What do The Pitt, ER and a real hospital emergency department have in common—and what does television leave out?

Join us for Talks on Tuesdays and discover what really happens when doctors must make urgent decisions without having all the answers.

Talks on Tuesdays is a live lecture series held in Geelong’s favourite pubs, bars and social venues. We bring experts out of the classroom and into the community, creating nights where curious people can learn something new, ask questions and connect over a drink.

On television, characters like Dr Robby and Dr Ross solve emergency cases quickly, dramatically and decisively. In real emergency departments, the diagnosis is often unclear, information is incomplete and doctors must make high-stakes decisions while navigating uncertainty.

In this engaging 45-minute talk followed by Q&A, Dr Mary Dahm will explore:

• Why uncertainty is unavoidable in emergency medicine
• How doctors make decisions without having the full picture
• What happens when symptoms don’t point to one clear diagnosis
• How uncertainty is communicated to patients and families
• What medical dramas get right—and what they leave out

How certain can an emergency diagnosis really be? What happens when doctors genuinely don’t know what is wrong? And how can patients ask better questions when the answer isn’t straightforward?

Drawing on real-world research into diagnostic communication, Mary will take us behind the fast-paced certainty of television medicine to reveal the far more complex reality of emergency care.

Food and drinks are available for purchase throughout the evening.

About the Speaker

Dr Mary Dahm is a Senior Lecturer in Health Ethics and Professionalism in Deakin University’s School of Medicine. With a unique background spanning linguistics and health communication, her research examines how patients and healthcare professionals communicate about diagnosis, risk and uncertainty.