Dr. Schwartz is the Founder and Medical Director of the Minnesota Cardiovascular Research Institute ("MCRI"), a non-profit center dedicated to developing and testing advanced cardiovascular technologies. Dr. Schwartz also is a cardiologist at the Minneapolis Heart Institute, with clinical and research interests in interventional cardiology, imaging, clinical information processing and clinical medical care. Prior to founding MCRI, he was Director at the Center for Applied Vascular Biology and Interventions, Mayo Foundation. In addition, Dr. Schwartz served as Professor and Associate Professor at the Mayo Medical School. He is credited with developing one of the most widely recognized pre-clinical animal models for testing drug-eluting stents. Dr. Schwartz received a master's degree in Electrical Engineering and an M.D. from the University of Colorado-Denver.