April 20, 2016 | Kavitha Kalvakuri, MD, Adam Oesterle, MD, & Gurpreet Singh, MD
Education

Our experience at ACC.16 was so fascinating, inspirational and full of interesting moments that we don't know where to start. We knew that this meeting would provide a great learning experience, and we were feeling lucky that this event was happening in Chicago.

This year, the ACC organized an interstate FIT jeopardy competition, Battle of the State Chapters, and the three of us were lucky to be selected to represent the "home team" from ACC's Illinois Chapter. As is always true, matters associated with honor and glory are associated with stress. However, the stress was worth it because it provided the opportunity to network with knowledgeable co-fellows from different states, to show some team spirit and to perform in front of large crowd comprising of professional colleagues and seniors.

It felt great to hear outgoing ACC President Kim Allan Williams Sr., MD, MACC, cheering on the teams from the audience. The recognition and generous praise by highly accomplished peers is invaluable. The atmosphere in the hall was totally charged, and we could feel the adrenergic rush while we were on stage competing against people who have great timing, fast reflexes and can get to the right answer in a matter of seconds. This event tested the speed of our thinking process along with breadth and depth of our knowledge. It feels ecstatic to answer correctly and equally disappointing when the answers went wrong. It was evident that everyone present was enjoying the competition and we could appreciate the lingering effect when we spotted people discussing questions later on!

After we won the preliminary rounds, we started to feel the real stress because we had raised the expectations of ourselves amongst our supporters. It was a great relief to win the semifinal. However, nothing could replace the feeling of winning the competition. We felt at the top of the world after we won the finals and received the trophy from Dr. Williams.

We would say that questions were fair and complex as we progressed through the competition. There were many questions we didn't answer or got wrong the things we knew, but this averages out between the teams because everyone gets a fair chance. We admit that some questions were really difficult, but this provides opportunity to understand knowledge gaps.

We think that this competition should become a regular feature of ACC's Annual Scientific Session every year. Not only will it provide an opportunity for more FITs to get involved in the ACC and their local chapters, but it will also help to recognize FITs for their clinical knowledge at national level.

This article was authored by Kavitha Kalvakuri, MD, a fellow in training (FIT) at the University of Illinois at Peoria; Adam Oesterle, MD, an FIT at the University of Chicago Medical Center; and Gurpreet Singh, MD, an FIT at Rush University Medical Center.