The Talking HealthTech (THT) Autumn Summit was held on the 12th of May. It was a great pleasure moderating the session today on Gender Equity in Digital Health.
Three amazing women were on the panel with me, Jodie Grainger a CPA with commercial background and responsible for digital health innovations; Sarah Hughes, Chief Nursing Information Officer at Olinqua, and Zara Lord, founder and CEO of uPaged.
We discussed the gender equity gap in digital health and the under representation of women in this growing area yet our over representation as service providers and clinicians both in nursing and areas of medicine, namely general practice. Each panel member shared her valued insights around how to address systemic issues and we agreed, it’s not a woman’s problem to fix.
Sarah talked bout leadership and mentoring, Zara described the recruitment process and helping women venture into the unknown spaces and Jodie spoke passionately around gender equity in all facets of the health care system.
It was a fabulous opportunity for women in medicine to learn the ‘how to’s’ on driving change, increasing participation and representation of women doctors in Digital Health, from this session.
Watch this space for the podcast – next eBulletin.
Magdalena Simonis
Chair Medical Women in Technology and Health ( MedWiTH)
President AFMW
Associate Professor Magdalena Simonis AM is the Immediate 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.
