It depends. If any of the players learns something new, it’s likely a good teaching point. 

Here are some examples of what kind of connections are expected at different levels of training.

Medical student: You can use ultrasound to identify lung edema in decompensated heart failure.

Resident: An ultrasound can show B-lines that signify pleural fluid accumulation secondary acute heart failure from causes like MI.

Attending: A good place to start scanning the lungs with a curvilinear ultrasound probe is in second intercostal space at mid-clavicle. 3 or more B-lines can indicate interstitial lung edema, which can be secondary to cardiogenic causes like afib with RVR or noncardiogenic causes like ARDS.

You can access a dictionary of abbreviations here.

Real world medicine is full of imperfect information and there is rarely a single one right answer for each unique patient. In the same way, our game does not have an answer key because what you learn is shaped by your teachers, whether they are your peers or seasoned physicians. The number of possible connections you can create are limited only by your imagination. Our game teaches you to deal with uncertainty in a controlled environment.  It’s up to you to define the boundaries of your knowledge, which you expand every time you play.

• Peach = signs and symptoms
• Yellow = workup
• Green = results
• Blue = diagnoses
• Purple = treatment

Colors in our logo represent the spectrum of clinical concepts a learner engages with in the course of caring for patients. It starts with identifying clinical signs and symptoms (peach) and ends with treatment (purple).

Solo play is possible the same way you could study chess moves (i.e. make connections in medicine) on your own, but it’s definitely intended to be played with others. Our main premise is that this game is a way to connect with people around you. Going through medical training should not feel like an isolating experience, especially because the practice of medicine is team-based.

Yes! Our cards are building blocks of foundational concepts in medicine. We encourage you to share any creative ways you use them so we can make these methods available to others.

Soon! We started with the Internal Medicine card deck because it covers foundational topics in medicine. We are developing more card decks and games to accompany other clinical clerkships.