Dr. Litwin holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from Duke University, earned his MD from Emory University, and trained in urology at Harvard Medical School's Brigham and Women’s Hospital.  He was a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar at RAND and UCLA, where he earned his MPH.  He is a translational population scientist who has authored numerous original articles, reports, reviews, and book chapters in urologic oncology and health services research. Dr. Litwin published the first validated quality-of-life instrument to track outcomes in men with prostate cancer and has been an international leader in this area. Dr. Litwin's research includes medical outcomes assessment, quality of care, health-related quality of life, epidemiology, costs and resource utilization, patient preferences, and health care access for malignant and benign diseases in urology. Dr. Litwin’s post-doctoral research fellows hold academic positions at institutions throughout the world.

In 2001 he received the AUA Gold Cystoscope for his foundational work in establishing the discipline of urological health services research. He received the AUA Foundation’s Distinguished Mentor Award in 2010 and the AUA Distinguished Service Award in 2011. His work has been funded by the NIDDK, NCI, Department of Defense, American Cancer Society, California Department of Public Health, and other organizations. He has been continuously NIH-funded since 1997. His current grants include a $92 million state-funded program involving prostate cancer care for low-income uninsured men in California. For 14 years he led Urologic Diseases in America, a $24 million epidemiologic study funded by the NIDDK. He teaches in UCLA’s Schools of Medicine and Public Health and practices urologic oncology at UCLA.