Beyond the Waiting Room: What Patients Know That Australia's Health System Needs to Hear

Adelaide

Talks on Tuesdays is a live event series bringing big ideas, real experts, and curious minds together - at your favourite local venues. Think thought-provoking lectures, audience questions, and post-talk mingling over drinks and dinner.

This isn’t a uni lecture. It’s a social, intelligent night out.Come alone or with friends, leave with something to talk about.

Event Schedule:

6.30pm Arrival & Doors Open

7pm Lecture Starts

7.45pm Q&A

8pm Talk Concludes

8.30pm Event Closes.

*Please arrive close to 6.30pm

A La Carte menu and full bar available throughout the night - pay as you go.

Your Topic:

Beyond the Waiting Room: What Patients Know That Australia’s Health System Needs to Hear

Most of us will eventually find ourselves on the other side of Australia's health system — waiting for an appointment, navigating referrals, making decisions we don't fully understand, or wondering whether anyone is really hearing what matters to us.

For Shyam, that happened at 22, when a diagnosis of genetic kidney disease eventually led to nearly two years of dialysis and a kidney transplant. But his journey didn't end when he left the hospital. It took him from being a patient receiving healthcare to a scientist, advocate and health-system leader helping shape it.

Through his own story and his work across Australian healthcare and research, Shyam explores a deceptively simple question: what would change if we treated patients' experiences as knowledge, rather than just stories?

From waiting lists and access to care, to clinical trials, research priorities and health-system decisions, this talk explores why being heard can matter almost as much as being treated — and what becomes possible when patients move from the waiting room to the decision-making table.

Your Speaker: Dr Shyamsundar (Shyam) Muthuramalingam

Dr Shyamsundar (Shyam) Muthuramalingam is a kidney transplant recipient, former haemodialysis patient, scientist and health-system leader. He is Director of Clinical Research and Teletrials at Barossa Hills Fleurieu Local Health Network and Founder of Consumer Engagement Matters. With a PhD in Chemistry, Shyam brings together scientific knowledge and lived experience through national roles spanning health research, clinical trials, medical education and consumer leadership.

Event venue & nearby stays

The Howling Owl, 10 Vaughan Place, Adelaide, Australia

Concerts, fests, parties, meetups — all the happenings, one place.

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