Dr. Jaime S. Schwartz

The journey to plastic surgery

Dr. Schwartz from a very young age always knew he was going to pursue healthcare. He comes from a long line of providers — podiatrists, researchers, and physicians. When he was young his father would take him to "round" on patients in the hospital on weekends. He spent time working in the office and began to attend surgeries before he was allowed to drive. He also grew up in an area that's considered a "cancer cluster," especially for breast cancer, and was touched personally by this.

As he attended college at Tulane University and earned a Bachelor of Science in cellular and molecular biology, he further delved into health, the human body, and disease. His mind was opened by books from a great-uncle (whom he never met), Dr. Jay Milton Hoffman — works such as Hunza: Secrets of the World's Oldest Living People (1968) and The Missing Link in the Medical Curriculum (1981), which discussed how diet and disease are related, written far ahead of their time. Dr. Schwartz dedicated research time at the Ochsner Medical Institute, one of the country's most research-oriented centers.

As a third-year medical student on clinical rotations, his first surgery as an assistant was a mastectomy for breast cancer. After the breast was removed, he asked if he could stay to see the reconstruction — and his whole world changed. As the plastic surgeons rebuilt the breast using expanders, implants, TRAM and Latissimus flaps, and microvascular DIEP flaps, the artistry of the field captured him completely. He was hooked.

Under the auspices of the chairman, Dr. Scott Spear, Georgetown Plastic Surgery was one of the most influential departments in the world for breast reconstruction. Dr. Schwartz ranked Georgetown number one on his residency list — even above Harvard. With only 71 spots in the entire United States for plastic surgery training directly from medical school, he was accepted into his first choice.

Georgetown's program was one of the first true Departments of Plastic Surgery in the country and one of only a few "integrated" tracks at the time, meaning Dr. Schwartz spent all six years focused exclusively on plastic surgery. During training, he completed close to 3,000 procedures while authoring articles, textbook chapters, and special journal supplements for the Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Journal. He was honored with Georgetown's "Caring Star" award every year of training, the "Outstanding Resident Teacher Award," and a "Certificate of Professionalism" from Washington Hospital Center.

His accolades earned him a fellowship at the world-renowned Cleveland Clinic in Advanced Face and Body Aesthetics, where he served as a Clinical Instructor and worked alongside the surgical team that performed the first Face Transplant in the United States.