UNMC team not stumped by Doctor’s Dilemma

This was it. UNMC’s team was comfortably ahead in the semifinals, comfortably ahead and cruising. To get into the finals of this national competition, all the UNMC team had to do was play it cool and run out the clock.

But then, wait . . . Arun Mahabir, M.D., kept buzzing the button to answer questions! Possibly jeopardizing the lead!

In the audience, faculty advisor Thomas Tape, M.D., saw it almost in slow motion: Noooooooooooooooooo!

What was he thinking?!

“I was thinking I knew the answer,” Dr. Mahabir said.
And he did.

Don’t worry, Dr. Tape. They’ve got this. And the UNMC team* of internal medicine residents, Dr. Mahabir, Alicia Mizner, M.D., and Jason Shuda, M.D., advanced into the national finals of the ACP Doctor’s Dilemma competition at the 2017 American College of Physicians (ACP) Internal Medicine Meeting.

*Officially, it was the team for the Nebraska ACP chapter, which includes both UNMC and Creighton. But the team had only UNMC members on it, so we’ll call it the UNMC team.

ACP Doctor’s Dilemma is an intense, three-day knowledge competition in the mold of a high-stakes game show. Due to copyright issues, we can’t say which game show. Let’s just say it rhymes with “Meopardy.”

But with internal medicine questions.

UNMC’s team was on fire, charging through each successive round. At first, the competition proceeds quietly. But then . . .

“The last day,” Dr. Tape said, “it’s the only thing happening.” The whole conference shows up for the big showdown, in front of a live audience, under bright lights.

UNMC was in the final five.

Were they nervous?

“Not at all,” Dr. Mahabir said.

“It got more fun, if anything,” Dr. Shuda said.

“I was nervous,” Dr. Tape said.

But the Nebraska team had something going for it — chemistry. “The team aspect,” Dr. Shuda said. “We all had confidence in each other.”

“We’ve known each other for three years now,” Dr. Mahabir said.

“It also speaks to the excellence of our residency program,” Dr. Tape said.

That’s true. It seems some teams prepare by quizzing each other over and over. But the UNMC team never did.

“Our preparation was three years of residency training,” Dr. Shuda said.

In the end, Nebraska finished second in the nation. The only thing that tripped them up was dermatology.

“We currently don’t have any academic dermatologists here,” Dr. Tape said.

But a new dermatology department is coming soon. And then there’s no stopping UNMC.