Since 2002, CHEST Challenge has put pulmonary and critical care fellows from across the United States through a rigorous testing process and invited some of the field’s most promising medical minds to showcase their scientific knowledge, composure under pressure, and dignity amid absurd manual drills.
William Kelly, MD, FCCP, originally brainstormed the concept of the Jeopardy!-style competition for the CHEST Annual Meeting and has served as its master of ceremonies since 2017. He described the contestants who have appeared on stage as smart, professional, and gracious fellows who went on to build “the future of our CHEST organization and our specialties” and who continue to represent “the very best of us.”
“So many of our players have gone onto Networks, committees, course faculty, and other CHEST leadership positions,” Dr. Kelly said. “This is in addition to helping so many patients and their communities.”
Ahead of the 25th annual CHEST Challenge Championship at CHEST 2026, three former finalists shared their recollections of different eras of CHEST Challenge—from being on stage to the impact that the months of preparation, moments of panic, and a solid hour or more of intense questioning had on their careers.
Otis Rickman, DO, FCCP
THEN: CHEST Challenge Finalist, 2002 (Mayo Clinic)
NOW: Professor, Department of Clinical Education, University of Tennessee-Health Science Center School of Medicine; Founding Director of Bronchoscopy and Interventional Pulmonology at Ascension St. Thomas
When Otis Rickman, DO, FCCP, was a fellow at Mayo Clinic in 2002, he heard that CHEST was putting together a new contest to get trainees more involved at the CHEST Annual Meeting.
So he took the advice of his wife—who suggested this might be just the thing to scratch his long-standing itch to appear on a quiz show—and took the screening test over a dial-up internet connection. Word soon came that he and two of his fellows had won a spot in the inaugural championship… whatever that might mean.
“We actually had no idea what to expect,” Dr. Rickman recalled. “I prepared for it by doing what is now the CHEST SEEK® questions, just as I would prepare for the board exams, and our team tried to memorize a lot of minutia and acronyms since we had heard it was going to be based on Jeopardy!”
When the contest day arrived in San Diego, nerves mounted quickly as Dr. Rickman watched the lead-up to the show and eventually took the stage. In classic Jeopardy! fashion, the first CHEST Challenge Championship came down to the final question. Dr. Rickman and his team provided the correct answer but failed to wager enough points to beat the other team.
Still, the week wasn’t without other victories. While at the annual meeting, Dr. Rickman presented a paper on cases of tracheobronchopathia osteochondroplastica he had encountered, which won an award for best abstract.
“It was those two things, really—that award and CHEST Challenge—that solidified my more than 25-year relationship with CHEST, from trainee to teacher,” Dr. Rickman said.
In the years since, Dr. Rickman has become a leading pulmonologist and educator, spearheading various educational initiatives for CHEST, such as the annual meeting simulation courses and more.
“This was a time when the phrase ‘educational gamification’ wasn’t even used, but CHEST created this exciting, competitive game in a field that I loved,” he said. “The society was willing to invest in something novel and fun for the fellows that went beyond abstracts and lectures,” Dr. Rickman said. “Participating in CHEST Challenge really solidified that I wanted to be a lifelong member of CHEST, and the [game] was instrumental in forming my professional relationship with the organization.”
Sujith V. Cherian, MD, FCCP
THEN: CHEST Challenge Finalist, 2014 and 2015 (University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston)
NOW: Associate Professor, Divisions of Critical Care, Pulmonary and Sleep Medicine at the University of Texas Health McGovern Medical School and Director of Interventional Pulmonology and Pleural Diseases and the Bronchoscopy Suite at Lyndon B Johnson Hospital
By the time Sujith V. Cherian, MD, FCCP, was a first-year fellow in 2013, CHEST Challenge had been around long enough that the faculty member who encouraged him to take the qualifying exams was a former CHEST Challenge finalist himself. That year, Dr. Cherian helped propel the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston to a Top 9 spot in the qualifying test and then witnessed the event in person.
“It was exhilarating—the highlight of that day,” Dr. Cherian said. “As I watched it, I knew it was something that I wanted to be a part of and that I would do everything I could to compete on stage the next year.”
And he did. As a finalist in 2014, Dr. Cherian’s team persevered through difficult questions and a skill challenge about ventilator waveforms, a concept that was relatively new to them at the time. But then came the final question, where they were asked to supply the full names of critical care studies that were commonly referred to by only their acronyms.
“That’s when we realized we hadn’t paid much attention to those acronyms,” Dr. Cherian recalled. “We had led the scoring, then were in second place at that moment, and then—because we got all the acronyms wrong—we finished in third.”
He had a final shot, returning to the stage in 2015 with fewer butterflies in his stomach and a renewed understanding of the range of questions in play. Though his team fell short of the top spot that year, his connection to CHEST Challenge has continued throughout his career. He has gone on to serve on the Training and Transitions Committee, which designs, reviews, and approves the CHEST Challenge questions.
