International Medical
Tournament

What is the Medical Tournament?

International Medical Tournament is an innovative medical education project targeted at developing the professional skills of future doctors.

It is a challenging team competition that includes solving complex diagnostic problems from real clinical practice, presenting and discussing solutions with students and experts.

The main goal of the competition is training students for their future medical careers, including the development of critical thinking in the diagnostic process, working in a team, and improving presentation and rhetorical skills.

The Tournament promotes international contacts among students and universities and spreads medical knowledge around the world.

The idea of holding a medical tournament belongs to the students of Novosibirsk State University, where the Final Stage of the competition takes place.

Learn more about NSU

Since 2013, the International Medical Tournament was attended by

universities

475

teams

2323

participants

International Medical
Tournament

All the issues are based on real life cases involving patients that were treated by our experts. It is very important to understand that there is not only one solution. The main challenge is to prove your solution.

We test your ability to see the complexity of the case in its entirety and to take the appropriate action. Case assignments are given to participants a month before the tournament begins so you have time to scrutinize it. Once again, the tournament goal is not to evaluate your knowledge but to assess how you think and make decisions and to take the appropriate action based on that.

Real life issues and cases

We do not evaluate your knowledge, we evaluate your analytical abilities

The project is based on four main principles:

There is lots of different information these days and yet, we focus only on our specific fields. We need to remember that we do not cure a disease, but a patient. The more knowledge we have, the more important teamwork becomes. It is no secret that the latest trend in the healthcare world is the development of multidisciplinary teams. These teams include specialists from different fields who work together to treat a patient.

It is very important to get your message across and also to hear the feedback. It is essential to understand that we can all be wrong and that even if you are right, you need to be able to use effective arguments to communicate your thoughts to others.

Teamwork

Ability to cooperate not only with your teammates, but with your opponents

Who are the Tournament participants?

Every year about a hundred highly motivated and skilled medical students come to Novosibirsk to discuss difficult clinical cases, solve medical problems, and test their knowledge in a debate format.
Teams of young, bright future doctors currently studying at medical universities (4-6 years) or students taking a relevant postgraduate course can take part in the tournament.

Thank you very much for this great event. It was beneficial in terms of medical education and the program was well organized and interesting!

Emin Gültekin

student, Berlin, Germany

The Tournament is excellent. It is a great concept and provides a wonderful opportunity for learning. The social program and being surrounded with colleagues from different Universities is both fun and useful...
The competition overall is great and I wish you the best of luck. We learned so much and are so grateful that we had the opportunity to participate in it.

Marija Topalovic

student, Niš, Serbia

It was the first time the University of Belgrade participated in the International Medical Tournament. As a participant in this Tournament, I have to say it was an amazing experience for me and my team. We learned a lot during the resolution of the cases and during discussions with other teams. The Tournament organization and social program were perfect. Also, it was our first time in Russia, and we were thrilled by the hospitality and kindness of our Russian colleagues. I recommend that everybody take part in this tournament.

Vladimir Gluhović

student, Serbia, Belgrade

The tournament was an unforgettable experience. The thrill of competing, the new and unknown environment of Siberia, and the lovely people made it a very memorable event. I'm already looking forward to next year's Tournament.

Nadja Kutschke

student, Germany, Berlin

We really enjoyed the game and getting in contact to people from Russia and Serbia. Everyone was so open-minded and promised to meet again in the evenings or on social program events. Saturday and Sunday were the days of the battle – whose team-members can convince the experts about the solution of the cases? Whose team members can discuss the best and find important missing points in the solution of the speaker? What can we all learn from the cases? All those important aspects we discussed together with the experts and the participants from all over Russia and Serbia. What an enrichment it was to have an American expert this year and finding out more about Evidence Based Medicine and how it can be used sufficiently or not in different parts of the world. We learned how important English is as the international lingua franca of medicine. The tournament helped us to broaden our horizons about medicine and healthcare thanks to the experts and the cases.

Nicole Richter

student, Germany, Berlin

How to participate?

International Medical Tournament comprises of two leagues – Russian league (Russian working language) and International league (English working language).
The tournament has two stages: An Correspondence Stage and Final Stage. The extramural stage consists of extramural solving of 2 qualifying cases. Only 12 teams with highest qualifying stage's scores of each league attends Final stage. The Final stage includes 2 competitive days, in each of 2 circles
competitions.

Correspondence stage

Sept1, 2023 – Nov 15, 2023

Find a team of 4-5 people

Apply for participation in the Correspondence Stage

Send solutions to two clinical cases

Team registration

Final stage

April 5—8, 2024

Pass to the final stage

Send your confirmation of participation in the Final stage

Come to Novosibirsk State University for the VII International Medical Tournament!

The Tournament experts

The Tournament experts evaluate Participation of teams in the Correspondence and Final stage. The Tournament experts are highly qualified professional doctors representing different specialties and countries.
The experts prepare the Tournament tasks by identifying the most difficult cases from their own practices. During the Tournament they assess the team's solutions, discuss possible approaches to patient management and share their knowledge with the students.
Each team can recommend an expert to the Tournament!

I was invited to International Medical tournament and I feel to be fortunate and privileged to be invited and I have enjoyed every bit of it.
First of all – tournament itself was exceptionally well implemented. My expectations were already high based on the reputation of the University, but organizers managed to surpass it.
Second – the level of knowledge and enthusiasms amongst participants was very high. Students have really put in their heart and soul in taking care of every virtual patients presented as challenges there. I think this tournament is a great model to be implemented in many other parts of the world to enrich the educational experience of many more medical students.
Third – It offered quite diverse culture experience and demonstrated how the art and science of medicine has a common language for doctors and medical students from different countries. It provided unique opportunities of networking with future physicians from different parts of the world, that is becoming increasingly valuable with current globalization trends.
And last but not the least – city of Novosibirsk offers a unique Siberian experience – it is far away from the capital, yet it is a large enough city to find interesting activities for all kinds of people and mingle with locals with a large endemic cultural heritage.

Davit Mrelashvili,
University of South Carolina

I have been twice at the tournament as an expert. This year we took part as a team. And we, as well as you, had to find solutions for the cases in order to judge correctly. It is also very important for us to be authors of the cases. In our cases we show the importance of multidisciplinary approach and team work. In most cases it takes team work in order to choose the right management of patient`s disease. I urge you to remember it in your professional life. I am sure that taking part in the tournament will have influence on your professional life, because such events teach us to systemize information, work with literature and, finally, make right and clear decisions.

Tatyana Bergen,
Novosibirsk

This spring I was invited to participate in International Medical tournament. And it was a really valuable experience. The contest was more like a celebration than competition for all of us.
The teams were highly motivated and showed great levels of their knowledge despite the really complex cases. Some tasks provoked lively debate among participants as well as experts. It is worth it to mention that physicians have to study constantly, and such events help not only students but also experts to deepen knowledge.
I want to thank the organizers and volunteers for this awesome event! They have done the great job. I believe this tournament is a good part of educational program for medical students. And I can admit that I have introduced these conceptions to my practical courses.
In addition, International Medical Tournament is the fantastic opportunity for international communication and finding new friends for both students and experts.
I was proud to be part of the Tournament and I look forward to getting the invitation next year!

Olga Oleshko,
Novosibirsk