ACOM claimed another international simulation championship Friday morning by defeating teams from five other countries. This marks the third international simulation crown ACOM has earned since 2017.

Third-year students David Cooper, Jacob Gramacy and Anthony Monaco made up the winning team. David and Jacob are doing clerkship rotations at Mobile Infirmary, while Anthony is a Sim Fellow at ACOM.

The competition originated from Portugal with the five teams participating virtually. Each team was given two computer-generated cases and the scoring was done in real time.

John T. Giannini Jr, MD, associate professor of Internal Medicine/director of Simulation, said doing the competition virtually is harder. He said the team also had to adapt to medical practices accepted in Portugal versus the United States.

“I’m proud of the team,” Dr. Giannini said. “This championship speaks to the simulation program and the integral component it plays in ACOM’s curriculum and training. They are seeing the same cases in the simulation lab that they are learning about in the classroom.”

Since 2017, ACOM has won four national championships along with the three international championships.

“We are proud that this success represents the solid and strong foundation of medical education that all of our students receive,” said James C. Jones, DO, FACEP, ACOM Dean. “This is reinforced through their training in the simulation center.”

Dr. Giannini believes the success also demonstrates excellent clinical reasoning skills, which are a big part of effectively going through the difficult virtual Body Interact cases to solve

“A lot of students know about the simulation success at ACOM,” Dr. Giannini said about students being recruited to ACOM. “When they come on campus, they visit the Simulation Center.”

In addition to Dr. Giannini, the simulation program faculty includes Jim Nolen, FNP-C, instructor of Primary Clinical Skills, Dianne Walker, simulation curriculum coordinator, Justin Bonds, simulation technology specialist and four sim fellows.