The Radiology Department asked us to design a portable escape game to test radiology student knowledge, facilitate team-work, and cultivate “grit” in student radiologists.

If you’ve ever met a radiologist you will know they are very, very sharp! Yet the challenge here wasn’t stumping them, it was getting them to work together despite the frustration that comes with challenge, and utilize the various medical props, skills and knowledge the clients wanted to include in the game.

Furthermore, we needed to help them make this escape room completely, and easily, portable, so it could visit other radiology schools and conferences.

This may be the first and only time we will make a puzzle out of a jiggly gelatin brain, and it was a crowd pleaser!

To both test radiology knowledge and make a satisfying game experience we took traditional escape room puzzle designs and incorporated radiology knowledge that required multiple “brains” to solve.

Our goal was to connect the activity to their future responsibilities – analyzing knowledge under pressure and communicating effectively.

Team-work was a key requirement and we created a game where, even if players split up, they would need to come together to progress in the game.

A post-RSNA survey confirmed satisfaction with the activity, with overall enjoyment receiving the highest rating as 4.85 out of 5, with Puzzles, working as a team, and the fun/novelty parts of the room being the most common favourite parts of the experience.

We know this because our clients, the Radiologists, published a research paper about it!