Clinical Vignettes

Clinical Vignettes

This submission site opens October 24, 2022.

Clinical vignettes are patient-related cases and scenarios that have educational value for a wider audience. Submissions should be based on patients for whom at least one of the author(s) had cared during the course of the patient’s illness. Clinical vignettes should:

  • Describe clinical conditions that illustrate unique or important teaching points.
  • Provide insight into clinical practice, education, or research in either outpatient or hospital settings.
  • Illustrate important clinical problems commonly encountered by internists, such as diagnostic, therapeutic, or management dilemmas, including those complicated by the social determinants of health.
  • Include a discussion of relevant literature, as if submitting the vignette for peer-reviewed publication.
  • Note: Clinical Vignettes are not designed for presentation of scientific or research data.

Submissions

Key Dates

Submission Length

Submission Criteria

Presentation Format

Presentation Selection & Scheduling

Submission Categories

Non-Commercial Funding Source

Authors

Citations

Go to Submission Site

Submission & Presentation Tips

Designing a Poster

Topic and Intended Audience

Submissions

Key Dates

October 24 , 2022: Submission portal opens
December 19, 2022: Submission portal closes 
February 8, 2023: Acceptance notifications sent
February 22, 2023: RSVP Responses due
March 31, 2023: Presenter Registration Deadline

Submission Length

Clinical Vignette submissions are limited to 3,000 characters, including spaces. Maximum character count limit applies only to these sections:

  • Case Description
  • Impact/Discussion
  • Conclusion

Submission Criteria

  1. Title No all caps, quotes, underlining, or bolding
  2. Case Briefly summarize the case presentation. Include history of present illness, pertinent positives and negatives, key social history, past medical history, family history, and medications, pertinent physical exam findings, diagnostic studies and interventions.  Highlight key elements from clinical course.
  3. Impact/Discussion Please address the following based on relevance to your case vignette:
    • Describe the clinical impact of this case and any new clinical insights gained
    • Highlight key teaching points from the case and/or review of the literature
    • Did this case change your thinking in any way?
    • How does this case add to the literature?
  4. Conclusion: Final insights or teaching points to be gained by the general internist, can be in the format of 2-3 bulleted takeaways from the case.  
    • Authors should use the learning objectives and discussion to illustrate the unique teaching points, as if submitting the vignette for peer-reviewed publication.
  5. Learning Objectives (2 required) focused learning objectives, stating what the physician should be able to do after learning from the case presentation. Objectives are action-oriented and should begin with words such as recognize, diagnose, assess, tread, distinguish, or manage. They should NOT begin with terms like "know how to" or "understand." Examples:
    • Diagnose hip fracture when the plain x-rays are normal
    • Recognize the clinical features of anorexia and bulimia in a male
    • Assess health literacy in at-risk populations
  6. Presentation Format See below.
  7. Submission Category See below.
  8. Clinical Unknown (Mystery Diagnosis) or Clinical (Logical) Reasoning Case Participation (Optional) Does your clinical vignette lend itself to being presented as a clinical unknown (mystery diagnosis) or clinical reasoning (logical) case?
  9. Non-Commercial Funding Source (Optional) See below.
  10. Policy Verification Confirm understanding of Submission Policies & Presenter Register Policy.
  11. Authors All authors that contributed to the submission should be listed. However, only one presenting author can be designated and will be responsible for coordinating the presentation if selected. See below.

NOTE - Do Not include Personally Identifiable Information in the body of the submission

Including information within the body of the abstract that has the potential to identify the submitting or contributing authors and/or their institutions is detrimental to the blinded peer review process. Instead, institutions may be identified as either a “community” or “academic” or “VA” medical center and as by region: California-Hawaii, Mid-Atlantic, Mid-West, Mountain West, New England, Northwest, and Southern region.

Acceptable examples are listed below:

  • Focus groups were conducted at academic medical in the Mid-West Region. 
  • Data were collected through a consortium of community medical centers in the Southern and Mid-Atlantic regions.
Unacceptable examples are listed below:
  • Focus groups were conducted at an academic medical center in Ohio. 
  •  Data were collected at a VA Medical Center in central Florida.

