AMA Roll of Fellows 2020
Two current State AMA Presidents, two past State Presidents, the Medical Journal of Australia editor, and a married couple have been inducted into the AMA Roll of Fellows today, in recognition of their outstanding contributions to medicine, the medical profession, and the AMA.
Four of the seven are from Tasmania – a major achievement for the island State.
The new inductees are:
- AMA Tasmania Past President and anaesthetist, Dr Stuart Day;
- AMA ACT President and GP, Dr Antonio Di Dio;
- AMA NSW Immediate Past President and GP, Dr Kean-Seng Lim;
- AMA Tasmania President and occupational physician, Dr Helen McArdle;
- Medical Journal of Australia editor and neurogastroenterologist, Laureate Professor Nicholas Talley;
- Tasmanian representative on the AMA Federal Council of General Practice and GP, Dr Anne Wilson; and
- AMA Tasmania State Council representative and GP, Dr Don Rose.
Outgoing AMA President, Dr Tony Bartone, announced their addition to the Roll at the AMA ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾ Conference, held via videoconference today.
“These seven outstanding doctors demonstrate the extraordinary range and professionalism of the AMA membership,” Dr Bartone said.
“Dr Anne Wilson and Dr Don Rose have devoted close to 70 years of service to their community in northern Tasmania and to the AMA, while raising a family of four.
“Professor Nick Talley has combined his work as a world-leading neurogastroenterologist with his role as editor of one of the world’s most influential medical journals, the Medical Journal of Australia.
“Dr Helen McArdle, who last month became the first female President of AMA Tasmania, is a senior medical administrator and an occupational physician, who is committed to diversity and equity within the profession, and to doctors’ wellbeing.
“Dr Stuart Day has shown tremendous dedication to the AMA for the past quarter-century, representing hospital doctors and serving in a variety of roles, including as AMA Tasmania President.
“Dr Antonio Di Dio has been the driving force behind the doctors’ health service in Canberra, and provided countless hours of his own time to review medical transfer requests for asylum seekers in offshore detention.
“Dr Kean-Seng Lim is committed to providing integrated care, where doctors, nurses, and other health professionals work together for their patients, and helped develop a schools-based obesity prevention program now in use in 24 schools.
“All of these doctors have excelled not just in their medical specialties, but in their roles as advocates for the profession.
“They have made real contributions at the State and Federal level to improve working conditions for doctors, to improve safety for patients, to train the next generations of medical practitioners, and to make the Australian health system work more effectively for patients and communities.
“I commend them for their service.”
Each new AMA Fellow has an impressive record of achievement, as these edited excerpts from their citations show:
Dr Stuart Day
Dr Stuart Day has shown tremendous dedication in his commitment to the AMA and the profession throughout his 24-year membership, holding roles including AMA Tasmania President (2016-2018) and Federal Councillor, as well as more than 10 years as head of Australian Salaried Medical Officers Federation (ASMOF) Tasmania.
He continues to be an active member of the AMA, and is generous in the giving of his time and advice to all who seek it.
Dr Antonio Di Dio
Dr Antonio Di Dio, the AMA ACT President, is an AMA Federal Councillor, a member of the Ethics and Medico-Legal Committee, and has served his colleagues through leadership of, and involvement with the AMA, AMA ACT and the NSW and ACT Doctors’ Health Advisory Service (DHAS), providing much-needed support to troubled doctors and their families.
In 2019, Dr Di Dio was appointed as the AMA representative to the Independent Health Assessment Panel (IHAP) and subsequently served as its Chair. His IHAP duties have required Dr Di Dio to undertake serious statutory obligations involving the exercise of his skills as a medical practitioner that have made an extraordinary call on his personal time, in circumstances that were highly politically charged.
It is a tribute to Dr Di Dio’s skill and compassion that he was able to so effectively discharge his duties; a matter that reflects great credit on both him and the AMA.
Dr Kean-Seng Lim
Dr Kean-Seng Lim, the immediate Past President of AMA NSW and Deputy Chair of the AMA Council of General Practice, is a specialist GP with particular interests in sports medicine, nutrition and lifestyle, and integrated care.
His practice in Sydney’s western suburbs is built on a multidisciplinary approach, integrating doctors, nurses, allied health practitioners, and a non- dispensing pharmacist, using the Patient Centred Medical ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾ principles.
Dr Lim used his AMA NSW presidency to focus on measures to reduce overweight and obesity, and helped develop the schools-based obesity prevention and lifestyle education program – SALSA.
Dr Lim has passionately campaigned for increased primary care funding, arguing that early intervention and better management of long-term health problems is a more sustainable healthcare strategy.
Dr Helen McArdle
Dr Helen McArdle, the first female President of AMA Tasmania, is a long-standing AMA member, a highly respected AMA Federal Councillor, a senior medical administrator, and Occupational Physician and medical leader.
Dr McArdle has contributed to the work of the AMA at all levels of the organisation since 1990. A Federal Councillor since 2012, she has made landmark contributions as a member of the AMA Ethics and Medico Legal Committee, including the development of the AMA Position Statement on Euthanasia and Physician Assisted Suicide 2016, and as inaugural Chair of the AMA Equity, Inclusion and Diversity Committee.
Dr McArdle contributes at the highest level to her profession as a clinician, educator, leader, and policy maker.
She is a role model for Australia’s doctors and most deserving of the award of Fellow, Australian Medical Association (FAMA)
Professor Nicholas Talley AC
Professor Talley is a world-leading neurogastroenterologist, educator and researcher, and is widely recognised as one of the most influential clinician-researchers in the world, with more than 1,000 papers published in peer-reviewed literature.
Prof Talley has been Editor-in-Chief of the Medical Journal of Australia since 2015, and was previously co-editor-in-chief of Alimentary Pharmacology and Therapeutics; and editor of American Journal of Gastroenterology. He is also the author of the authoritative textbooks Clinical Examination and Examination Medicine.
Professor Talley was one of the first 15 Fellows of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences (FAHMS). In 2018, he was honoured with the Companion of the Order of Australia.
Professor Talley has contributed to AMA NSW and to Federal AMA by his contribution to excellence in medical education and the standards he has established for students, doctors in training, and doctors. As MJA editor, he has contributed to a highly valued member resource.
Dr Anne Wilson and Dr Don Rose
Dr Anne Wilson and Dr Don Rose have given outstanding service to the AMA for more than three decades, supporting each other in both their AMA endeavours and their marriage, raising four children while working as GPs in northern Tasmania.
They are active members of the AMA Tasmania Northern Division, State Councillor, and Tasmanian delegates to the AMA ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾ Conference for many years.
Dr Wilson has been the Tasmanian representative on the AMA Council of General Practice for the past six years.
Dr Rose has represented the AMA on various bodies, including as the current AMA representative member of Primary Health Tasmania.
Both Dr Wilson and Dr Rose have been tireless in their efforts to ensure GPs remain at the centre of patient care in policy development and health service delivery in the public and private domains.
While each nomination was considered independently and on its merits, Dr Rose and Dr Wilson are a true partnership and one cannot be mentioned without speaking of the other.
