ACMA President Lilian Kow Receives an OAM!

by Judy Koh

Congratulations to our President Associate Professor Lilian Kow on being awarded the OAM ( Medal of the Order of Australia)  for her distinguished service in bariatric and obesity medicine.

Lilian has in the past 26 years been very actively involved in obesity medicine as a surgeon and as an educator, training and examining surgeons locally, interstate, and overseas. She has published many research papers and been on the editorial board of several medical journals. For all her work she was awarded the Certificate of Distinguished Service by the Royal Australasian College of General Surgeons in 2011.

She has also scored many Firsts as the First Female President of the Asia Pacific Chapter of IFSO ( International Federation for the Surgery of Obesity and Metabolic Disorders) and the First Female and longest-serving  President of the World Body of IFSO from 2019 to 2022. 

During her presidency, the viewership of their webinars increased from 1,500 viewers to over 100,000 viewers.  During International Obesity Week Lilian’s interview was broadcast by the BBC, Sky News and 140 other radio stations and reached an outstanding number of over 43 million listeners in 2021 and again in 2022. The reviews complimented her on the simplicity and clarity of the medical information she conveyed. She has lectured, convened meetings and demonstrated surgical procedures in at least 30 of the 72 member countries of IFSO.

Truly she has been a trailblazer as rightly acclaimed in SA Life’s March 2022 issue. Another article on her journey of success by Assoc. Prof Savio Barreto will soon appear in the World Journal of Surgery.

Congratulations Lilian on all your remarkable achievements. We wish you continued success and fulfillment in your work and career.