Keri T. Holmes-Maybank, MD
Division of Hospital Medicine
Medical University of South Carolina

• Residents will learn to prepare an abstract for submission to a scientific conference.
• Residents will learn to prepare a poster for presentation at a scientific conference.
• Residents will identify elements of successful abstracts and posters.
• Residents will identify pitfalls of unsuccessful abstracts and posters.

• Successful abstracts and posters are heavily edited.
• Successful abstracts and posters follow the guidelines and goals of the scientific conference.
• Successful abstracts and posters are concise and focus on a few key points.
• Successful abstracts and posters have clearly linked learning objectives and conclusions.

• Share knowledge
• Experience presenting
• Preparation for manuscript publication(34-77% of posters are published in p-r journals)
• Feedback and criticism
• ACGME requires residents to participate in scholarly activity
• Separate yourself from other employment or fellow candidates

• Clinical practice, education, or research
• Common diagnostic, therapeutic, or management dilemmas
• Unique or important teaching points
• Increases awareness of condition
• EBM
• Unusual presentation, complication, management
• Proper or new diagnostic strategy
• Cost effective approach
• Rare

• Society of General Internal Medicine
• Southern Society of General Internal Medicine
• American College of Physicians
• South Carolina Chapter American College of
Physicians
• Society of Hospital Medicine
• Subspecialty organizations

• Very concise statement/summary of the major elements of your vignette, research, or innovation
• Submit to scientific organization for consideration of presentation at the organization’s conference

• Oral
▫ Only top abstracts
▫ Usually 8 minutes followed by question and answer
• Poster
▫ Large formatted
▫ Set up with other presenters in lecture hall
▫ Set time – attendees will walk by and have opportunity to discuss poster

• Ask your attending if good case
• Collect history and physical, progress notes, relevant labs and imaging
• Do literature review
• Start by writing what made you interested
• Write the case presentation

• Each organization has its own specifications
▫ Length
▫ Format
• Read directions!!!!

• Concise – no excess wordiness or information
• Clear – readable, well-organized
• Cohesive – flows
• Complete – covers the major points

• Active voice, consistent and correct verb tenses
• Simple, short sentences
• Grammar correct - The Chicago Manual of Style:
The Essential Guide for Writers, Editors, and
Publishers
• Eliminate unnecessary words
• Avoid medical jargon
• Generic RX
• Don’t use >3 abbreviations-spell out first, common
• NEVER “first case ever reported”
• EDIT, EDIT, EDIT

• Clear take home message
• Design around 1-3 key points/objectives
• Simple and concise
• Don’t be emotionally attached to details
• Omit details not essential to the main message
• Want your audience to understand why your case is of interest to them

• Introduction
• Methods
• Results
• Discussion

• Statement of Problem or Question
• Objectives of Program/Intervention
• Description of Program/Intervention
• Findings to Date
• Key Lessons Learned

• Learning Objectives
• Case Presentation
• Discussion

• Introduction (can omit and go straight to case)
• Case description
• Discussion

• Case Presentation
• Discussion
• Conclusion

• Interesting
• Short
• Descriptive
• Summary
• Do not give everything away

• Presenter should be first author
• Attending should be last author

• Medical University of South Carolina,
Charleston, South Carolina

NEW ONSET SEIZURES: REEMERGENCE OF INACTIVE
SARCOIDOSIS
Temeia Martin,MD (Resident); William Moran, MD
Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC

• Only 1-3 objectives
• Clear, concise
• Clear link to conclusions
• Action-oriented
▫ Recognize
▫ Diagnose
▫ Assess
▫ Treat
▫ Distinguish
▫ Manage
▫ Identify
• NOT – know or understand

• Describes context of the case and explains relevance and importance
• Usually 3-ish sentences

• BRIEFLY describe case
▫ Pertinent HPI, ROS pos/neg, PMHx, SocHx,
FamHx, Rx
▫ Pertinent PE findings pos/neg, diagnostic studies, interventions/treatment
▫ Patient outcome
• Only PERTINENT info

• Emphasize key points
• Importance of this case
• Different/unique
• Implications: teaching, practice, research?
• Future: do differently?
• ****Make sure is clearly linked to objectives****
• Concise

• Clarity of presentation
▫ Concise, complete, organized, well-written, focused objectives
• Significance/relevance to general internal medicine
▫ Unique, interesting. Contextualizes and describes impact on clinical practice in internal medicine, teaching/education or future research
• Teaching value
▫ Offers important diagnosis, physical examination, or management pearls

• Poor presentation
• Weak discussion
• Lack of originality
• Inadequate support
• Conclusions not tied to learning objectives
• Objectives not clearly stated

• Follow the guidelines/directions
• Well-written
• Meets goals of conference
• Basis of future work

• To distill down to a brief presentation effectively requires clear thinking, careful planning, and concise, efficient communication.
• Best clinical vignette posters are those that make a small number of points(even just one) clearly and succinctly.

