Scholarly Activity (SA)
The Emergency Medicine Scholarly Activity Project
Requirement
Residents have many demands on their time. Why, then, would we require the
completion of a scholarly activity project during the residency?
First, it is required by the EM Residency Review Committee (RRC). The RRC residency
requirements state: "The curriculum should include resident experience in scholarly
activity prior to completion of the program. Some examples of suitable resident scholarly
activities are the preparation of a scholarly paper such as a collective review or case
report, active participation in a research project or formulation and implementation of an
original research project. Residents must be taught an basic understanding of research
methodologies, statistical analysis and critical analysis of current medical literature."
Second, the scholarly activity is one tool through which a resident learns the habit of lifelong learning. Like a pre-college music requirement, playing in the school orchestra does
not expect to make a mature musician of the student, but the experience adds a dimension
to the student’s appreciation of music. Some few may continue in similar activities.
Third, to practice evidence-based medicine (EBM) and stay up to date, a physician
needs to understand basic research concepts, needs an awareness of the importance of
information management in healthcare, and have the skills to formulate questions, search
for answers, critically analyzing research to weigh the evidence, and to applying the
evidence to the care of patients or populations. The RRC believes these skills should be
taught during clinical care, in didactic sessions, in Journal Clubs, and by having residents
complete a Scholarly Activity.
Scholarly Activity General Instructions
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Completion prior to Graduation. Each resident is responsible for completion of an
approved Scholarly Activity (SA). The Program Director will not attest that the
resident has completed the residency until the resident has completed a product of
“publishable quality” which is “significant” and “related to emergency medicine”
Responsibility: Initiation and completion of the project is the responsibility of the
resident and is a requirement for graduation. The SA Project Mentor’s
responsibility is to monitor progress and guide the resident.
Each Scholarly Activity must:
o Cover a topic of relevance to emergency medicine
o Have a Scholarly Activity Project Mentor. The Project Mentor must have
accepted the responsibility to see the project to completion in writing (an
archived, dated email kept in the resident’s portfolio AND the RD’s
resident folder is sufficient)
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Be approved by the Program Director in writing (an archived, dated email
kept in the resident’s portfolio AND the RD’s resident folder is sufficient)
o Be approved by the Research Director in writing (an archived, dated email
kept in the resident’s portfolio AND the RD’s resident folder is sufficient)
o The initial SA project description and approvals should be in the resident’s
folder by the end of the first year.
The SA Project Mentor. The SA Project Mentor is not necessarily the resident’s
faculty mentor, nor an emergency physician, but must have the topic expertise
needed to properly guide the resident’s project to completion. There can be more
than one mentor for given project; if so, the role of each Project Mentor must be
delineated in writing (in the style of a grant proposal). Each should have an
agreement letter on file.
Collaboration. Collaboration is encouraged. This helps spreads the work load and
promotes continuity. Again, affiliation letters must be on file. Appropriate
collaborators include:
o Other Emergency Medicine Residents at UHCMC
o EM residents at another program (by special permission)
o Residents in other departments
o EMRD members
o Case Medical Students
o Masters of Public Health Students at Case.
Scholarly Activity Options include:
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Original research projects: The resident shall serve as principal investigator, coinvestigator, or a sub-investigator on a project. If the research has not culminated
in a project manuscript by the middle of the resident’s senior year, a thoughtful,
written essay of not less than 5 single-spaced pages, detailing the process of this
research, the role played by the resident, and a careful reflection of the lessons
learned by the resident will count as the “publishable project.”
Evidence-based Medicine, Critically Appraised Topic ("CAT"): The resident
chooses a clinical question, searches the literature for pertinent articles, and writes
approximately 10 one-page critiques in the style of an ACP journal club. If this
option is chosen, the relevant articles and reviews are assembled in a notebook
and filed for future use by our training program. The articles will be accompanied
by a critique of each article’s strong and weak points, and a summary
recommendation. There will also be a list of debate points at three levels of
complexity for future use by the Program.
PeRL. Peer-reviewed Lectures (PeRLs) as produced by Academic Emergency
Medicine. These lectures should be of at national quality.
Product invention/development: The resident designs a medical product/device.
A written description and, at minimum, a prototype of the product are required. In
addition, the resident will review the patent process and protection of intellectual
properties. Case and UH both have offices to help in this phase, and do not
require that the resident sign over rights to the institution.
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Computer project: The resident designs a computer program or educational
project. A written description, and a completed prototype or product are required.
The resident reviews the process for protecting intellectual properties.
eBook chapter: an ongoing chapter in eMedicine that has been newly created or
extensively updated by the resident, after the resident has reviewed the current
literature.
Book chapter: a new or extensively revised chapter, after the resident has
reviewed the current literature, for publication in an appropriate medical textbook.
Book revision: revising an extant book, or translating it into either another
language or into another format (such as illustration or video demonstrations of
procedures)
Book writing: a book appropriate to emergency medicine wherein the resident
served as a major editor or as primary writer is an acceptable project.
Practice guidelines: Using evidence based medicine skills, the resident
investigates a clinical questions, searches for pertinent articles and/or previouslywritten guidelines, assesses their validity, and develops a departmental practice
guideline. Example: "What are the indications for prescribing antibiotics to
patients with acute bronchitis?" See also ACP Journal Club.
Case report: A publication-ready manuscript is required. Case reports should add
to an understanding of pathophysiology in a manner useful to an emergency
practitioner.
Collective review: The resident identifies a topic, performs a literature search,
and prepares a manuscript following the style established by the Annals of
Emergency Medicine
General Pitfalls to a Scholarly Activity
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Biting off too much. Keep the project simple and doable. The first step is
formulating an answerable question.
Energy Dissipation. Pick one topic you're interested in and complete it. Most of
us are interested in numerous topics and never get any completed.
Everyone’s responsibility is no one’s responsibility. If you work in a group, an
early step should be to write out a division of responsibilities, time table and then
have regular meetings.
Procrastination. Projects almost invariably take longer than anticipated. Good
scholarly activity projects cannot be started and completed by "pulling an allnighter," and few can be completed during a single research month.
Emergency Medicine Research Day
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EM Research Day is held in June during new Resident Orientation.
All resident projects are presented at Research Day.
SA groups can present together.
Acceptable formats include Oral Presentations and Moderated Poster discussions,
demonstrations of new projects or products.
New work in progress since previous year is acceptable.
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Senior presentations should be completed projects.
The format for original research follows that of national peer-review research
meetings: a 10 minute presentation followed by 5 minutes of discussions.