An official website of the United States government
Here's how you know
A .mil website belongs to an official U.S. Department of Defense organization in the United States.
A lock (lock ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .mil website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Medical residents battle it out in Jeopardy Bowl

  • Published
  • By Captain Kristen Cook
  • 81st Medical Operations Squadron
KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. --  

This past September, I was able to attend the American College of Physicians Army/Air Force conference in San Antonio, Texas along with two of my co-residents, Capt. Geoffrey Bader and Capt. Alan Bartholomew. ACP is an international organization specific to internal medicine. After years of sponsoring ‘virtual’ Army/Air Force chapter meetings, this year’s conference was held at Joint Base San Antonio, Texas, an exciting event for military wide internists! I was happily selected to present a poster presentation on an interesting case report, while my co-residents were to do podium presentations.

 

One of the more exciting and competitive aspects of the ACP meetings is the annual Jeopardy Bowl, pitting each residency program against each other in a battle of medical knowledge. Each medicine program selects three residents to participate and, given we were already going to the conference, we were it!

 

After presenting my poster, listening to other presentations, and sitting in on lectures from subspecialists at the forefront of their fields, it was time for the Jeopardy competition to begin.

 

Our competitors were buzzing in much faster than we were accustomed to, predicting the question mid-sentence and chiming in with the right answer. We started answering faster and got some points on the board. By the final Jeopardy round we were in second place out of three teams. We bet everything on the last question and happily knew the answer, which put us at first place for the Air Force!  Lt. Col. Wayne Latack, our program director, Col. Matthew Carroll, director of medical education, Col. Michael Forgione, head of Air Force Graduate Medical Education, as well as our co-resident Capt. Jess Anderson we all there cheering us on.

 

At the time we didn’t know the Jeopardy Bowl was anything more than a friendly competition between residencies for a pat on the back. So imagine our surprise when there was an overhead announcement that we would be representing the Air Force at the national ACP conference in March in San Diego, CA. We were elated!

 

The excitement and support continued upon our return to Keesler. We also had the wonderful opportunity to meet our new 2nd Air Force commander, Maj. Gen. Robert Labrutta and each received a challenge coin.

 

Seizing opportunities to go above and beyond has opened many doors for us. Having the support of our residency program and Keesler family has made venturing outside our comfort zones and competing a fun and worthwhile experience. We are excited to represent the Air Force and Keesler in March! Wish us luck!