• Clear take home message
• Clear why your case is of interest to audience
• Design around 1-3 key points
• Don’t be emotionally attached to the details
• Omit details not essential to the main message
• Do not include abstract unless required redundant

• Abstract is the basis
• Judicious use of more detail

• BULLET POINTS – simple and concise - PHRASES
• Orderly, left to right
• Organized - Easy to follow flow of info
• Use white space – not overly dense with text
• AVOID CLUTTER – simple, user friendly
• Use no more than 4 colors
• No more than 3 sizes of font
• No smaller than 24 point
• San Serif fonts:
ARIAL,
Trebuchet MS,
Helvetica
• Make it visual – images, tables

• Anyone who views your poster walks away with key information
• 10-10 rule (10 seconds from 10 meters) - Draw them in
• Goal to share information and have many viewers

• Title
• Authors, institution, location
• Follows abstract outline plus conclusions

• Center, All caps, Largest font on poster
• Smaller font for author, institution, city, and state
• Upper and lower case for author, institution, city and state

• Describe the clinical context and relevance
• 1-3 sentences/phrases
• Bullet points if possible

• BULLET POINTS
• Clear, concise
• Only pertinent info
• Do NOT be emotionally attached to details
• Omit any information not relevant to main message

• Brief
• Relevant HPI
• Relevant PMHx, SocHx, FamHx
• Ros pertinent positive/negative
• PE pertinent positive/negative
• Pertinent Laboratory, biopsy, and imaging
• Hospital course
• Treatment

• Importance of this case to audience
• Support your conclusions
• Lessons learned
• Subheadings for your main message:
▫ diagnostic criteria, diagnostic modalities, unusual presentation, description of biopsy results, treatments, guidelines, possible mechanisms

• TAKE HOME MESSAGE
• May be all your audience sees
• Emphasize key points

• ***Real draw to attendees in vignettes***
• ***Center, top (under title) of poster***
• Large, clear
• Use arrows
• Review with radiologist

• Use graphs for a purpose NOT to dress up
• Emphasize learning points
• Simple - Not too many columns or rows
• Label graphs very clearly
• Horizontal labels

• Really small font
• If necessary can print on separate sheet and attach to bottom right corner

• Have your attending review your poster
• Provide constructive feedback
• Rehearse your overview
• Practice for judges questions

• Lisa Fennessy, Art Services
• Send the proof to Lisa Fennessy by email – no pdf
• Lisa will print proof same day
• Edit proof (maybe several times)
• Final proof
• Send the final one week before need poster

• Prepare a 1-2 minute summary of your poster
• Dress professionally
• Stand by poster – expected by mtg coordinators
• Be prepared to answer questions from the judges
• Wait for readers to finish
• Make eye contact - Put down any food or drink when discussing poster
• Know the flow of your poster and refer to it
• Don’t get tipsy before or during presentation

• Significance – increase understanding of a disease, improve the diagnosis or treatment
• Presentation – logical, interesting, clearly written, free of grammatical problems
• Visual impact – effective, value of figure and graph
• Interview – knowledgeable, conversant

• Poster Presentation – outstanding organization, excellent poster format, effective illustrations, appropriate amount of words
• Learning objectives – clearly stated learning objectives, tied to conclusions, supported by data
• Content – clear, concise case description, all
RELEVANT patient information, info well organized
• Teaching/educational value – valuable to internists, increases understanding of disease, improves diagnosis or treatment of disease state
• Overall

• Objectives not clearly stated (content)
• Inappropriate amount of words(too many)
• Conclusions are not tied into learning objectives (conclusions)******

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Insert Poster Title Here
Your name here
Your institution’s name here
CONCLUSIONS
CASE DESCRIPTION
Figure 1 .
. Figure 2 .
DISCUSSION
REFERENCES

• Pierson DJ.How to Write an Abstract That Will Be Accepted for
Presentation at a National Meeting. Respir Care 2004;49(10):1206 –1212.
• Writing a Clinical Vignette (Case Report) Abstract.
Wwwacponline.org/residents_fellows/competitions/abstract/prepare/cli nvin_abs.htm
• Clinical vignette submission info. wwwsgim.org/index.cfm?pageId=1138
• Estrada C. ACP, SGIM Clinical Vignette Competition: Write an Abstact to
Win! www.uab.edu/.../10-01-...
• Ismail MK. How to write an abstract: abstract submission & poster presentation. www.uthsc.edu/Internal/ abstract .ppt
• SGIM 29 th annual meeting. Vignette Guidelines.
• Barrett NF. Developing the successful clinical abstract. www.barrettevaluations.com/_pdfs/clinabst.pdf
• Southern Society of General Internal Medicine. Southern SGIM call for vignette submissions. www.sgim.org/index.cfm?pageId=431

• Society of General Internal Medicine. 2013 Annual Meeting
Important Dates. http://www.sgim.org/index.cfm?pageId=1311
• http://www.hospitalmedicine.org/Content/NavigationMenu/
Education/AcademicandResearch/Overview/content.htm
Tulsky A, Kouides R. Abstract Presentations. What do SGIM
Presenter Prefer? J Gen Intern Med 1998;13:417-418 .
• Willett LL, Paranjape A, Estrada C. Identifying Key
Components for an Effective Case Report Poster: An
Observational Study. J Gen Intern Med 2008;24(3):393-397.
• American College of Physicians. Internal Medicine. Preparing a Poster Presentation .
• Hamilton CW. A Stepwise Approach to Successful Poster
Presentations. Chest 2008;134:147-459.