Tower Health wins 2026 CHEST Challenge Championship in Phoenix

For a quarter century, the CHEST Challenge Championship has brought together pulmonary and critical care fellows for a fun and fast-paced battle of medical knowledge.

On Tuesday, October 20, at CHEST 2026 in Phoenix, the competition crowned its latest champion against the backdrop of this rich history. The Reading Hospital – Tower Health team emerged victorious, overcoming the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center and Houston Methodist Hospital teams in Jeopardy!-style clinical trivia and other skills challenges.

CHEST Challenge founder and master of ceremonies, William Kelly, MD, FCCP, opened the 25th championship event by reflecting on milestones from years past. Among them were the introduction of the first trophy in 2005, the addition of procedural skills testing and simulations in 2010, and renaming of the CHEST Challenge trophy to the Rosen Cup in 2019 in memory of Mark J. Rosen, MD, Master FCCP.

While the competition has evolved over the years, it has had a lasting impact on generations of pulmonary and critical care fellows, Dr. Kelly said.

“We’ve been to five different countries, but the best thing—the very best thing—is getting to see so many of our past players, our fellows, who want to be great clinicians, great teachers, partners in the hospital that you can depend on and rising to leadership positions all across CHEST,” he said.

The fellows from Tower Health—Aboud Tony Fahel, MD; Ravi Patel, MD; and Mohammad Baseem Shaikh, MD—were tied for second place before the Final Challenge prompt:

To protect against a chronic thromboembolic disease affecting roughly 3% of acute PE survivors, the landmark 2026 multi-society guidelines issue a Class 1 recommendation to screen patients for functional limits and dyspnea at every visit for this minimum duration.

Tower Health provided the correct response of “What is one year?” and wagered enough to vault ahead of the competition. The winning fellows celebrated victory on stage with supporters, the Rosen Cup trophy, and a $5,000 first-place prize check. Oklahoma came in second place for a prize of $3,000, and Houston Methodist took third place for $1,000.

Finalists began preparations months before the championship, and teamwork played a central role in Tower Health’s approach, Dr. Shaikh said.

“My team knew we were going to be up against the smartest people in the room and that training for days, weeks, months until we were synchronized as a unit would be our only salvation,” he said.

Throughout the night, the three teams traded the lead multiple times and on-stage skill challenges added to the competition’s unpredictable scoring.

In one challenge, Oklahoma fellows Najiya Haque, MD; Shawn Patel, MD; and Hussein Rabah, MD, raced against the clock to dig through a sand pit—representing the Phoenix-area desert—and match treatments with their corresponding hazards.

Another challenge put Houston Methodist fellows Khaled M. Abdullah, MD; Luis Sanchez-Ato, MD; and James Yang, MD, to the test, requiring them to use a bronchoscope to retrieve as many little black springs as possible from a glass tube in 60 seconds—a task that proved harder than it looked.

The Tower Health fellows faced a different kind of challenge, putting their medical knowledge and communication skills to the test in a game resembling charades. Dr. Shaikh wore an oversized blue foam cowboy hat that covered his eyes while his teammates provided single-word clues for pulmonary, critical care, and sleep medicine terms, including bronchospasm, granuloma, and propofol.

“The most challenging part was our competition,” Dr. Shaikh said. “Houston Methodist and University of Oklahoma were fierce, tenacious, and relentless. They were also some of the greatest sportsmen I have met, and I consider myself privileged to be standing next to them on that stage.”

Over the course of the evening, Dr. Kelly brought a few familiar faces to the stage for cameos, including CHEST 2026 Scientific Program Committee Chair Amy Morris, MD, FCCP; CHEST President Neil Freedman, MD, FCCP; and CHEST President-Elect Lisa K. Moores, MD, FCCP.

Between the cheering, laughter, rigorous questions, and challenging live competitions, the 25th edition of CHEST Challenge Championship offered plenty of memorable moments for CHEST 2026 attendees.

But for Dr. Shaikh and the Tower Health team, perhaps none was more memorable than the moment they were announced as champions.

“I think I blacked out for the most part after I heard Tower is the winner,” he said. “I just remember seeing a lot of smiling happy faces. It just felt like a surreal out-of-body experience at that time, so I will have to rewatch it on YouTube to piece it together.”