T
he South Campus team of Alex Alsadi, MD, Sooraj Kumar, MBBS, and Juan Siordia, MD, came out on top in the coveted Doctors’ Dilemma® Competition at the 2019 Arizona Chapter Scientific Meeting of the American College of Physicians (ACP) held Oct. 18-19 at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Tucson – Reid Park.
"We are very proud of our residents winning the ACP regional championship Doctors' Dilemma competition for 2019,” said Eugene Trowers, MD, MPH, FACP, professor of medicine, director of the UA Internal Medicine Residency Program – South Campus, and director of Gastrointestinal Services, UA College of Medicine at South Campus and Banner – University Medical Center South.
“Way to go Seal Team 3 (Drs. Alsadi, Kumar and Siordia), they sealed the deal!"
Winning a $1,000 travel stipend, they will represent the state of Arizona as well as the UA at nationals next spring at the ACP 2020 Internal Medicine Meeting, April 23-25, in Los Angeles. Last year, this same team placed second in the Doctors’ Dilemma®.
Dr. Siordia also won third place for his research poster: “Busting the Myth of Beta Blockers on Aortic Aneurysm Growth.”
UA Medical Students Win Out, Too!
In addition, a UA College of Medicine – Tucson (UACOM - Tucson) team made up of Patrick Jedlowski, Mahdiah Fazel Jedlowski, and Michael Gaub won the medical student Doctors’ Dilemma® contest. And COM-T students Mehnor Hasseb won the best medical student poster contest, while Michael Gaub won the ACP Student of the Year Award. Gaub was nominated for the honor by UA Department of Medicine Vice Chair of Education Amy Sussman, MD.
“We had a fantastic showing at the Arizona Chapter ACP meeting this past weekend including residents from both of our programs and our students from the College of Medicine. It was exciting to watch our resident and student teams compete in the Doctor’s Dilemma and, of course, crushing the competition with wins from UACOM – South Campus and UACOM – Tucson!” said Dr. Sussman, an associate professor who also is director of the Nephrology Fellowship Program and director of the Medicine Clerkship Program.
“The best part of the meeting was celebrating medicine with our colleagues from all over the state and witnessing the interest in Internal Medicine from our residents and students who attended.”
Internal Medicine Is Primary Care
Internal medicine residency programs of 10 medical centers around the state were represented at the 2019 ACP Arizona Scientific Meeting, including programs at the UA College of Medicine – Phoenix, UACOM – Tucson and UACOM – South Campus. A total of 13.25 continuing medical education (CME) credits were available, drawing in community physicans from area hospitals as well as UA faculty and Banner - University Medicine clinical and graduate medical education staff.
For a copy of the program, see this link (or click on the image at right): 
acp-az-2019-program.pdf
Among DOM – Tucson faculty on the program were (with their division and presentation topics in order on the agenda):
- Serena Scott, MD (General Internal Medicine) | “Medical Student Lecture: Time Efficiency & Management (EMR/Work Life Balance)”
- Anil Potharaju, MD (Inpatient Medicine) | “Medical Student Sim Lab: Thoracentesis”
- Kwan Lee, MD, FACP (Cardiology) | “Medical Student Lecture: ECG Case Studies”
- Chyi Chyi Chong, MD (Nephrology) | “Medical Student Sim Lab: Central Line Placement”
- Laura Meinke, MD, FACP (Pulmonary) | “Medical Student Lecture: Chest X-Ray Interpretation for Beginners”
- João Paulo Ferreira, MD (Inpatient Medicine) | “Medical Student Sim Lab: Role of Joint Aspiration in Rheumatologic Disorders”
- Sasha Taleban, MD (Gastroenterology) | “Faculty Medical Education Consortium Keynote: Inflammatory Bowel Disease for the Primary Care Physician”
- Anil Potharaju, MD (Inpatient Medicine) | “Innovations in Financial Wellness”
- John Galgiani, MD (Infectious Diseases) | “A Clinical Practice for Primary Care Management of Valley Fever”
- Indu Partha, MD, FACP (General Internal Medicine) | “Updates in Primary Care/General Internal Medicine”
- Laura Meinke, MD, FACP (Pulmonary) | “Advances in Asthma Management”
- Amy Sussman, MD (Nephrology) | “Novel Oral Anticoagulant Use in Patients with Renal Disease: Is It Safe?”
