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Aaron Schwartz, MD, PhD
At its Annual Research Meeting in Minneapolis, MN. from June 7-10, AcademyHealth presented one of its highest honors, the Alice S. Hersh Emerging Leader Award, to Aaron Schwartz, MD, PhD, a primary care physician at the Corporal Michael J. Crescenz VA Medical Center in Philadelphia and core investigator at the HSR Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion (CHERP).
AcademyHealth, a nonprofit professional organization dedicated to advancing the fields of health services research and health policy, is the foremost professional home for health services researchers, and specifically honors work that reflects its emphasis on translating research into real-world impact. The Alice S. Hersh Emerging Leader Award, established in 1986 and renamed in 1997 to honor AcademyHealth's founding executive director, recognizes scholars early in their careers as health services researchers who show exceptional promise for future contributions to the field.
As a health economist, Dr. Schwartz conducts research on measuring and improving the efficiency of U.S. healthcare delivery. His areas of inquiry include the private provision of federal healthcare benefits (e.g., Medicare Advantage and VA Community Care), low-value medical services, insurer coverage restrictions, and alternative healthcare financing arrangements.
Dr. Schwartz accepted the award at the meeting’s opening plenary session on June 8, 2025. “It’s an unbelievable honor to be receiving the Hersh award,” he said. “… understanding and improving the value of healthcare spending matters. And because matters of healthcare are matters of life, death, and opportunity, it's clearly important to understand and improve fairness in health and healthcare, no matter how you define fairness.”
