MindGames Finalists Gear Up for Showdown

Training directors representing the three residency programs that made it to the finals of APA's version of “Jeopardy”— MindGames—hold mock checks they received at last month's meeting of the American Association of Directors of Psychiatric Residency Training in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Standing with Deborah Hales, M.D., director of APA's Office of Education, they are (from left) David Kaye, M.D., of the University at Buffalo; Richard Balon, M.D., of Wayne State University/Detroit Medical Center; and Anthony Rostain, M.D., and Richard Summers, M.D., of the University of Pennsylvania Health Systems.

The mock checks are surrogates for the $5,000 each program will receive to send their team of players to San Diego for the championship competition taking place at APA's 2007 annual meeting.

MindGames is designed as a fun and educational competition pitting residents against each other in a test of knowledge about medicine and patient care.

In the preliminary qualifying phase, residency programs chose a team of three residents to take an online quiz with questions based loosely on the ABPN Part 1 content outline and additional questions on neurology and psychiatry history. Each team had to answer 150 online questions; a correct answer was equal to one point, while a wrong answer was equal to -0.25 point. Skipped and/or unanswered questions also received a -0.25 point penalty.

The three qualifying residency programs will next compete in the live MindGames competition for bragging rights as the national champion. APA members are encouraged to attend the event, which will be held on May 22 at 5 p.m. in Ballroom 6 C/F, Upper Level, San Diego Convention Center.

MindGames is a collaboration between APA and the American College of Psychiatrists and supported by an unrestricted educational grant from AstraZeneca.