Congratulations to Dr Jill Tomlinson AFMW member was awarded a Telstra Brilliant Connected Women in Digital Health award. Jill is a member of VMWS formerly their Treasurer and webmaster and helped establish our own AFMW website years ago.
Here is the interview Jill gave to BCWDH.
In your words to describe yourself?
Passionate, focused, curious
Dr Jill Tomlinson has been recognised for her contributions in encouraging medical specialists to adopt digital technologies, from formerly chairing the Australian Health Digital Agency’s Specialist Toolkit Steering Group, to instigating the Australian Medical Association’s Digital Health Committee, to collaborating with government groups, regulators and professional organisations to deliver digital health implementation projects that improve safety and quality in Australian health care. Dr Tomlinson is a strong advocate for technology and reform that works for clinicians, by embracing opportunities outside the traditional job description of a surgeon and developing tools and processes that enable other specialist practices to use My Health Record. Her innovative and technology-led surgical practice in Melbourne was the first private specialist practice in Australia to fully integrate My Health Record systems.
As co-Chair of the Victorian Department of Health’s Clinical Informatics Council, Dr Tomlinson has encouraged a ‘whole of healthcare’ approach, ensuring that medical specialists and general practitioners have a voice within a group that advises on lifting digital maturity across the Victorian healthcare sector, but which has traditionally focused on public sector healthcare.
With only 168 hours in a week, we all need to work smarter, not harder, and digital health initiatives offer incredible opportunities to do this.
What do you think is the importance of this award initiative?
Women often hide their light under a bushel and their skills and hard work can go unnoticed. Initiatives like this allow us to recognise and increase the visibility of the many incredible contributions of women within the sector. It’s important to celebrate and own our successes.
Who has been an important mentor to you?
Dr Desiree Yap OAM – a brilliant woman who has encouraged me every step of the way and who has a remarkable ability to ask the important questions.
Why are you passionate about digital health?
Digital health offers substantial opportunities for improving safety and quality in health care and improving experiences for healthcare workers. With only 168 hours in a week, we all need to work smarter, not harder, and digital health initiatives offer incredible opportunities to do this.
What is your hope for the potential of digital health?
I hope that we can improve access and equity through a healthcare system that delivers increasingly seamless and secure connected care. Our healthcare system is arguably the best in the world, but there is still much that we can improve for patients, for healthcare practitioners and for our community.
What does good leadership look like to you?
Leadership demands honesty, compassion, accountability and vision. You need to identify not just the goal but how everyone in the team has a role to play. Leadership is harder in tough times like a global pandemic, but ultimately more rewarding too.
What’s your advice to anyone working in digital health, or looking to work in the sector, and wanting to make an impact?
Jump in! We need all the brilliant minds we can get! To make a change in any sector we need to identify problems and consider how to solve them. Some digital health problems have simple design solutions, but digital health has many large and difficult problems. Solving problems and making an impact requires persistence, a willingness to listen and learn, flexibility and the ability to collaborate with others. From little things big things.
Download the Telstra Brilliant Connected Women in Digital Health Awards Report.
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Well done Jill!
Magdalena Simonis
Chair, MedWiTH
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.
