Dr Mary Dahm is an ARC DECRA Fellow and Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Communication in Health Care (ICH) at the Australian National University.

She combines her passion for patient-centred health research with her interdisciplinary expertise in qualitative and mixed methods approaches in health communication and health services research. 

Mary’s current project Addressing the Challenge of Communicating Uncertainty in Diagnosis was awarded a $AUD453,000 Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) from the Australian Research Council (ARC). This project examines the critical role and impact of communication on the diagnostic process in health settings. Expected outcomes include practical communication strategies, advanced research methods in misdiagnosis, enhanced research capacity in the health community and new insights on diagnostic safety in the health policy space. Work on this prestigious grant started in August 2022 and brings together the different scientific disciplines of linguistics, health communication, consumer engagement and diagnostic error, and a diverse team of stakeholders including clinicians, patient advocates and policy makers.

In 2022, Mary was awarded a Fellowship in Diagnostic Excellence by the US Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine to investigate the policy landscape of diagnostic safety in the US, Australia and New Zealand. 

In collaboration with Dr Carmel Crock (Director Emergency Department, Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital, Melbourne), Dr Dahm has published foundational journal articles and viewpoints on language in diagnosis and diagnostic uncertainty. This includes an invited viewpoint Understanding and Communicating Uncertainty in Achieving Diagnostic Excellence in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), and Diagnostic Statement: Linguistic Analysis of how Clinicians Communicate Diagnosis, the first academic work linking linguistic expressions and diagnostic accuracy which garnered national media attention.

Patient engagement and consumer-driven research activities are central to her work. She has successfully led inclusive stakeholder workshops to enhance patient contributions towards addressing systemic issues and influencing health care policy. At ICH she has established a vibrant consumer reference group. In 2024, she was awarded the inaugural ACT Health Rising Star Award for Consumer-Engaged Research.

She has published over 50 peer reviewed publications on a wide range of health communication topics including patient-centred communication, clinical handovers, surgical risk communication, health information infrastructure, and rapport and trust in consultations. 

Mary is also an Honorary Research Fellow at the Centre for Health Systems and Safety Research at the Australian Institute of Health Innovation at Macquarie University. There she was the project lead for an NHMRC-funded partnership project on improving test result management run in collaboration with the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care, NSW Pathology and Health Consumers NSW.

PhD (Macquarie University), MA (University Of Konstanz)