Mayo Clinic Fellows Win Cardiology-Themed Jeopardy Competition

Yogesh Reddy, M.B.B.S., Vaibhav Vaidya, M.B.B.S., and William Miranda, M.D., recently took home top honors in the American College of Cardiology’s latest Fellows-in-Training Jeopardy competition in Orlando, Florida.
Left to right are Yogesh Reddy, M.B.B.S., Vaibhav Vaidya, M.B.B.S., and William Miranda, M.D. Photo courtesy of the American College of Cardiology.

Three Mayo Clinic fellows recently took home top honors in the American College of Cardiology’s latest Fellows-in-Training Jeopardy competition in Orlando, Florida.


Let's play a little game. We'll give you a clue, and then you respond in the form of a question … kinda like that game show with the host whose name rhymes with Schmalex Brebek.

OK, ready?

"These three Mayo Clinic cardiology fellows bested 35 other teams from across the country to win the American College of Cardiology Fellows-in-Training Jeopardy competition, 'Battle of the States,' during the college's 67th Annual Scientific Session in Orlando, Florida."

Looking back, we probably should have been a little more organized by handing out buzzers or something. Nevertheless, if you answered, "Who are Vaibhav Vaidya, M.B.B.S.; William Miranda, M.D.; and Yogesh Reddy, M.B.B.S.?" congratulations, you win! In the figurative sense, of course.

Drs. Vaidya, Miranda and Reddy, however, won in the very literal sense. They came out on top in the competition's nine preliminary rounds, semi-finals and final round, where they faced off against a team from Virginia. To win the competition, the good doctors had to correctly answer questions "from four Jeopardy categories that were based on the American Board of Internal Medicine Certification Examination Blueprint," according to the official American College of Cardiology press release.

The questions, Dr. Vaidya tells us, "spanned all of cardiology, from congenital, to coronaries, cardiac electrophysiology, heart failure," and everything in between. "Thankfully, we had a diverse mix of academic interests in our team," he says.

Photo courtesy of the American College of Cardiology.

To the victors, of course, go the spoils. And those spoils, the press release states, include "a first-place trophy and plaque," three travel vouchers to send Drs. Vaidya, Miranda and Reddy to next year's conference in New Orleans, and last but not least, "a free subscription to the ACC's Adult Clinical Cardiology Self-Assessment Program." (Match that, Trebek.)

While that's all well and good, Dr. Vaidya tells us it's not why he chose to compete. "The competition is a mark of the training and knowledge levels of fellows in training," he says. "I chose to participate because this is one of the best training programs for cardiology worldwide, and I wanted to help highlight that."

As proof, the trio "didn't prepare specifically for the competition" but were "able to answer questions because our breadth of clinical practice is immense," Dr. Vaidya says. "Conditions that are considered uncommon at other institutions are seen rather routinely at Mayo Clinic. This keeps our differential diagnosis broad from an early stage in training. We're really appreciative of the training we receive at Mayo Clinic, and of the incredible support from everyone here."

Everyone including Nkechi Ijioma, M.D., and Gautam Kumar, M.D., the former Mayo Clinic cardiology fellows who helped bring the competition to the American College of Cardiology, and Sunil Mankad, M.D., a Mayo Clinic cardiologist. "The competition represents the best of the best, and our Mayo fellows performed in spectacular fashion," Dr. Mankad tells us. "We know how smart our fellows are, but the way they withstood the pressure of the competition and came through the gauntlet to rise to the top is really a tremendous achievement. We're very proud of them."

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