The Jerry M. Wallace School of Osteopathic Medicine was well represented during the annual N.C. American College of Physicians (ACP) Scientific Session and chapter meeting in Raleigh.
Held at the Crabtree Valley Marriott, Feb. 20-22, the weekend event included lectures and didactic sessions, presentations from residents, as well as group updates and coaching sessions, such as “Silence Your Inner Critic,” designed to help physicians recognize and quiet their inner critics — both personally and professionally — and learn practical tools to build confidence and self-compassion.
The weekend also included the Doctors’ Dilemma competition, where student doctors and residents were asked a variety of medical questions.
A team of students and residents representing Harnett Health Internal Medicine and the Campbell’s medical school took part Feb. 21 in Doctor’s Dilemma. Question topics typically include pharmacology, dermatology, critical care and cardiology, for example.
Sponsored by the American College of Physicians, the Jeopardy-style competition tests the medical knowledge of teams representing a particular chapter of the ACP, “a diverse community of internal medicine specialists and subspecialists united by a commitment to excellence,” the organization’s website says.
Campbell’s student team won the first round, against East Carolina and Wake Forest universities. In the second round, the CUSOM team finished a close second, posting a score of 1,410, behind Wake Forest, which scored 1,500.
The CUSOM team included: Kaleb Eaton and Peter Sells, from the class of 2026, and Remy Mathy and Andrew Robertson, from the class of 2027. The Harnett Health Internal Medicine Residency Program participated in the Resident Doctor Dilemma on Feb. 20. That team included Drs. Sanjana Allam, Afreen Aleem and Moksha Avvaru, and it competed against programs such as Cape Fear Valley Health, East Carolina and Wake Forest University.
The programming committee for the event rotates every year around each N.C. medical school. This was CUSOM’s year to plan the session, the first time since 2020 and the pandemic. The committee this year included Dr. James J. Cappola, chair and associate professor of Internal Medicine and interim assistant dean for Clinical Affairs; Dr. Chris Stewart, vice chair of internal medicine at CUSOM and a core faculty member of the Harnett Health Internal Medicine Residency, and Dr. David Tolentino, interim dean.
This weekend meeting, the ACP says, is designed for general internal medicine physicians, subspecialty internal medicine physicians, family physicians, fellows in subspecialty training, allied health practitioners, residents and medical students interested in internal medicine. The purpose is to improve diagnosis and treatment skills and provide updates on inpatient and outpatient medicine.
“We are very proud of both our CUSOM student team and our Harnett Health resident team,” said Dr. James J. Cappola, chair and associate professor of Internal Medicine and interim assistant dean for Clinical Affairs.
The two didactic tracks featured inpatient and outpatient internal medicine. Cappola moderated the inpatient track; Tolentino the outpatient track. Speakers for the tracks consisted primarily of CUSOM clinical faculty and featured speakers from Harnett Health, Sampson Regional, CUSOM and other N.C. medical schools, such as the UNC, East Carolina and Cape Fear Valley.
Other highlights of the weekend included the presentation of the 2026 Laureate and Volunteerism Awards, roundtables and the Resident and Student Poster Competition, as well as posters from early career physicians.
Also each year, the programming committee chooses a charitable organization that will benefit from donations made over the weekend. This year it was Campbell’s Community Care Clinic, which offered a display, including one of the 40-foot mobile health unit trucks, which Dusty Barbour, technical director of Sim Center, drove to the event. Dr. Joe Cacioppo, chair Community and Global Health and associate professor Emergency Medicine offered tours of the truck, answered questions and gave a brief speech highlighting the clinic’s work.
“This conference was an excellent opportunity to showcase our CUSOM students and our Harnett Health residents,” Stewart said. “We are doing great things in medical education.”
Said Tolentino, “I am very proud of Dr. Cappola and Dr. Stewart and what the CUSOM team did to make this year’s N.C. ACP Annual Scientific Session a success.”
With 161,000 members in countries across the globe, ACP says it’s the largest medical-specialty society in the world. ACP and its physician members lead the profession in education, standard-setting, and the sharing of knowledge to advance the science and practice of internal medicine.
