A team of USF residents recently won a state “medical jeopardy” competition sponsored by the Florida chapter of the American College of Physicians (ACP) and set an all-time points record for the 25-year-old ACP competition. This is the third year in a row USF internal medicine residents have won the annual competition.

Stuart Himmelstein, MD, Florida ACP Governor; Robert Ledford, MD; Kellee Oller, MD; Francisco Torano, MD; Joe Lezama, MD. The ACP State Championship trophy is featured above Dr. Oller.

The USF team includes Robert Ledford, MD, Kellee Oller, MD, and Francisco Torano, MD – all residents in the USF Department of Internal Medicine and, coincidentally, all graduates from the USF College of Medicine.

The “coach” for the winning team is Joe Lezama, MD, associate professor in the USF Department of Internal Medicine and chief of medicine at the James A. Haley VA Hospital. Dr. Lezama, who has coached USF teams for 10 years (with five state titles now under his belt), also coached a team of fourth year medical students who won a national “medical jeopardy” competition at the ACP annual meeting in April. That team also included Dr.Oller and Dr. Torano, who have since graduated and moved up to the internal medicine resident team.

“It was a blowout,” Dr. Lezama said. “USF earned a record 1,000 points in this competition, handily beating out the University of Florida, which scored a negative 150 points. That’s a 1,200-point victory!”

Next on their list is pursuing the national / international title in April 2010, when they will travel to Toronto to compete against other U.S. teams, as well as those from Canada, Europe, Mexico, and Central and South America, in the 2010 ACP annual meeting.

Contestants had to recognize radiographic findings of Paget's disease, skin findings of neurofibromas, and EKG findings of left bundle branch block. They also had to answer a broad range of questions on internal medicine topics. Here’s a sample:

1. What is the number needed to treat if the absolute risk reduction is 0.1?
2. What is the infection one is most concerned with in patients infected with Taenia solium?
3. What is the first test to get for a pregnant woman with abnormal uterine bleeding?
4. What is the skin lesion associated with Darier's sign?

Did you do as well as our residents? (See answers below)

Story by Sarah A. Worth, USF Health Communications

Answers:

1. Ten; 2. Neurocysticercosis; 3. Pregnancy test; 4. Urticaria pigmentosa