A team from MedUni Vienna has successfully completed the 3rd Jacob Henle Contest in Göttingen. Medical students Alexander Gerhartl, Alexander Hamedinger, Shehroz Masood and Christoph Reisenbichler took second place in the international medical skills competition.
The Jakob Henle Contest is a competition for medical students organized by the University Medical Center Göttingen. It is based on the Paul Ehrlich Contest, which has been held since 1998 - originally under the name Benjamin Franklin Contest. The participants put their skills to the test in the areas of visual diagnosis, clinical case processing, practical tasks and a complex final case. The aim is to promote medical knowledge, teamwork and practical skills in a competitive but collegial environment. The event is organized by the Department of Nephrology and Rheumatology at the University Medical Center Göttingen and supported by institutions such as the Marburger Bund. The team from MedUni Vienna consisted of four students, some of them tutors from the elective course "Symptoms and Differential Diagnoses - Preparation for the Paul Ehrlich Contest" (led by Dörte Symmank and Jurij Maurer).
First, 12 visual diagnoses had to be solved in four rounds, in which rare or typical clinical pictures had to be recognized at lightning speed using images. The rule here is - whoever presses the buzzer the fastest and says the right answer wins points. It continued without a break. Three clinical cases had to be correctly diagnosed. For example, there were patients with pheochromocytoma, thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP) or Graves’ disease. In addition, two written cases had to be solved in which the teams had to create a suspected diagnosis, differential diagnoses, further diagnostics and a treatment plan from given findings. Knowledge of aortic stenosis and Fabry disease was required. In the practical part of the competition, the students mastered challenging airway management with intubation under difficult conditions and the high-quality performance of cardiac massage.
In the final part of the competition, many teams were still on a par. The task was to correctly solve a final, usually very complex case. Points could be awarded for various diagnostics. Team Vienna was the first team to do so. The case presentation described a patient from India who presented with repeated epileptic seizures. Various differential diagnoses immediately formed in the minds of the individual team members. In just a few seconds, these were discussed among themselves and it was clear! An MRI of the skull was needed! When the findings revealed multiple cystic structures with punctiform inclusions, they were certain: it was neurocysticercosis. The Vienna team announced their suspected diagnosis and shortly afterwards, to great applause, the diagnosis was judged to be correct with just a single diagnostic procedure! The students impressed with their diagnostic skills, their systematic approach and their practical ability and achieved an excellent second place under great time pressure.