    Presentation Format

    Identify your preference for presentation format: 

    • Oral Presentation Only
    • Poster Presentation Only
    • No Preference

    Format choice matters: 

    • SGIM schedules accepted submissions based on the results of the peer review process. The most highly rated submissions are scheduled for an oral presentation followed by those rated highly enough for presentation as posters.
    • We recommend stipulating “no preference” as it will increase the likelihood of your submission being accepted.
    • If you stipulate “oral presentation only” and your submission is only ranked highly enough for a poster presentation, you will receive a rejection notification.

        Presentation Selection & Scheduling

        Oral Presentations

        Highly rated submissions will be scheduled as oral presentations during Oral Presentation Sessions. Each session typically features four total oral presentations with 10 minutes of presentation and 5 minutes of audience Q&A. 

        Poster Sessions

        Well-rated submissions will be accepted to present as posters.

        Submission Categories

        • Acute Disease Management
        • Adolescent Medicine and Transitioning to Adult Care
        • Career Development, Professionalism, and Wellness
        • Chronic Disease Management
        • Clinical Informatics and Health Information Technology
        • DEI, Health Equity, and Social Determinants of Health
        • Geriatrics and Palliative Care
        • Healthcare Delivery and Redesign
        • Health Policy
        • Medical Education and Scholarship
        • Medical Ethics and Humanities
        • Mental/Behavioral Health and Substance Use Disorders
        • Quality Improvement and Patient Safety
        • Women’s Health, Sex, and Gender-Informed Medicine

        Go to the Submission Categories page for more information on categories.

        Non-Commercial Funding Source

        Optional. Choose as many as apply:

        • AHRQ Funding
        • DOD Funding
        • NIH Funding
        • PCOR Research Grant
        • RWJ Foundation
        • VA Funding

        The program committee reserves the right to use this information in scheduling.

        Authors

        Adding Authors

        You will be asked to enter the names and affiliations of all authors who contributed to your submission. Please confirm all authors' contact information before submitting.

        To add an author in the submission form:

        1. Search for author's existing account in ScholarOne to avoid creating duplicate accounts.
          1. Search by first name, last name, or email address.
        2. If no account exists, create an account for the co-author.
        3. Co-authors will receive an automated email inviting them to update their contact information and fill out a disclosure.

        After adding an author, please ensure the information is current:

        • Name
        • Email Address Co-authors will receive an automated email notification inviting them to fill out a disclosure at the email address listed
        • Affiliation If their current institution is not in the list, select "Add new Institution" and search for their institution in the pop-up. You can create an institution if not listed in the system.
        • Function Select the role the person is serving for the submission. In most cases, this will be "additional faculty."
        • SGIM Membership Status Select the person's member status. If unknown, select "non-member."
        • Ethnic Background Select the appropriate ethnic background from the list or enter their self-description. This information is for internal use only. 
        • Gender Select the appropriate gender from the list or enter their self-description. This information is for internal use only. 

        Designate Presenting Author

        Select the presenting author option next to the author in the author listing to designate the presenting author. This author will present the poster or oral presentation if accepted. This author’s name will be underlined in the Journal of General Internal Medicine’s Annual Meeting Online Supplement. Only one author can be designated as the presenting author.

        Order Author List

        Arrange the order of the author listing by selecting order number next to each author. Typically, first authors are designated as the presenting author, unless another co-author is designated to present.

        Citations

        Citations are not required nor requested for your Clinical Vignette submission. They are optional, as space allows, and will be included in the 3,000 character limit.

        Submission & Presentation Tips

        Designing a Poster

        POSTER DESIGN & PRESENTATION TIPS

        Topic and Intended Audience

        Know your topic and your intended audience: 

        • Which attendees are your primary target audience?
        • Why is this important to them?
        • Will it stimulate excitement?
        • Is the topic timely?
        • Does it help audience members meet an urgent need? (e.g. accreditation issues)
        • How much time does your topic require?
        • Choose the most appropriate category for submission.