ACOM Students to represent U.S. at international simulation competition

A team of second-year students from the Alabama College of Osteopathic Medicine is headed to the city of lights.

The team won the National Sim Challenge during the 2017 American Medical Student Association (AMSA) annual convention in Washington D.C. They will represent the U.S. and advance to the international simulation competition in Paris.

The objective of the Sim Challenge is simple: save the patient. Student teams are shown emergent clinical scenarios that tests their medical knowledge, clinical skills, teamwork and communication. Eight teams competed in the bracket-style national tournament this year.

“Simulation is an important part of medical education because it provides student with opportunities to have high-stakes patient encounters in a safe environment,” says John Giannini, MD, associate professor of internal medicine and director of simulation at ACOM.

Since November, the students have been training weekly in a simulation boot camp at ACOM designed by Dr. Giannini. In training, students faced intense simulated scenarios like pulmonary embolisms, heart attacks and knife wounds.

They will continue their simulation boot camp to prepare for the international simulation competition during the Society in Europe for the Simulation Applied to Medicine (SESAM) annual meeting in June.