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PHILADELPHIA, February 7, 2023 - Team Einstein will defend its impressive record of achieving the most wins in the medical jeopardy-style competition called "Doctor's Dilemma™" hosted by the American College of Physicians (ACP). Three medical residents from the Department of Medicine at Einstein Medical Center Philadelphia, now a part of Jefferson Health, make up Team Einstein along with coaches. Since Einstein started competing in the ACP championships, they have won the national championship eight times -- more than any other team in the event's history. Team Einstein won in 1997, 1998, 2007, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2019. (The tournament was not held in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and in 2021, Team Einstein came in 2nd place in the nationals).

The Medical Jeopardy competition asks the teams dozens of questions about general medicine and its sub-specialties, as well as about rare diseases, diagnostic techniques, and medical history.

The team trains all year and holds practice sessions, similar to how an athlete prepares for a big match. Team members say that being involved in Medical Jeopardy is a great learning experience and with medicine changing every day, competing in the tournaments requires them to stay on top of things and continually improve their knowledge.

The team is currently in training for the national tournament scheduled at the end of April in San Diego which will be the 11th time a team of Einstein Internal Medicine residents has made it to the national finals. To qualify for the national tournament, Team Einstein first won the local Southeastern ACP competition and went on to compete and win the Pennsylvania state championship where the team defeated teams from the University of Pittsburgh and Penn State Hershey.

A true melting pot, members of Team Einstein represent three different countries of origin:

Dr. Jordan Carty, second-year resident, from Jamaica;

Dr. Isaac Ogunmola, second-year resident from Nigeria; and

Dr. Maxim John Levy Barnett, first-year resident from Canada.

Several former residents serve as coaches and run the training sessions. The coaches include: Dr. Shireen Chacko, Dr. Kevin Lo, and head coach Dr. Zurab Azmaiparashvili. In addition, other residents in the program, Dr. Apoorva Subramanian, Dr. Irakli Tskhakaia and Dr. Lucas Barreria Angelim, practice with the team and help motivate them.

"Team Einstein shows amazing determination, sacrifice, hard work, and great enthusiasm in learning new information," says Dr. Azmaiparashvili. "Our team feels so much pride in representing Einstein that they sacrifice their personal time and even vacations to gather together and practice so they can approach the competitions in the best possible shape. I believe this team can return Einstein to the national spotlight that it deserves for years to come," adds Dr. Azmaiparashvili.

"Our residents are successful in Medical Jeopardy because they have an incredible love of learning and appreciate the comradery and sense of community that being a part of the team brings," says Glenn Eiger, MD, Associate Chairman & Program Director, Department of Medicine, Einstein Medical Center Philadelphia - Jefferson Health. "I am so proud of our team -- they're a very special group."