Dr. Aliza Lifshitz, renowned physician, communicator, and founder of Vida y Salud, passes away

Dr. Aliza Lifshitz passed away on Saturday, November 5, 2022, in Los Angeles, California.

Doctora Aliza, as the public affectionately called her, dedicated her professional life to promoting healthy habits among the Hispanic community in the United States, extending her reach to all of Latin America.

She was born in Mexico City and graduated from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. She specialized in internal medicine at Tulane University and clinical pharmacology at the Ochsner Medical Foundation, both in New Orleans, Louisiana. Her postgraduate work in endocrinology was completed at the University of California, San Diego.

Doctora Aliza was the health expert for television network Univision for more than 20 years. She participated in a variety of programs, including “TV Mujer”, “Hola América”, “Al Mediodía”, “Noticias y Más”, and “Primer Impacto.” She was also the spokesperson for Univision’s “Salud Es Vida ¡Entérate!” initiative, which was recognized with the prestigious Peabody Award.

Doctora Aliza hosted the weekly live program “El Consultorio de la Dra. Aliza,” for Univision Radio and Radio Unica and wrote monthly columns for People en Español, Ser Padres and ImpreMedia newspapers.

Three editions of her book, “Healthy Mom, Healthy Baby” – a bilingual guide to pregnancy and childbirth for Hispanic mothers, have been published.

Doctora Aliza was the four-time President of the California Hispanic-American Medical Association and served on the board of directors for the National Confederation of Hispanic Medical Associations (NCHMA).

She was a Council member of the Los Angeles County Medical Association (LACMA) and served as Beverly Hills District president for the organization. She also served as vice president of the Los Angeles County Commission on HIV and was on the board of the California Medical Association (CMA). She was president of the American Medical Association (AMA) Committee on International Postgraduate Medicine and president of the Medical Education Commission as well as a member of the Advisory Committee for the Women’s Health Campaign, both from the same association. Doctora Aliza was also one of the founders of the Board of Directors for the National Association of Physician Broadcasters (NAPB) and received the Ken Alvord Distinguished Community Service Award.

At the federal level, Doctora Aliza served as a member of the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Advisory Committee for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). She was also a member of the Medical Licensing Task Force for the Council on Graduate Medical Education at the Department of Health and Human Services.

She was vice president of the Board of Directors of Blue Shield of California and president of the Board of Directors of the Blue Shield of California Foundation.

She received numerous awards and honors during her career. Hispanic Business magazine named her one of their top 100 Hispanic Influentials. She received the Latino Spirit Award by the Latino Legislative Caucus and the Champions of Health Award by the National Medical Fellowships.

She was included in the “Latinas: The Spirit of California” exhibit at The California Museum for History, Women and the Arts, and was recognized with the Deborah Award from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).

Doctora Aliza is a three-time recipient of the Dr. C. Everett Koop Media Award from the American Heart Association. She was recognized by the Mexican American Opportunity Foundation (MAOF) as the Hispanic Woman of the Year, by the Women’s Commission as A Woman Making History and received the “Homenaje Latino” award from the American Diabetes Association. In addition, she received the March of Dimes “A Salud de los Niños” Award.

Doctora Aliza received the Hispanic Media 100 Award four times. One of her greatest honors was being selected by the American Medical Association (AMA) to launch its consumer information campaign on medical ethics.

For more than 30 years, Doctora Aliza maintained her private internal medicine practice at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California.