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INFORMATION FOR

Lee Schwamm, MD

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About

Titles

Associate Dean, Digital Strategy & Transformation, Yale School of Medicine; Professor in Biomedical Informatics & Data Science and Professor of Neurology, Yale School of Medicine; Senior Vice President & Chief Digital Health Officer, Yale New Haven Health System

Education

MD
Harvard Medical School, Medicine (1991)


AB
Harvard University, Philosophy (1985)


About

Titles

Associate Dean, Digital Strategy & Transformation, Yale School of Medicine; Professor in Biomedical Informatics & Data Science and Professor of Neurology, Yale School of Medicine; Senior Vice President & Chief Digital Health Officer, Yale New Haven Health System

Biography

Lee H. Schwamm, MD is Associate Dean for Digital Strategy and Transformation for Yale School of Medicine, and Senior Vice President and Chief Digital Health Officer for Yale New Haven Health System. In this role, he leads the development of a new digital health strategy for the school and the health system, and serves as an influential physician leader guiding the equitable and responsible implementation of artificial intelligence and digital enablement in healthcare throughout the enterprise.

Before joining Yale, Dr. Schwamm spent three decades at the Mass General Brigham Health System, serving in senior academic and administrative leadership roles. He was the inaugural C. Miller Fisher Chair in Vascular Neurology and director of the Center for TeleHealth at Massachusetts General Hospital; vice president for Digital Patient Experience and Virtual Care and chief digital advisor for the Mass General Brigham Health System; and a professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Schwamm is an internationally recognized expert in stroke diagnosis, treatment, and prevention, a pioneer in telestroke and a leading national voice in healthcare AI implementation. Under his leadership, the American Heart Association’s Get with the Guidelines–Stroke Registry has grown into the world’s largest stroke registry with over eight million patient encounters; it has changed stroke practice at hospitals across the U.S. and set a global standard for stroke care.

A graduate of both Harvard College and Harvard Medical School, Dr. Schwamm completed residency training in neurology, serving as chief resident, and fellowship training in stroke and neurocritical care, all at Massachusetts General Hospital. He has spent the past 2 decades in digital health, as a pioneer in telestroke, and as a leading stroke volunteer, healthcare AI expert and policy advisor for the American Heart Association. An internationally recognized expert in cerebrovascular disease, he is an elected Fellow of the American Heart Association, American Academy of Neurology and the American Neurological Association and led the development of the AHA Get with the Guidelines–Stroke Registry, now the world’s largest stroke registry with over 8M patient encounters. His research has been funded by NIH, AHA, PCORI, AHRQ, HRSA, CDC and has been recognized with over 500 peer-reviewed articles as well as numerous awards for innovation, leadership, and advocacy in the field of stroke and digital health. He has served on multiple editorial boards, including as the digital health section editor for Stroke, and on the international advisory board for Lancet Digital Health.

Last Updated on January 23, 2026.

Appointments

Other Departments & Organizations

Education & Training

Fellowship
Massachusetts General Hospital (1996)
Residency
Massachusetts General Hospital (1995)
Internship
Beth Israel Hospital (1992)
MD
Harvard Medical School, Medicine (1991)
AB
Harvard University, Philosophy (1985)

Research

Research at a Glance

Yale Co-Authors

Frequent collaborators of Lee Schwamm's published research.

Publications

2026

See All Publications

Clinical Care

Overview

Lee H. Schwamm, MD, is an internationally recognized expert in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of stroke and transient ischemic attack (TIA). His research and clinical interests focus on stroke in the young and those whose strokes are without apparent cause (called cryptogenic strokes). He has been a leader in stroke clinical research, and has participated in the design or conduct of major trials that have defined how stroke is currently measured and treated, and how the guideline-recommended treatments are actually administered when patients are hospitalized for stroke. He deeply enjoys mentoring emerging leaders in academic medicine, and his work has been recognized by major grants and awards, including several of the highest volunteer awards from the American Heart Association.

In addition to his expertise in stroke, Dr. Schwamm is a leader in digital health and digital transformation. He realized early on that his work as a neurologist could be augmented with the infusion of big data, technology, and focusing on improving the processes of how health care is delivered. This translates to redesigning care delivery through the human-centered lens of the experiences of patients and providers, and letting the clinical problem drive what technology can be used to make things better (and not the other way around). “We have a real opportunity now to start capturing a lot more information about our patients in the parts of their life beyond the clinic and the hospital, such as with monitors, sensors, and smartphones, to regularly collect weight, activity, or blood pressure and transmit those results to the electronic medical record,” Dr. Schwamm says. By doing so, doctors can build a smarter profile of their patients, tailor treatments to them as individuals, and get their risk factors under control faster and more safely.

“I’ve always been drawn to the brain,” says Dr. Schwamm. “This fascination began when I chose to major in philosophy in college, and it drove me to choose neurology as my specialty. Within neurology, I gravitated to stroke because of the new treatments that had just emerged that could halt or reverse the damage being caused to the brain. I was able to make a major contribution by developing the ability to leverage technology to increase access to stroke specialists and improve outcomes for all stroke patients, not just those lucky enough to live near a major stroke center.”

Dr. Schwamm also serves as senior vice president and chief digital health officer for Yale New Haven Health (YNHH) and as a professor in Biomedical Informatics & Data Sciences at Yale School of Medicine (YSM). As the associate dean for digital strategy and transformation, he is leading the development of a new digital health strategy for YSM and YNHH. Dr. Schwamm has done extensive research and is especially interested in patterns of care delivery for stroke in the United States; how patients move from one health system to another during emergencies, before or after their stroke; and opportunities to identify and eliminate inequities in care.

“I often say, my car gets better health care than I do. Most patients show up in my office when they have the equivalent of a flat tire, or have run out of gas, or have an engine that is overheated, metaphorically speaking,” he says, “Our job as health care providers is to intervene before those critical events happen.”

All my goals really boil down to removing the barriers between patients and the care they need, Dr. Schwamm adds. “One way is to build high-reliability systems wherever we can so that we don't rely on people doing the right thing every time with good intention, but rather, we have systems that support us in doing that right thing every time.”

Clinical Specialties

Stroke; Neurology

Board Certifications

  • Vascular Neurology

    Certification Organization
    AB of Psychiatry & Neurology
    Original Certification Date
    2008

  • Neurology

    Certification Organization
    AB of Psychiatry & Neurology
    Original Certification Date
    1996

Are You a Patient?

View this doctor's clinical profile on the Yale Medicine website for information about the services we offer and making an appointment.

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Get In Touch

Contacts

Email
Academic Office Number
Office Fax Number
Mailing Address

Yale School of Medicine

333 Cedar Street - SHM - I-213 , (PO Box 208067)

New Haven, CT 06520-8067

United States

Administrative Support

Locations

  • Patient Care Locations

    Are You a Patient? View this doctor's clinical profile on the Yale Medicine website for information about the services we offer and making an appointment.

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