William Benjamin Schwartz (May 16, 1922 – March 15, 2009) was a pioneering nephrologist who identified rising costs of health care as an incipient problem as early as the 1980s.
[1][2] Schwartz attended Duke University after serving in the Army in World War II, earning undergraduate and medical degrees.
His pioneering observation that the antibiotic sulfanilamide increased excretion of sodium in patients with heart failure led to the discovery and development of modern diuretic drugs.
Beginning in the 1970s, Schwartz developed an interest in medical decision-making, and was an early researcher into artificial intelligence applications to medicine.
With economist Henry Aaron, he co-authored The Painful Prescription: Rationing Hospital Care in 1984.