Wrapping up your research projects to submit to conferences and journals? If yes, make sure you’re up to speed on our most popular regional research conference – some changes for 2017 may impact your internal deadlines and work flow, said D. Kay Taylor PhD, director of the Hurley Research Center.
Here’s the run-down of some of the changes for the May 3, 2017, 19th Annual Community Research Forum, sponsored by Michigan State University Flint Area Medical Education, Hurley Medical Center and other area hospitals.
Summary of changes
Abstracts will be judged on scientific rigor before the forum. Be sure to get all of your research finished before you submit your final abstract edits. The abstracts will be used to determine eligibility for various awards. (See below.) This means that all of your data analyses and interpretations must be completed, so you can submit everything with your final abstract edits by March 1, 2017. (If you do any last-minute analyses in April or May, they won’t be included in the evaluation of your research submission.)
New length for abstracts: 500-750 words. This gives more space to describe findings. Be sure to check the criteria for your category of submission at the MSU/FAME Research Forum website.
New ability to submit expanded structured abstracts, graphs, tables, references, in advance. Because your work will now be judged in advance for several purposes, the evaluators will want to see your graphs, tables, figures and references in advance, too. You are now requested to submit all of this extra material by March 1.
New in-hospital awards. Each hospital is to judge its own abstracts to identify its best study and best case report for each of its residency programs, which will be recognized during the May 3 Forum Awards Ceremony, so Hurley will have awards for:
- Hurley’s Best Study for each IM, Med/Peds, OB, Peds, TY (five total awards)
- Hurley’ Best Case Report each IM, Med/Peds, OB, Peds, TY (five total awards)
Hurley’s winning research projects will be announced during the Awards Ceremony at the end of the May 3 Forum.
New between-hospital awards. Each hospital is to judge abstracts to identify its top 5 oral and top 5 poster submissions to compete for overall awards at the May 3 Forum, so Hurley will identify:
- Top 5 oral submissions *
- Top 5 poster submissions *
Winning research projects will be announced during the May 3 Awards Ceremony at the end of the Forum.
*The top 5 poster and oral submissions from each hospital (15 total in each oral and poster) will compete for a total of six awards: First-, Second- and Third-place Oral Presentation and First-, Second-, and Third-Place Poster Exhibit. For greater consistency, a single panel of eight judges will evaluate the top 15 oral submissions throughout the day, and a different single panel of six judges will evaluate the top 15 poster exhibits for the day.
Forum-Day Events are slightly different. The Forum now will have one set of oral presentations that will be judged and considered for awards, and the same is true for one set of poster exhibits. The remaining presentations will be given constructive, evaluative feedback.
- The pre-determined top 15 oral presentations are to be presented in a single room before a single panel of eight judges.
- The pre-determined top 15 poster exhibits also will be displayed together and judged by a single panel of six judges. At least one member of the study team is required to be present during poster judging to answer questions.
- The remaining oral presentations (those not designated for top 15) will be presented in other rooms and will receive evaluative feedback and comments from two evaluators, using a seven-item evaluation tool, to be used for individual improvement purposes.
- The remaining poster exhibits (those not designated for top 15) will be exhibited in the Poster Room, with three evaluators providing feedback and asking questions (if an investigator is present), using a seven-item evaluation tool.
How will this work at Hurley?
The Hurley research director will form a committee to judge submissions from Hurley residents and fellows, using new, stringent criteria based on scientific rigor, assessing 20 items under five categories. Judges are to undergo special training. The final selections will be made across programs and will be based on the expanded, structured abstracts with references, charts, tables, and figures submitted by the March 1 deadline.
Those selected for a top-five designation will be notified in early April, so they will have ample time to fine-tune their presentations or posters before the day of the forum.
Staying the same
Resident & Faculty Awards. Each hospital selects its own recipients to be honored/ recognized for their scholarly activity during that academic year. Just in years past, during the May 3 Awards Ceremony, each hospital is to present awards to its recipients of the following:
- Resident Investigator Award
- Faculty Investigator Award
Other oral and poster presentations will still take place. If your project is not selected as one of the top 5 from Hurley in either the poster or oral categories, you still will be asked to present your material in front of the usual audience. However, instead of being “judged,” your work will be constructively evaluated, and you will receive feedback to help you learn from the experience.
Specialty-specific awards will still be given. The judging process is a bit different, but every project – whether part of the top 15 or not – will be in the running for the specialty-specific awards given by each institution. The only difference is that the abstracts and supplementary material submitted by March 1 will be used by each institution to determine awards for their specialties. Winners will be announced during the May 3 Awards Ceremony at the end of the Forum.
You still need to get approval from your program to submit your abstract. Just as in years past, plan to complete all of your work by early February, so you can submit all of it to your program’s designated research supervisor and still have time to make corrections before the March 1 deadline. (Remember that you will need extra time this year to create tables, graphs, figures and references before the March 1 abstract deadline because all of that is needed for your abstract to be judged by the Hurley-wide committee.)
Why the changes?
The inter-institutional committee that organizes the MSU/FAME Community Research Forum each year is trying to address suggestions for improvement from prior participants, said Taylor, one of the Hurley representatives on the committee. Since this is primarily an educational event, the new focus is more on education, less on prizes.
“The objectives were threefold,” said Taylor, explaining that the committee wanted to:
- Allow all learners (resident physicians, fellows, medical and nursing students) the opportunity to participate and thereby showcase their work. (The previous structure had tight limits on the number of presentations that could be accepted.)
- Alter the focus of the Forum such that the greater emphasis is placed on its educational features, including participants receiving more effective feedback. (In the past, participants didn’t receive same-day feedback in detail.)
- Establish an in-hospital judging mechanism whereby each residency training program will recognize its best work in a collective, community setting. (In the past, some scientifically rigorous work did not receive recognition due to judging anomalies.)
Questions?
For more information, check out one of the following:
- Email the Hurley Research Center
- Contact MSU/FAME by phone
- Email MSU/FAME
- Visit the MSU/FAME website for the 2017 Forum
Photos from 2016
Here are some photos of Hurley residents, faculty, staff and medical students who participated in the May 2016 MSU/FAME Community Research Forum. Click on the gallery below to see more.
