The SIMps have won the 2020 ACOM Simulation Competition!

Eight teams (a total of 40 students) competed on Friday and Saturday for a chance to advance to the National SimChallenge.

Teams were presented with an emergent clinical scenario, which required medical knowledge, clinical skills, teamwork, communication, and calm nerves to overcome the challenges. One ACOM team advances to the national competition each year.

In 2017, a team of second-year ACOM students won the national SimChallenge event and represented the United States at the International SimChallenge in Paris, defeating the French team in the final round to become international champions.

In 2020, the ACOM team won the first National Virtual Patient Simulation Challenge hosted by AMSA. ACOM hopes to recapture the national title again this year, with this local tournament serving as an important step in that journey.

The SIMps are a team of first-year students led by student Elizabeth Vandervort.

Vandervort, who has interest in emergency medicine, is a former EMT and Emergency Department Tech.

Through their wide range of medical skills the team accomplished success in order to represent ACOM on the national level.

Brian Lewis is a former EMT and field training officer. During the competition he was responsible for talking to the patient in order to gain an in-depth history to determine a diagnosis.

Teammates included, Arianna Serrano a former ER scribe and medical assistant, Will Laidig, former emergency department scribe and tech, and Connor Willis, a former medical assistant and scribe in primary care.

John T. Giannini Jr. MD, Associate Professor of Internal Medicine and Simulation expressed pride in each of the ACOM teams that competed.

“If you could have seen these teams when we began, you wouldn’t even recognize them today. Everyone did a great job.”