AMA(SA) Board

Chris has served on several aged and palliative care related committees in South Australia including the CNAHS Falls Prevention Steering Committee, the Expert Advisory Panel of the SA Advance Directives Review, the SA Health End of Life Decision Making Project Working Group and the SA Health Resuscitation Planning Advisory Group. He is the current Chair of both the Adelaide PHN Central Adelaide Clinical Council and GP Palliative Shared Care Program Operations Consultative Committee, and he also remains a member of the SA Health End of Life Prescribing Working Group.

On a national level, he represented the AMA on the Telehealth Advisory Group which oversaw the initial implementation of Medicare funded telehealth across Australia. In 2012 he was appointed to the Independent Advisory Committee of the national Patient Controlled Electronic Health Record (PCEHR) where he developed an understanding of the serious usability problems that had arisen in the PCEHR. This led to membership of the National E-Health Transition Authority (NEHTA) Clinical Usability Program Steering Group which was instrumental in contributing to the repair of the PCEHR, now known as the My Health Record, and later, appointment to the My Health Record Operations Management Committee.

He is currently a Patient Digital Safety Adviser for the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care, and a member of the Privacy and Security Advisory Committee of the newly formed Australian Digital Health Agency.

As well as his involvement on AMA(SA) Council and Board, Chris is a member of the AMA's Federal Council- serving on both the Federal AMA Medical Practice Committee and Ethics and Medico-legal Committee since 2014, and chairing the latter since 2016.

Chris was inducted into the AMA Roll of Fellows in 2015.

His wife, Monika, also works in general practice, and they have two teenage children. Away from work, Chris enjoys Crows-specific AFL and, more tellingly for his generation, Xbox games.

Michelle also assisted in setting up the Medical Panels for South Australia. She is a foundation member of the new Faculty of Forensic Psychiatry.

Michelle is an accredited College examiner. In recent years she has become active in the politics of psychiatry, and now chairs the SA Branch of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists and represents South Australia at the federal College level. She sees her role as promoting private practice interests amid significant public practice changes.

Michelle has completed a Graduate Diploma in Art History and in another life would be consulting in art work for medical rooms – if only she had the time.

Contact Dr Michelle Atchison

His PhD thesis on reflux disease and Barrett’s oesophagus provided opportunities to learn advanced endoscopic techniques in Tokyo and Amsterdam. He consolidated his endoscopic training with a post-doctoral fellowship at the Middlesex Hospital in London in 2003, a position which also entailed honorary lectureship at the University of London.

On his return to Adelaide in 2004, Associate Professor Tam was appointed to key positions at both the Lyell McEwin Hospital and Royal Adelaide Hospital.

He is currently State Reference Member for the Australian National Bowel Cancer Screening Program, committee member of the Australian Gastrointestinal Endoscopy Association, and is chair-elect of the Australian Gastrointestinal Endoscopy Association. 

He became a state councillor for AMA(SA) in 2012, and also joined the AMA(SA) Executive Board in 2012.

A/Prof Tam is actively involved in clinical research, teaching and endoscopic training and has participated in the World Gastroenterology Organisation sponsored teaching program in Fiji. In 2012, he was awarded honorary professorship at the Beijing PLA General Military Hospital. He is also a past-president of the Australasian Council of Chinese Medical Associations (Australia and New Zealand).

Andrew is a director and heuristic advisor with Johnston Grocke.