ACP Clinical Vignettes Competition, 2026
Each year, dozens of Internal Medicine residents compete to tell the most compelling and instructive story in less than 10 minutes. Faculty volunteer judges rate them in a variety of categories and the four finalists with the highest scores face off at a noon conference. The winner of this final competition will then compete against the winners of other state-based residency programs during the Progress CME conference in October. (Register to attend the two-day collaboration with Pharmacy here.)
The ultimate state-wide winner will win a prize and a sponsored opportunity to compete on the national stage at the next American College of Physicians (ACP) annual meeting. That meeting in April 2027 will take place in Los Angeles.
The topics are pulled from the residents’ own experiences, resulting in case-based presentations that depict a wide range of zebra-style cases. Whether they are encountering rare infections, complications from hypertension, unanticipated drug interactions, or managing the confluence of multiple conditions, in each case the subtext of each presentation is the resident’s own curiosity. Digging past an initial diagnosis or making sure to account for a patient’s entire constellation of symptoms, the presenter details the questions that eventually lead to an answer.
More than two dozen presentations across an afternoon last week were split up into two rooms. First, a panel of judges and peers filled a conference room table in the Library.
The other half, a similar complement of judges, peers, and presenters waiting their turn, watched from the Bean Conference Room.
At the afternoon’s conclusion, the judges tallied their results and talked through their ratings to determine the four finalists who will face off during noon conference on Friday, 9/25.
Congratulations to these finalists!
Kirsten Fiestan, MD (R3) – “Hiding in the Smear: A Case of Hemolytic Anemia” – Mentor: Reed Johnson, MD
Rachel Hart, MD (R2) – “A Cavitary Conundrum: The Case of the Unexpected Lung Nodule” – Mentor: Karen Brust, MD
Matt Welter, MD (R2) – “How Low K+an You Go? A Potassium Roller Coaster” – Mentor: Tahuanty Peña, MD
Madison Bellamy, MD (R3) – “From Dysphagia to Dyspnea: A Puzzle in Sjögren’s Syndrome” – Mentor: Jenny Strouse, MD
And thank you to these judges!
Kimberly Delcour, DO
Jacob Hodges, MD
Carly Kuehn, MD, MME
Jenny Strouse, MD
Joseph Szot, MD, MACP
Raul Villacreses, MD