Being subjected to the pressure, albeit fun-filled, of CHEST Challenge helped him adjust to the real-world pressure of critical care at an early stage in his career, Dr. Cherian said. He now teaches a new generation of students using several of the gamification methods that he experienced while competing.
“That ability to deliver and answer questions under pressure helped me a lot when I was training in the ICU, and the gamification aspect helped me recall facts that I had studied,” Dr. Cherian said. “To this day, I can still remember a lot of the questions that we received or that we prepared for.”
Rachel Quaney, MD, MAEd
THEN: CHEST Challenge Champion, 2019 (The Ohio State University)
NOW: Assistant Professor in Division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Medicine at University of Colorado
Rachel Quaney, MD, MAEd, initially encountered CHEST Challenge as a first-year fellow attending CHEST 2018 in San Antonio on a CHEST Travel Grant. She sat in the front row, fought for a prize during the audience Twitter quizzes, and took in the full CHEST Challenge game show experience.
The following year, the CHEST Annual Meeting headed to New Orleans, and so did Dr. Quaney, but this time as a CHEST Challenge finalist.
Arriving at CHEST 2019, Dr. Quaney had little time for nerves. By 2019, CHEST Challenge was being held as a prime-time evening event—and on that day, she was also competing for a medical education innovation grant.
“I was probably so focused on my nerves for that grant that I didn’t have time to be nervous about CHEST Challenge—not until it was time to walk into that big hall with the raised stage and bright lights,” she said. “Even knowing exactly what I was getting into, I got nervous; but I was also blown away by how fun it was and how much it made me feel connected to CHEST and the greater community.”
The night went well for Dr. Quaney and her team. They felt the wind in their sails after successfully wagering that they could beat a competitor’s timed score on a chest tube challenge, and they emerged relatively unscathed from a question on 1980s pop culture.
Dr. Quaney even took center stage as she yelled directly in the face of President-Elect Steven Q. Simpson, MD, FCCP.
“We were given this challenge where I had to walk him through a spirometry, and that basically includes yelling in someone’s face to tell them when to breathe. So, there I was, on stage, yelling at the leader of CHEST,” Dr. Quaney recalled.
By the time the final question came around, her team was far enough in the lead that they were able to secure the win without supplying the correct answer.
Looking back, Dr. Quaney said, CHEST Challenge’s intentional balance of entertainment and education had a distinct influence on her future.
“It would be really easy for the huge production of CHEST Challenge to lose its educational value, but Dr. Kelly and the CHEST Challenge team focus on keeping it unique, novel, and super educational,” she said. “It’s a supreme example of how gamification should be done: It should be something that enhances your engagement and your interaction and your interest without sacrificing the education.”
Dr. Quaney said the CHEST Challenge experience reinforced her appreciation for medical educators and her path to becoming one. She completed her master’s in medical education during fellowship and now applies gamification, as well as some of the skills and knowledge she was quizzed on during the contest, in teaching her own students.
And that final question that her team missed?
“It was Erdheim-Chester disease,” Dr. Quaney said. “I’ve never yet seen it in my practice, but I will never forget what it is because of CHEST Challenge.”
Silver-Anniversary Memories
In honor of CHEST Challenge’s 25th annual championship event, test your knowledge with Challenge-related trivia inspired by memories shared by CHEST Challenge founder William Kelly, MD, FCCP. Remember, just as in the real CHEST Challenge, answers must be in the form of a question. (No money is at stake, just bragging rights!)
$200
This southern European country is famous for leaning towers, coliseums, football, cuisine, and cinema stars. It is also where Dr. Kelly hosted a special international CHEST Challenge following shows in India, China, and Spain.
Answer
What is Italy?
$400
The first CHEST Challenge trophy was introduced in 2005 as a beautiful glass sculpture that may have taken your breath away, but it proved too fragile for annual transport, partly because of its symbolic shape as these vital organs.
Answer
What are lungs?
$600
He was CHEST President from 2006 to 2007, hosted CHEST Challenge from 2007 to 2013, and served as an advocate for the program until his passing in 2019. The CHEST Challenge Cup is now named in his honor.
Answer
Who is Mark J. Rosen, MD, Master FCCP?
$800
She is the current CHEST President-Elect and a longtime leader within the organization. A mentor to CHEST Challenge host William Kelly, MD, FCCP, she is recognized as one of the founders of CHEST Challenge and was instrumental in guiding the event in its critical first five years.
Answer
Who is Lisa K. Moores, MD, FCCP?
$1,000
Featuring modified lyrics such as: “All our patients need the best care / Friends and colleagues have evidence to share / Asthma, cancer, sepsis, ILD / Fighting lung diseases / Yearning to be free,” this country ballad served as the soundtrack to the cold-open video for the 2022 CHEST Challenge in Nashville. With William Kelly, MD, FCCP, on acoustic guitar and the year’s nine CHEST Challenge finalists as lead vocals, the Training and Transitions Committee led the audience in a live singalong of this song to celebrate the postpandemic return to in-person meetings.
Answer
What is “Take Me Home, Country Roads”?
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