Quiz pits senior fellows against young physicians

One of the most-anticipated sessions at the 65^th Annual Meeting of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) pitted senior ob/gyns against young physicians in a quiz that had both teams at times scratching their heads. Available to assist the contestants in the aptly named "Are You Smarter Than a Junior Fellow?” event were PGY1-6 students from all ACOG Districts.

Representing the senior ob/gyns were Contemporary OB/GYN editorial board member Paula J. Adams Hillard, MD, and F. Gary Cunningham, MD. Cynthia Brincat, MD, PhD, and Recia L. Frenn, MD, represented their young physician colleagues. Incoming ACOG President Haywood L. Brown, MD, and Kenneth H. Kim, MD, moderated. The contestants chose questions from 3 categories-ob, gyn, and office practice-and at three levels of difficulty-PGY1, PGY2, and PGY3.

First up amongst the queries were the specifics of the definition of menorrhagia, an office practice PGY1 entry posed to senior fellows. Dr. Hillard agreed with a District VII Junior Fellow that menorrhagia was defined as bleeding more than 7 days or exceeding 80 mL. The latter number, she quipped, was “one of the most useless factoids” in practice. Score 1 for the senior team. The significance of an “hourglass” uterus on ultrasound for pregnancy confirmation stumped the younger team, who agreed with the District 6 Junior Fellow’s suggestion that it was a twin pregnancy. Correct answer: cervical ectopic.

The Junior Fellows earned a large cheer and the senior team scored with the District IV Junior Fellow’s response to question 3 about the only FDA-approved tocolytic. Answer: Ritodrine. An infectious disease question fooled the young physicians, who bet on HSV as the STD with a 1 in 6 prevalence in Americans aged 14-49. Answer: genital herpes. The senior fellows joked that they would call an oncologist if faced with the next question, about what tumor marker to order for a 50-year-old patient with a solid ovarian tumor containing coffee-bean nuclei and call-exner bodies. Correct answer: inhibin.

With a score of 5 for the senior team and 1 for the young physicians, next up was a stumper for the latter pair: What dose of boric acid would be fatal in an adult? The answer was 20 g, which no one seemed to know. After 5 more questions, on which the two teams alternated, the score was young physicians 4, senior fellows 7, with the winner of the game to be decided by a bonus question: Green is ACOG’s color because of what historic event? Much head-scratching ensued, on the part of both teams and the students tasked with assisting, this despite the fact that the same question had been posed at last year’s ACM. The answer? ACOG Founding Physicians signed the ACOG charter in green ink. And with that, the senior team declared victory and the young physicians vowed to return for the brainy battle again next year.