A team of four University of Arizona emergency medicine residents recently participated in the Emergency Medicine Resident Association’s SIMWars competition at the 2015 American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) national conference in Boston.
It was the first year the UA has competed in SIMWars, a single-elimination tournament in which resident teams compete against each other in simulated patient scenarios. Each team performs on the national stage in front of a live audience of their peers and are judged by academic leaders in emergency medicine and simulation education.
Teams are rated on their medical knowledge, procedural competence and ability to work together cohesively. Cases are medically challenging, requiring decisive, on-the-spot action and often involve distracting actors that really bring out a team’s true skill.
Led by their coach, Vivienne Ng, MD, MPH, director of emergency medicine simulation, residents Kylie Conroy, MD (PGY2), John Hagenberg, MD (PGY1), Whitney Kiebel, MD (PGY5) and Moses Mhayamaguru, MD (PGY3) sailed through round one against the University of Buffalo, but lost to defending champions Harbor-UCLA in the semi-final round.
While the UA team did not make it to the final round, they received high praise from critical care guru Dr. Scott Weingart, who was impressed when they were forced to deal with not one, but eight distraught family members during their case. He said, “I really like the dynamics of this team!”
Congratulations UA for their first successful appearance at EMRA’s Resident SIMWars competition!
