Date: June 2, 2025

Dr. Andrew Tagg

Guest Skeptic: Dr. Andrew (Andy) Tagg is an Emergency Physician with a special interest in education and lifelong learning. He is the co-founder and website lead of Don’t Forget the Bubbles.

This is another SGEM Xtra that talks about what we can learn about being physicians from certain pop culture (TV and Movies). Past episodes include:

  • Star Trek Made Me A Better Physician
  • Lead Me On – What I Learned from Top Gun
  • Holding Out for a Hero – Lessons from The Dark Knight
  • Yeah, Might Be All that You Get – How Ted Lasso Made Us Better
  • Doctor, Doctor – Paging Dr. Robby (The Pitt)

Five EM Lessons from Mission Impossible Movies

  1. Precision Under Pressure: Ethan Hunt doesn’t get extra time or perfect conditions — and neither do we. Whether defusing a bomb or managing a crashing patient, calm execution under pressure saves lives.
  2. The Team is Everything: Hunt may be the face, but he’s nothing without Luther, Benji, and the crew. Medicine is no different: the best outcomes happen when we trust our team and play to each other’s strengths.
  3. Always Question the Intel: Just because it’s in the mission briefing doesn’t mean it’s true. Skeptical medicine is about challenging the “received wisdom” and verifying it before acting — just like a good IMF agent would
  4. Know Your Exit Strategy: Whether escaping a vault or de-escalating a high-stakes family discussion, always have a way out. Good clinicians plan for failure just as much as success — that’s what keeps patients (and careers) safe.
  5. Mission Fatigue is Real: Even Ethan looks wrecked sometimes. Adrenaline is not a sustainable fuel. We need to rest, recover, and recalibrate — especially if we want to perform at a high level over decades.

The SGEM will return with a structured critical appraisal of a recent publication. We will continue to strive to reduce the Knowledge Translation (KT) window from over ten years to less than one year, leveraging the power of social media.

Remember to be skeptical of anything you learn, even if you heard it on the Skeptics’ Guide to Emergency Medicine.