Clinico Pathological Case Competition

The Clinical Pathological Case (CPC) competition is an effective teaching tool to develop critical thinking specially when faced with a diagnostic dilemma.

There are 2 parts to a CPC competition –

1. Each participating institution submits an interesting case which they have found challenging and which has good learning points.
   The case submitted has to be an actual case seen and managed in the Emergency department of the institution concerned and not a fictitious case or one taken from another institution or the internet.

2. Each institution will receive an interesting case with the accompanying history and relevant investigations and they will have to arrive at a diagnosis based on the information given.

The CPC competition is completely anonymous. The participating teams will not be aware about which institution their case belongs to.

Participation:

• One faculty & one resident from each institute will be taking part in the CPC competition
• The faculty will introduce their case.
• The resident from another institution will then present the case and arrive at the diagnosis.
• The faculty from the institution that has submitted the case will then disclose the diagnosis with the relevant facts that has led to that diagnosis.

Presentation timelines

• Faculty Case Presentation- 5 Minutes
• Resident Case Discussion – 10 Minutes
• Faculty Case Outcome – 5 minutes.

Case Submission Details

• Unusual presentations of common diagnoses or typical presentations of unusual diagnoses make the best cases for CPC presentation.
• Highly complex cases with multiple diagnoses are best avoided.
• The case should be Relevant in the Emergency Medicine Context.
• There must be an opportunity to be able to logically approach the case, discuss the differentials & arrive at the best possible diagnosis.
• The Case –
  • The case submitted must have the chief complaint, the history of present illness, past medical and surgical history, social history, medications, and allergies. The vital signs and physical examination findings in detail should be provided. Diagnostic studies should be provided without their interpretation i.e., Provide the ECG, Xray/ CT / MRI images, ABG – not their interpretation.
  • All information obtained in the ED, in the order in which it was collected should be presented.
  • It may be appropriate to withhold a single confirmatory test as long as the case can be analysed based on the other information provided. This test should however, be presented by the faculty while discussing the case outcome.
  • The name of the institution, the patients name or any other identifiers must not appear on the details of the case that has been submitted.

• The resident discussing the case will have to interpret the investigations that have been provided. 
• The faculty case presentation as well as the case outcome should be submitted in a PowerPoint format which will be presented by the faculty on the day of the competition.
• The resident should also present the case discussion in a PowerPoint format. This does not have to be submitted in advance but presented on the day of the competition.
• Following submission of the presentation & the Outcome Slides, the participating institute will not be allowed to make any alterations to the slide set, unless the CPC committee asks for any additional data.

• All discussions should be cordial.
• Case submission implies that the resident and faculty member will be available to present the case on the day of the competition.

The CPC committee will review the cases submitted and if suitable the case will be accepted and the institution informed. Subsequently, the institute will be allocated another case, which they can review, analyse & the resident can present at the competition.

The decision of the CPC Committee will be final with regards to the cases submitted, case allocations, case presentations & results of the competition.

Submit your entries here