Two University of Florida College of Medicine-Jacksonville orthopaedic surgery residents won the Ortho Bowl during the annual meeting of the Florida Orthopaedic Society in Key Largo, May 15-18.
Aaron Bates, M.D., a fifth-year resident, and Ryan Riel, M.D., a fourth-year resident, defeated orthopaedic surgery residency teams from Orlando Regional Medical Center, UF-Gainesville, University of Miami and the University of South Florida.
The Ortho Bowl is a residency challenge that started in 1998 to test the knowledge of orthopaedic residents. John Kirkpatrick, M.D., professor and chair of the orthopaedic department for the Jacksonville campus said he is pleased with everyone’s performance.
“The Ortho Bowl competition is a very challenging series of questions about diagnosis, surgical techniques, and patient management,” said Kirkpatrick. “We are fortunate to have such a great team and congratulate Drs. Bates and Riel for their Ortho Bowl victory.”
Bates and Riel each won $300 and brought home a trophy appropriately covered in casting material. The department also received a $1,500 scholarship to send an orthopaedic resident to the National Orthopedic Leadership Conference next April in Washington, DC.
In addition to the Ortho Bowl win, Bates won first place and Lan Nguyen, D.O., earned second for research papers submitted at the same meeting.