2022 CRA Distinguished Teacher – Educator

Dr. Stephen Aaron, MD, FRCPC

Dr Stephen Aaron is a native Edmontonian, educated at the University of Alberta, where has practiced rheumatology since 1983. He received his MD at the U of A in 1977 and did a rotating internship at Mount Sinai in Toronto before returning to Edmonton for his residency.

During his last year of rheumatology training, he did immunogenetics at Harvard with David Glass, funded by the Arthritis Society. After five years of wet lab research back in Edmonton he became involved in Medical Education and has spent most of his career teaching and in patient care.

Dr. Aaron has worked with the Medical Council of Canada, served as a resident training director, and developed and ran the Medical School’s clinical skills program. He initiated two major curricular changes at the U of A, beginning in the 1990’s, and was responsible for the pre-clinical component of the MD program at that time. He served as the Assistant Chair for Education in the Department of Medicine until 2017.

During this time, he published on the effect of curriculum, particularly PBL, on students’ approaches to learning, He also studied the resources required to establish and maintain a medical school. Over that period of time, he received many awards for excellence in teaching, for mentoring, and for educational innovation.

More recently he has been active in advancing arthritis care in Nepal and in First Nations communities. In Nepal he helped initiate the first training program in rheumatology.

Nearing the end of his career, he is grateful for the teaching he has received and for all he has learnt from his students. He would particularly like to thank his wife, Hannah, who has supported him throughout his career.