Richard Swartz

Dr. Swartz’s research program focusses on stroke and vascular cognitive impairment (VCI), across three overarching objectives:

1. to improve understanding of the relationships between cerebrovascular disease and neurodegeneration and seek new markers and targets for treatment as executive member (2014-2018) and co-PI (2018-2023) of ONDRI, the Ontario Neurodegenerative Disease Research Initiative funded by the Ontario Brain Institute;
2. to understand how VCI impacts long-term outcomes after stroke and to seek novel interventions to prevent these poor long-term outcomes – as PI of the DOC studies (Depression, Obstructive Sleep Apnea and Cognitive impairment) funded by CIHR and Heart & Stroke, and CABG-cognition funded by NIH and
3. to improve acute stroke treatment to limit both the direct and unmasking effects of vascular disease on cognition as both a leader and collaborator on practice changing emergency stroke randomized controlled trials.

He was co-PI of the recent AcT (Alteplase compared to Tenecteplase) trial (Lancet 2022), which has changed emergency stroke care globally. 

Since 2009 he has published over 200 papers (118 over the last 5 years) with a cumulative H-index 43 and 10,899 citations on Scopus/Web of Science (accessed January 23, 2024). He has held continuous peer-reviewed project funding (CIHR, NIH, Heart & Stroke, OBI, local grants) including 11 grants totaling over $24 million in the last 5 years, and numerous awards (including a CIHR/HSFC/CSN Research Scholarship, HSF New Investigator Award & HJ Barnett Award for the #1 ranked Cerebrovascular Disease applicant, the Heart & Stroke Foundation of Canada Clinician-Scientist Phase II Award, the University of Toronto Department of Medicine Merit Award (in 2014, 2019 and 2022) and the Bastable-Potts Chair in Stroke Research).

His research has been published in leading general and subspecialty journals including the Lancet, NEJM, CMAJ, JAMA Neurology, Neurology, Stroke, Journal of the American Heart Association, and the International Journal of Stroke. His work has changed practice, improving outcomes from the emergency treatment of stroke, and advancing the diagnosis and treatment of vascular cognitive impairment. He serves as Co-Chair of Research for the Canadian Stroke Consortium.