After several years of virtual competitions, the CHEST Challenge Championship returned to the stage at CHEST 2022 in Nashville, where outstanding fellows from Brooke Army Medical Center, Mayo Clinic, and NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist battled to compete in unconventional skills challenges and clinical trivia.
After an excellent showing from all three institutions, (not to mention, the ultimate bragging rights and the chance to raise the coveted Rosen Cup). Runner-up Brooke Army Medical Center received $3,000, and NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist received $1,000.
This year’s Jeopardy-style championship included a variety of category types, including everything from straightforward clinical answers in “Asthmalogic” about asthma-related issues and “Under a Microscope” for topics related to histopathology, to brain-boggling alternate options, such as “Rhyme Time,” which twisted answers in rhyming phrases.
The competition also included timed skills challenges that tested the competitors physically – and presented some very special guests.
In “Bugs and Drugs,” Team Methodist sprinted to grab and then matched unlabeled pathogen photographs with their appropriate therapeutic agents in less than 35 seconds. In another, Team Brooke aced the challenge of performing timed procedures on three different body parts in Dr. Frankenstein’s laboratory, while the monster himself (played by Board of Regents member Victor J. Test, MD, FCCP) worked to distract them.
Mayo Clinic was already in the lead by the time the Final Challenge wager was presented by William Kelly, MD, FCCP, so the team responded to the answer “This disease is inherited as an autosomal recessive trait and is a variant in the SCL34A2 gene” with their own unique reply: “Thank you, CHEST,” and a symbolic wager of $22.
Drs. Kanj, Marty, and Zhang credited their success to their training program back home, as well as the support of friends and colleagues on-site, including Program Director, Darlene Nelson, MD, FCCP. The team also prepared with mock sessions days before the championship and had a strong fan base cheering them on in the audience.
Want to join rising stars in pulmonary, critical care, and sleep medicine for next year’s championship in Hawai’i? Watch CHEST’s social media in the spring for the first phase of CHEST Challenge.