Dalia Mikhael, MD (Inpatient Medicine), and Sundeep Shenoy, MD (Cardiology fellow), also participated in the inaugural round of IGNITE™, a speed-pitch session where presenters had 3-5 minutes to make their case: Dr. Mikhael on “Ask-Tell-Ask on the Wards” and Dr. Shenoy on “Updates in Management of Lower-Extremity Arterial Disease for the Internist.”
In addition, thank you to Tirdad Zangeneh, MD, FACP, FIDSA, and Josh Malo, MD, who co-chared the poster competition, and Dr. Ferreira, who chaired the oral vignette competition, as well as Dr. Potharaju and Bijin Thajudeen, MD, who co-chaired the Doctors' Dilemma® contest.
New This Year
Dr. Thajudeen, an associate professor in the UA Division of Nephrology, also was overall program chair for this year’s ACP AZ Chapter Scientific Meeting. He noted a number of new features were adopted in the 2019 program, not least a reduction of the meeting from three to two days and the IGNITE™ contest.
“We actually did very well. We had much more participation, which was great. That was one of the challenges of the last two years. We needed more audience. This used to be a three-day program. This is the first year we had a two-day program. This year, we decided to do just Friday and Saturday. We have a medical student session every year. Usually, there will be a competition for them and they’d interact with a program director,” Dr. Thajudeen said.
“Every two or three years, we’d host a sim lab presentation. Last time, it was at Mayo Clinic. The time before that, it was at the UA’s ASTEC lab. This is the first time we actually made arrangements to do the sim lab at the hotel. We brought all the simulation systems and equipment to the meeting venue. So, Friday morning, from 9-11 a.m., was basically dedicated to a sim lab session and lectures for the med students. In addition, we had 192 posters submitted, which is probably the most in the last five or six years. We accepted 180 of them.
“Compared to the usual crowd, we did very well on overall turnout. A good part from the community, medical students and the residents’ friends and family were there. There was active participation from the UA campus, both faculty at main and south campuses. All the speakers were excellent. About 70 percent of them were from main or south campus.”
EXTRA INFO: In Case You Missed It…
Former UA South Campus internal medicine resident (Class of 2016) and UA Cardiovascular Disease fellow (Class of 2019) Rishi Bhargava, MD (on right at right), was spotlighted Sept. 11 in Canada’s Toronto Star newspaper and related area news website DurhamRegion.com. The article, “Home is where the heart (doctor) is: Life comes full circle in Oshawa,” tells the story of Dr. Bhargava’s start at the Heart Care Clinic in Oshawa, a Toronto suburb, alongside his father Rakesh Bhargava, MD, and how one of his first patients was Alan Spear, MD (retired), the physician who presided at the younger doctor’s birth in 1986.
You can read the story here.South Campus internal medicine residents Leena Danawal, MD, Sidra Raoof, MBBS, and Gianna O’Hara, DO (pictured left), graduated May 15, 2019, from the Banner Health Leadership Development for Residents Program. Congratulations, ladies!
Click images to enlarge.
ALSO SEE:
“Tucson Internal Med Residents Take 1st, 2nd in 4 of 6 Contests at ACP Arizona Chapter Meeting” | Posted Nov. 13, 2018
“Four Internal Medicine Residents Take Honors at ACP Arizona Chapter Scientific Meeting” | Posted Oct. 25, 2017
“DOM to Take ACP Researcher of the Year, Med Student of the Year and Laureate Awards” | Posted Oct. 17, 2017
“South Campus Resident Dr. Jessica August Picked as ACP Resident/Fellow of the Year” | Posted Oct. 16, 2016
“S. Campus Resident Pulls Hat Trick of Three Awards, Capped by Win at ACP Nationals” | Posted May 20, 2016
"UA South Campus Resident-Physicians Win Out in Medical Competition to Represent State at National Internal Medicine Meeting” | Posted Nov. 24, 2015