Dr. Schaefer is internationally recognized as a leader in the field of lipoprotein metabolism, and the diagnosis and management of lipoprotein disorders for the prevention of Coronary Heart Disease.
He has made countless contributions to the National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and is a member of the National Lipid Association’s (NLA) Board of Directors.
Dr. Schaefer founded Boston Heart Diagnostics Corporation with Dr. Bela Asztalos and Peter Parker in 2007, after developing the company’s proprietary HDL measurement technology and the Boston Heart Cholesterol Balance® test. They established HDL particle concentration as a more effective predictor for coronary heart disease (CHD) risk than traditional tests, and documented the utility of plasma sterol measurements to guide physician therapy to get patients to their LDL cholesterol goals. Dr. Schaefer is internationally recognized as a leader in the field of lipoprotein metabolism, and the diagnosis and management of lipoprotein disorders for the prevention of CHD.
Dr. Schaefer is a distinguished professor at the Tufts University School of Medicine and the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, senior scientist at the Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging, as well as a senior scientist in the Cardiovascular Nutrition Laboratory in Boston, MA. He received the JD Lane Award of the U.S. Public Health Service and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) (1981) and the Irvine H. Page Arteriosclerosis Research Award from the American Heart Association (1981) for defining human HDL metabolism, the metabolic defect in Tangier disease and describing two new genetic disorders apoA-I/C-III/A-IV and apoE deficiency characterized by severe lipoprotein abnormalities and premature coronary heart disease with Drs. Bryan Brewer and Robert Levy.
For his research and patient care he received the Saul Horowitz Research Award from Mt. Sinai School of Medicine (1989), Oliver Smith Patient Care Awards from Tufts Medical Center (1999, 2001, and 2003), the E.V. McCollum Research Award of the American Society for Clinical Nutrition (2000), a Distinguished Faculty Award from Tufts University (2001), an honorary doctorate from the University of Buenos Aires (2007), and the George Lyman Duff Lecture Award from the American Heart Association (2010). Since 1997, he has been a member of Who’s Who in America, and since 2004 has been listed among America’s Top Physicians by the Consumers Research Council of America.
Dr. Schaefer is an author or co-author of over 500 publications and two books on HDL metabolism and heart disease prevention. He served on the first and second adult treatment panels of the National Cholesterol Education Program of the NIH, on the Nutrition Study Section and as chairman of the Metabolism Study Section of the NIH, and the Nutrition Committee of the American Heart Association.
Between 1997 and 2007 Dr. Schaefer served as the U.S. editor of the journal Atherosclerosis, and in 2009 served as the chairman of the 15th International Symposium on Atherosclerosis, held in Boston.
Dr. Schaefer received his education at Harvard College, Dartmouth Medical School, and the Mount Sinai School of Medicine (MD). He did his medical residency at Mt. Sinai Hospital, New York, and an endocrinology fellowship at the National Institutes of Health, where he also served as a senior investigator and head of the clinical service of the Molecular Disease Branch of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of NIH.