Jill is a plastic and reconstructive surgeon, mother of two, and a valued longstanding member of AFMW. Jill was formerly the AFMW Webmaster, as well as the VMWS Webmaster and Treasurer of VMWS. In 2021, Jill was one of the recipients of the Inaugural Brilliant Women in Digital Health awards.
The AFMW community is very proud of Dr Jill Tomlinson’s achievements.
Magdalena Simonis
AFMW President
Introducing AMA Victoria’s new President
We are delighted to announce AMA Victoria’s new President is Dr Jill Tomlinson.
A highly respected plastic reconstructive surgeon who works in her own private practice, Dr Tomlinson has contributed significantly to the AMA over a great many years, through her advocacy for the profession and through her passion for digital health and diversity.
Dr Tomlinson has chaired the Australian Health Digital Agency’s Specialist Toolkit Steering Group and co-chaired the Victorian Department of Health’s Clinical Informatics Council. Her personal advocacy showed errors in APHRA directions in the use of social media, resulting in changes to regulations in 2014.
Within AMA, Dr Tomlinson is the inaugural Chair of the Digital Health Subcommittee and has built a committee with remarkable digital health expertise. Her work has resulted in the development of the AMA Digital Health Vision Statement – Preamble 2021: a clearly defined perspective on the future of digital health in Australia.
Dr Tomlinson has received national awards and held medical leadership positions in organisations including the Victorian Medical Women’s Society, the Australian Federation of Medical Women, and the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. She has been a specialty editor with the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Surgery since 2012 and is a published author in international journals. Dr Tomlinson is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, a faculty member of the RACS Academy of Surgical Educators, and a PADI certified deep scuba diver who has run two marathons!
Dr Tomlinson says her priorities for AMA Victoria in the next two years include:
- Healthcare workforce matters including planning, funding, and wellbeing.
- Primary care and general practice, including payroll tax.
- Mental health including upholding the importance of the medical model (so that the views of medical specialists are included within Victoria’s mental health reform).
- Health system sustainability (workforce, fiscal, environmental, public hospital, aged care, and general practice).
- Digital health initiatives to drive improvements in safety, quality, and efficiency.
- Dealing with delayed and deferred healthcare resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Equity and inclusion: noting the social determinants of health (e.g., housing, poverty, social inclusion, access to affordable and quality healthcare, early childhood development, and education); and
- Rural and regional health.
And look out for an in-depth interview with Dr Jill Tomlinson in the upcoming winter edition of Vicdoc, including our formal farewell to former AMA Victoria President, Dr Roderick McRae.
The new AMA Victoria Vice-President is Dr Simon Judkins. As Emergency Department Director at Echuca Health, Dr Judkins is passionate about rural healthcare, and will also support Dr Tomlinson to advocate on important issues such as mental health, clinician wellbeing, access to community care, health system reform and healthcare environmental sustainability.
We look forward to an exciting term ahead under the leadership of Dr Tomlinson and her team. If you have any advocacy concerns you would like to raise, please email us at [email protected].
AMA Victoria Team
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.
