Lana Bistritz
Contact
Assistant Dean, Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry - Undergrad Medical Education
- lmb4@ualberta.ca
Overview
Area of Study / Keywords
nutrition physical activity online teaching educational assessment
About
Personal Statement:
Medical education excellence is a priority for me and that means exploring and using all forms of technology that can deliver knowledge to all types of learners. An important part of medical education is recognizing that not only how we teach, but what we teach needs to change in order to move care to prevention rather than management of disease. Through programs such as Wellness Rx, physicians and other health care professionals learn to communicate the importance of nutrition, physical activity and wellness in disease prevention.
Gastroenterologist and medical educator Dr. Lana Bistritz received her medical degree and gastroenterology training at the University of Alberta. She completed a Master’s in Health Professional Education at the University of Illinois. Dr. Bistritz joined the Division of Gastroenterology in 2009.
Dr. Bistritz has received many awards and honours over her academic and professional career, many of them for her contributions to medical education. She has served on several Department of Medicine committees focused on training excellence and was the course coordinator for the Gastroenterology and Nutrition course for the MD program from 2009-2018.
Leadership and Collaborations:
Dr. Bistritz is director of the pre-clerkship education program (the first two years of the medical degree program) and has served on several medical curriculum and training committees. She is a clinician member of the Edmonton-based Centre of excellence for Gastrointestinal Inflammation and Immunity Research. In 2018, she was made a Canadian Association of Gastroenterology Fellow, in recognition for her long-term commitment to the Association and the profession, including the role of vice president of the Association’s Administrative Affairs.
Clinical Interests
Dr. Bistritz is a gastroenterology consultant and the Site Lead for Gastroenterology at the Royal Alexandra Hospital. She is involved in developing collaborations with primary care to develop and implement clinical pathways to enhance care for GI patients in the community and streamline access and triage for patients requiring specialist care.
Research
In addition to studies of gastrointestinal disorders, Dr. Bistritz’s research reflects her interest in knowledge translation and curriculum development. She was co-investigator on a project to develop Wellness Rx, an educational initiative for nutrition and physical activity for health sciences students. Other projects and resulting publications focus on gastroenterology undergraduate medical education. Her individual and team research results have been published in peer-reviewed journals including Pedagogy in Health Promotion, Canadian Journal of Gastroenterology and Gut.
Teaching
Dr. Bistritz is active in all facets of medical education—from classroom instruction to clinical supervision to continuing medical education for peers and other health professionals. She is interested in learning methods that take full advantage of technology and include game theory and simulation.
Dr. Bistritz was the recipient of the Alberta Society of Gastroenterology Distinguished Educator Award in 2017. She is part of a team that created a game-designed learning approach for nutrition and physical activity knowledge. In 2014, medical students voted her course as Block of the Year. She was a contributor to the Atlas of Gastroenterology and the Textbook of Gastroenterology used by thousands of gastroenterologists.