Matt Hogan And Jenny Thorpe went into The Sin Cup representing STARS and the province of Saskatchewan, and came away champions.

The Sim Cup is The Association of Air Medial Services' annual competition that puts together intense patient simulations for twelve teams across North America to showcase their real life situational skills for judges to then score. This year's 2-day event was held in Phoenix, Arizona, on October 22nd and 23rd.

Matthew Hogan, a flight paramedic with STARS Air Ambulance, and his partner Jenny Thorpe who is a flight nurse, both from Saskatchewan, were participating in their first Sim Cup. "We were put thorough two initial scenarios in the preliminary round, it's meant to be like a real call where you have to manage a critically ill or injured patient. After finishing in the top four in those two cases, we moved on the finals. In the finals, it was a simulation that involved 5 patients, three of whom are critically injured and all required a breathing tube and blood products and other medications to support their blood pressure. So that definitely challenges our knowledge, but also our ability to complete tasks in a specific time and communicate effectively as a team," said Hogan.

All the teams get a total of 15 minutes for the preliminary cases, and 20 for the finals, with two minutes to prep their equipment. " Basically there's 2 or 3 judges in every case that have a score sheet. They will take in everything from how well you asses your patient, how well you took a history, did you provide the right treatments, did you give medications and the right doses. Then even things like your ability to communicate effectively as a team and also with bystanders, family members and other rescuers on the scene," explained Hogan.

It was an all Canadian finals with the second place team representing Ornge, an Air Ambulance Service out of Ontario. "It was a point of pride for us having the only Canadian teams there finishing one two."

Hogan and Thorpe has been with STARS since the base opened up in Saskatoon, which is 6 and a half years. Prior to that they both have had a long career in the medical field with Thorpe as a nurse for 17 years, and Hogan a medic for the same amount of time.

"We did a ton of preparation, we had a huge amount of support from our fellow medical crew, physicians, engineers, pilots and admin staff here at the base. We basically have been practicing here weekly for the last several months. Our colleges have been putting us through cases and getting us ready." 

This is STARS 16th finish inside the top 3, and the first time a Saskatoon-based team has represented STARS and finished 1st.

STARS competition