Medicine Student Takes Global Challenge

Competing with 7,500 medicine students from more than 100 countries, second-year College of Medicine student Oroshay Kaiwan recently reached the semi-finals of the ClinicalKey Student Global Challenge held by Elsevier.com, a global organization for research and analytics.  

“The Challenge is a platform that brings together medical students from around the globe to not only test their medical knowledge but also create an international community of healthcare providers who can learn and grow together,” says Kaiwan, who would like to pursue internal medicine and possibly specialize in cardiology.

The challenge consists of four rounds of weekly assessments containing 25 clinically relevant USMLE-style questions – that is, questions resembling those that students will later be asked on their national board (licensing) exams.

“After completing all four rounds (and achieving a sufficient score to progress), participants were asked to submit a short video focusing on the theme of leadership and resilience during COVID. They were asked to assess a clinical scenario, and provide guidance on what steps they would take to resolve a conflict, reflecting on their own feelings, those of the clinician involved and the patient. The videos were reviewed by our experts and, along with their scores, participants were selected based on their answers given,” wrote Elizabeth Munn, managing director of education at Elsevier.

Kaiwan learned about the challenge through the College of Medicine. She credits Mariquita Belen, Ph.D., associate professor of family and community medicine, for guiding her through the video challenge – Round five of the event.

“Dr. Belen took time out of her busy schedule to meet with me and gave me great advice. I am really grateful for her guidance,” Kaiwan says. 

Elizabeth Munn of Elsevier wrote that Kaiwan “successfully made it to Round five submitting an insightful video that brought to the forefront her engaging personality to our clinical experts.” 

Munn continued, “They felt that her answers were strong and she gave good examples that showed deep-thinking around the subject of leadership and resilience in medicine.” 

Reflections on the experience

“I have made some amazing friends from around the world and might be attending a wedding in Turkey (if COVID permits). Currently, with some of my friends, we are initiating an international research organization to bring together researchers from around the globe under an umbrella,” says Kaiwan. 

“Through this organization, I am currently involved in two research projects. The first project is about safe surgical practices in Africa. The other project is regarding the impact of COVID-19 on family members of COVID patients (all around the world). Thus, being part of this challenge has been an extremely enriching and rewarding experience.”