Chris Rudnisky

Contact

Professor, Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry - Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Science

Email: crudnisk@ualberta.ca

Overview

Area of Study / Keywords

Cataract Cataract Extraction Socioeconomic Status

About

Awards

Surgical Teacher of the Year Award, Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, University of Alberta, 2019

Surgical Teacher of the Year Award, Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, University of Alberta, 2018

Alberta Medical Association Long-Service Award 2018

Nominee: Alberta Health Services President’s Excellence Awards; Research Category
Nominated for Ocular Gene Therapy Research Program
Surgical Teacher of the Year Award, Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, University of Alberta, 2016
Surgical Teacher of the Year Award, Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, University of Alberta, 2015
Surgical Teacher of the Year Award, Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, University of Alberta, 2014
Best Poster, Cornea Section, American Academy of Ophthalmology Annual Meeting, 2013
Best Poster, Glaucoma Section, American Academy of Ophthalmology Annual Meeting, 2013
Best Poster, Global Ophthalmology Section, American Academy of Ophthalmology Annual Meeting, 2013
Teacher of the Year Award, Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, University of Alberta, 2013
Surgical Teacher of the Year Award, Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, University of Alberta, 2013
Surgical Teacher of the Year Award, Department of Ophthalmology, University of Alberta, 2012
Surgical Teacher of the Year Award, Department of Ophthalmology, University of Alberta, 2011

Clinical Interests

Cataract

Glaucoma

Plaquenil Retinopathy

Minimally Invasive Glaucoma Surgery

Research

Teleopthalmology
Virtual Retina
Resident Participation in Surgery
Boston keratoprosthesis

Teaching

I teach in four different environments: undergraduate medical student classrooms, ophthalmology resident clinical teaching, ophthalmology resident surgical teaching, and mixed resident / medical student half-day lectures.

For whole-class medical school lectures in ophthalmology, my goal is to arm future family physicians with basic ophthalmology knowledge and skills so that they’ll feel comfortable dealing with patients when in independent practice. To achieve this, I have selected the most common acute and chronic problems that family doctors will encounter daily, and explain where the scope of family practice intersects with specialist care. Within the context of “medical expert,” I present an intentional undercurrent of support for those wishing to pursue family medicine. I recall my lecturers in medical school summarizing their presentations with “if you’re just going to be a family doctor, you don’t need to know this,” and that bothered me. I specifically avoid these derogatory comments and instead try to emphasize a team structure. Through positive reinforcement and distribution of knowledge, I believe more students will choose family medicine because they will see how important a career it is and will have the necessary knowledge and skills to feel comfortable doing it well. And, if they find my content interesting, they’ll be enabled to pursue a career in ophthalmology.

Ophthalmology resident clinical teaching involves mainly junior residents, although I occasionally have a senior resident who has to choose a general ophthalmologist to work with in the 5^th year. I also have medical student and off-service residents in my clinics. Because it is primarily junior learners, I am responsible for providing much of the core teaching they’ll need in order to be successful on subspecialty rotations or in applying for ophthalmology residencies. This include the examination skills and knowledge base upon which to derive a differential diagnosis and management plan, and it challenging because I start with a near-blank slate. My teaching style is to foster independence and a way to think about patient care; ophthalmology residents can get fixated on collecting data with slit-lamp examination, fundoscopy and wealth of diagnostic tests. My goal is to encourage them to think about the results and come to a decision; anyone can collect data, but a physician distinguishes themselves by interpreting it. To do this, I ask residents to consider 4 questions when seeing patients (1) why is the patient here? (2) What is their concern? (3) What is the diagnosis? (4) What is your management? Despite the challenges of working with junior learners in a mixed-learning environment, in 2013 I was awarded Teacher of the Year in our department.

In the OR, I work with a single, final-year resident for a 12 month rotation. My goal is to be patient, supportive and encouraging (this is difficult to do in the OR) such that a resident will feel confident to perform cataract surgery independently in practice. I allow residents to do as much as their skill level allows on any given day, and generally teach cataract surgery in stages: lens insertion, irrigation / aspiration of cortex, wounds, phacoemulsification and then capsulorrhexis. I am proud to say that I believe this is where I am at my best as a teacher; I have been awarded Surgical Teacher of the Year for 8 of the last 9 years.

For resident half-day lectures, which often also include a medical student on elective, I teach using an inclusive and non-judgemental approach. The material is presented with an informal lecture style using integrated, non-targeted questions. These questions are asked to the group generally without putting anyone “on the spot.” This method encourages preparation, integration of knowledge and reinforcement of lecture material. To improve retention of optics, I schedule short lectures throughout the year so that it is constantly being reinforced.

Featured Publications

Incidence of steroid response in microinvasive glaucoma surgery with trabecular microbypass stent and ab interno trabeculectomy

Abtahi M., Rudnisky C.J., Nazarali S., Damji K.F.

CANADIAN JOURNAL OF OPHTHALMOLOGY-JOURNAL CANADIEN D OPHTALMOLOGIE. 2022 June; 57 (3):167-174 10.1016/j.jcjo.2021.04.008