Australia Medic Alert Foundation is pleased to announce that Ms Margaret Gehrig has beenappointed as Chair of its National Board.

Ms Gehrig brings extensive experience across the health care industry, having initially trained as a nurse and worked in chief executive roles within hospitals, medicine-based medical publishing, a not-for-profit health research organisation and a commercial health software company.

“I would like to acknowledge outgoing Chairman, Dr Peter Heysen, for his many years of dedication and commitment to the organisation. Dr Heysen has skilfully led the Board and management to ensure that the Foundation has a strong membership and fiscal base and I look forward to continuing his work as Chairman, supporting both the Foundation and its members in my new role,” Ms Gehrig said.

“Having served as a director since 1990, Dr Heysen has been a long-serving member of the Board, and in his capacity as Chairman for the last four and a half years, the organisation has introduced a range of new products, programs and initiatives, including the use of social media to better engage with the community,” she said.

Ms Gehrig offers extensive corporate governance experience from having served on a number of Boards and sub-committees, including Child and Youth Health, and is currently also a Board member of the Medical Software Industry Association (MSIA).

She has previously held Chief Executive roles at both Hartley and Wakefield Hospitals, before spending three years as Principal Consultant at NewHealth Management Services. In recent years she has also been Chief Executive with Patient Safety International and the Australian Patient Safety Foundation, as well as National Business Manager at MIMS Australia.

In addition, Ms Gehrig is a past Vice President of the Rotary Club of Adelaide, and is currently a volunteer through TAFE SA’s Home Tutor Scheme, teaching migrants and refugees how to speak, read, write and listen in English.

Ms Gehrig is currently Managing Director of MGa (Margaret Gehrig and Associates).

About Australia MedicAlert Foundation

For over 40 years, Australia Medic Alert Foundation has been the Nation’s only not-for-profit organisation providing a 24/7 personal medical emergency information and identification service with close to 300,000 members joining since 1971.

MedicAlert members wear a bracelet or necklace with a genuine MedicAlert emblem custom engraved with their vital medical information, membership number and hotline number.

The 24/7 hotline allows emergency service personnel and healthcare professionals to access important additional medical and other details quickly and efficiently in a time of need.