For the first time, resident physicians from the University of Louisville earned a top-10 finish in the American Psychiatric Association’s MindGames National Residency Team Competition.

UofL residents Laura Romer, M.D., Svetlana Famina, M.D., and Melissa Sullivan, M.D., finished fourth out of more than 100 psychiatry programs across the United States that took the hour-long online exam testing knowledge of patient care, medicine and psychiatric history.

The physicians took a no-anxiety, no-expectation approach to the competition, a test similar to the Psychiatry Resident-In-Training Examination (PRITE) that residents take annually, said Romer, a fourth-year resident. They reviewed old PRITE questions, but couldn’t find time in their hectic schedules to prepare as a group.

The strategy worked.

“This is our passion,” Famina said. “All the knowledge we’ve accumulated from daily clinical practice and working with our attending physicians stays with us.”

This was the best finish in the competition of any UofL-sponsored team, said Robert Campbell, M.D., the team's coach and assistant professor of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences in the UofL School of Medicine.

“With more than 200 programs in the country, our residents showed themselves to be true scholars in the field of psychiatry,” Campbell said.

Sullivan, a third-year resident, said the team’s finish is a testament to the quality of the residency program.

“We have so many clinical sites that we go to. We see so many different types of patients. We learn from many researchers. UofL has a lot to offer its residents,” Sullivan said.