After winning their local competition in May, the Duke Physician Assistant Program point-of-care ultrasound teams came home with another trophy from the 2024 American Academy of PAs (AAPA) conference in Houston, Texas.
The Society of Point of Care Ultrasound hosts the conference's annual national competition called iScan. With 50 schools competing, it was the largest iScan tournament to date.
The first-place team consisted of PJ Kambhiranond, Katie Wierenga, Megan Sippy, Tatiana Lam, and Sam Hughes; Mikayla Herron, Ella Lundquist, Maddy Quick, Annemarie Altomare, Natalia Brennan, Ruben Turcin, and Jacqui Foley came in sixth place.
Three members of the winning team share their experiences
(Lightly edited for length and clarity)
Ultrasound isn’t just an essential diagnostic tool; it’s fun!
Sam Hughes
One of my goals going into PA school was to get really confident with using an ultrasound. I plan to practice in either an ER or ICU setting, both of which require a good understanding of POCUS, so the iScan team seemed like an excellent opportunity for me to learn. When I signed up for the team at the beginning of the year, I couldn’t imagine HOW MUCH FUN I WAS GOING TO HAVE!! The POCUS study sessions that the second years put together every other week became something that I always looked forward to. The iScan tournament was also the absolute cherry on top and has been one of my favorite parts about PA school. It felt less like a competition and more of a place to, as [assistant professor] Betsy Melcher would say, “Celebrate our learning.” Each one of the instructors took their time to educate and give us some clinical pearls on each of the scans, which really fostered a learning environment and not a stressful competitive event like I imagined it was going to be. I couldn’t recommend it enough for any incoming students to take advantage of.
Play-by-play
PJ Kambhiranond
On the competition day, round one consisted of rotating through 5 different stations (aorta/renal, cardiac, eFAST, wrist/hand, and a case). Each station was a mix of clinical questions, identification of structures/diagnoses on images, or scanning on a volunteer model. Although our points added up as a team, questions were directed to just one person at a time. After all the stations, team points were tallied up. The team I was on, Duke Team 1, placed 2nd while Duke Team 2 placed 9th in this round! Top 10 teams advanced.
We then moved onto the quarterfinals which was Kahoot-style, answering 10 multiple choice questions with correctness and speed contributing to points. Duke Team 1 placed 3rd in this round and Duke Team 2 placed 6th, with the top 5 moving on. For the semi-finals, we were shown images covered by black pixels. The pixels would slowly disappear, revealing an ultrasound image underneath. Teams were tasked to buzz in to answer with the correct diagnosis. Duke Team 1 placed 1st in this round, with the top 3 teams moving on.
For the finals, there were three different stations that counted towards points. The first was lassoing balloon animals with a hula hoop (because Houston-themed) that were tagged with different ultrasound scans to then perform, each worth a differing number of points. The second station was based on speed. There was an opaque gel in a container with screws on the bottom attached to the circuit. We were tasked to have one person use ultrasound to guide a needle to touch the smallest screw in the container, completing the circuit and sounding an alarm. Megan Sippy absolutely nailed this station! The last station was a case scenario where we used ultrasound to help come up with a final diagnosis. Points were acquired based on speed.
At the end, it felt so rewarding to take home the trophy! I felt proud to apply the knowledge I've grown over the last two years. My pre-clinical year teammates put in so much extra time outside of their classes to learn POCUS, and it clearly paid off. We are so excited to take home the win for ourselves, Janelle, and Duke!
Lucky Socks
Tatiana Lim
Heading into the iScan competition, I didn't expect us to win. We were up against schools with ultrasound training built into their curriculum. I joined the iScan team out of genuine interest, sparked by the POCUS workshops held by the 2nd years. My goal was to learn as much as I could from the practice sessions over the months and from the professionals at iScan to ultimately become comfortable with using ultrasound as a future PA.
Given the tough competition, I felt we needed all the luck we could get. You know how some people have a lucky item? For me, it's my Champion socks. I believe that whenever I wear these socks, I can "come out as a champion" in whatever event or test I have. For iScan, however, I didn't pack them, thinking winning it was a long shot.
Despite this, one of my classmates, Gigi Sun, had packed an extra pair of Champion socks and offered them to me. I gratefully accepted, and to our surprise, we ended up placing first! While I don’t believe the socks were the sole reason for our victory, I think they gave me the confidence to perform at my best for the team.
