Extended Q-TWiST method, an approach for evaluating treatments which integrates the perspectives of the patient, the provider and social cost in a single analysis. The original Q-TWiST was developed for use in cancer and AIDS clinical trials to compare treatments in terms of the quality-adjusted time (Gelber, Cole, and Goldhirsch 1995; Gelber, Lenderking, Cotton, et al. 1992; Goldhirsch, Gelber, Simes, et al. 1989). Its extension allows quality-adjusted comparisons for clinical trials of cancer as well as other chronic conditions, and uses patient-derived values to weight QOL scores at each point in time (Schwartz, Cole, and Gelber 1995a; Schwartz, Cole, Vickrey, and Gelber, 1995b; Schwartz, Coulthard-Morris, Cole, and Vollmer, 1997). The Extended Q-TWiST is currently being applied by other investigators in randomized trials in the USA, Canada, and Europe for diverse populations, including multiple sclerosis, systemic lupus erythematosus, sleep apnea, gastroesophageal reflux disease, epilepsy, and various cancer sites.

In the course of this developmental work on the Extended Q-TWiST method, it became clear that understanding the functionality of preference changes (i.e., response shifts) would be critical to validating the method. This understanding led to the development of a theoretical model (Sprangers and Schwartz, 1999), delineating methods for assessing response shifts (Schwartz and Sprangers, 1999), and preliminary research on the impact of response shifts on outcomes research (Schwartz, Feinberg, Jilinskaia, and Carey, 1999) and longitudinal observational research (Schwartz, Sprangers, and Carey, under review). Dr. Schwartz is currently developing a measurement model for response shift (Rapkin and Schwartz, in preparation) and collecting data using new assessment methods to evaluate response shifts in primary care and cancer patient populations.

Dr. Carolyn E. Schwartz earned a bachelor's degree Magna Cum Laude (1982)in Psychology from UCLA, a master's degree in Clinical Psychology (1985) at the University of Connecticut, and a Doctor of Science degree (Sc.D., 1990) from the Harvard School of Public Health with an emphasis on Behavioral Sciences, Biostatistics, and Immunology/Cancer Biology. She did her post-doctoral training in multiple sclerosis at the Center for Neurologic Diseases of the Brigham and Women's Hospital of Harvard Medical School. She founded and headed the Behavioral Science Research Program (1993-1999) at Frontier Science and Technology Research Foundation (a not-for-profit research foundation), and was a member of the Psychiatry faculty at Harvard Medical School (1995-1999). She recently joined the faculty as Associate Professor and Associate Director of Research in the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. A specialist in outcomes research and measurement development, her interdisciplinary and methodological research focuses on understanding what patients can do to have an impact on the course of their disease and their well-being. Her current research involves developing measures of response shift for clinical research, as well as developing new outcome measures and psychosocial interventions for end of life care. She is on the editorial board of Psychosomatic Medicine and the International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, and is an ad hoc reviewer for numerous journals and granting agencies. She is a Fellow of the Society of Behavioral Medicine, and is on the Council of the American Psychosomatic Society. Her publications span the fields of behavioral medicine, health services research, neurology, and oncology.