Medical Women in Technology and Health – MedWiTH
Welcome to Medical Women in Technology and Health MedWiTH, a site dedicated to Technology and Health, the opportunities for the medical work force and particularly for women in medicine. Nowadays, around 50% of medical graduates are women, yet there are very few in the digital health space. MedWiTH is about Raising awareness and taking action
The blend of Health and Technology is fast becoming one of the biggest industries and it is set to grow exponentially as we all grow older. Developing and designing the systems that are intuitive and acknowledge the wisdom of clinical expertise through a gendered lens is very important. The UNESCO advises that strenuous efforts need to be made at government, academic and corporate levels to address this gender imbalance. The challenge is to attract and then retain women in these subject areas and maintain momentum in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
Inaugural MedWiTH Webinar
With this in mind, I have met with the CEO of Australian Institute of Digital Health, Dr Louise Schaper and founder of Creative Careers, Dr Amandeep Hansra and have invited them to talk with us at our inaugural MedWiTH session on October 14th. We will learn about now to get involved in the health tech industry even with little technological expertise, about the importance of bringing the gender lens to the development of the systems that we and our patients interact with for their health.
This should interest all women in medicine, as we are and will be the end users of these systems.
Medical women looking for alternative pathways can explore the opportunities that exist health tech industry. Some might be budding health technology developers. Earlier in the year I met with founders of Telstra’s Brilliant Connected Women in Digital Health in preparation for this conversation also.
More recently, I gave an interview on the need for engagement of women doctors specifically and the opportunities which I am keen to address through AFMW MedWiTH which will be shared through a podcast with Talking Tech Health Peter Birch. Women doctors need to start thinking about this, drive this and build up their skills. The podcast is going live on 21st Sept.
Further Inspiration
Check out some of these sites for more information and to get inspired:
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- https://www.talkinghealthtech.com/about
- There are initiatives providing free education, encouraging skills development for the evolving industries, see: Skill Finder offers over 2000 free short courses from the world’s leading tech brands. Learn more and enrol at Skill Finder
- https://biodesign.stanford.edu/about-us/diversity.html#dxd_healthtech
- https://scopeblog.stanford.edu/2020/07/15/addressing-the-gender-gap-in-health-tech/
Hope you find all this as inspiring as I do! See you at our event on the 14th October.
Kind regards,
Magdalena Simonis
Associate Professor Magdalena Simonis AM is a Past President of the AFMW (2020-2023), former President of VMWS (2013 & 2017-2020) and current AFMW National Coordinator (2024-2026). She is a full time clinician who also holds positions on several not for profit organisations, driven by her passion for bridging gaps across the health sector. She is a leading women’s health expert, keynote speaker, climate change and gender equity advocate and government advisor. Magda is member of The Australian Health Team contributing monthly articles.
Magdalena was awarded a lifetime membership of the RACGP for her contributions which include past chair of Women in General Practice, longstanding contribution to the RACGP Expert Committee Quality Care, the RACGP eHealth Expert Committee. She is regularly invited to comment on primary care research though mainstream and medical media and contributes articles on various health issues through newsGP and other publications.
Magdalena has represented the RACGP at senate enquiries and has worked on several National Health Framework reviews. She is author of the RACGP Guide on Female Genital Cosmetic Surgery and co-reviewer of the RACGP Red Book Women’s Health Chapter, and reviewer of the RACGP White book
Both an RACGP examiner and University examiner, she undertakes general practice research and is a GP Educator with the Safer Families Centre of Research Excellence, which develops education tools to assist the primary care sector identify, respond to and manage family violence . Roles outside of RACGP include the Strategy and Policy Committee for Breast Cancer Network Australia, Board Director of the Melbourne University Teaching Health Clinics and the elected GP representative to the AMA Federal Council. In 2022. she was award the AMA (Vic) Patrick Pritzwald-Steggman Award 2022, which celebrates a doctor who has made an exceptional contribution to the wellbeing of their colleagues and the community and was listed as Women’s Agenda 2022 finalist for Emerging Leader in Health.
Magdalena has presented at the United Nations as part of the Australian Assembly and was appointed the Australian representative to the World Health Organisation, World Assembly on COVID 19, by the Medical Women’s International Association (MWIA) in 2021. In 2023, A/Professor Simonis was included on the King’s COVID-19 Champion’s list and was also awarded a Member (AM) in the General Division for significant service to medicine through a range of roles and to women’s health.
