Not only has Lisa significantly enhanced the discussion about how best to communicate risk, and exposed the tactics employed by many in the pharmaceutical industry to increase sales and “adherence” to their brand-name medications, and continuously called for greater transparency in medicine, she also touched so many of us deeply as a caring and committed educator, colleague, and friend who always seemed to have time for us. The impact that Lisa had on the medical community, the media, and the public at large was substantial. And as the chief medical researcher for Consumer Reports, I made absolutely sure that all of our new writers had access to her book, “ Know Your Chances: Understanding Health Statistics,” co-authored with Steve and also Gil Welch. Over the next 14 years, Lisa and Steve were always my go-to experts on issues pertaining not only to drug advertising, efficacy, safety and screening, but also the growing phenomenon of overdiagnosis and overtreatment in medicine. I was familiar with the duo’s earlier work exposing the inadequacies inherent in many press releases lauding research findings and intrigued by their concept of having clear and understandable efficacy data in drug ads. That first call led to many, many more, and ultimately a number of important collaborations between the pair and Consumer Reports, beginning with Consumer Reports' “Best Buy Drugs” in 2004. They argued that a “ Drug Facts Box” was needed to accurately describe the benefits - and risks - of prescription drugs. I first had the honor and good fortune of connecting with Lisa and her partner Steve Woloshin in the early 2000s, not long after they had jointly published a Health Affairs article on the impact that direct-to-consumer prescription drug ads can have on the increased use of newly approved medications. Lisa is survived by her husband and two beautiful children. Late last month, we lost one of evidence-based medicine’s greatest thinkers and communicators of the last two decades when Lisa Schwartz passed away at the too-young age of 55.
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