Clinical Vignettes

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 meant for presentation of scientific or research data.

Key Dates

November 13, 2019: Submission portal opens ($75)
December 5, 2019 at 9:00 AM ET: Submission fee increases ($85)
January 16, 2020 at 9:00 AM ET: Submission portal closes
March 3, 2020: Acceptance notifications emailed (from submissions@sgim.org)
March 10, 2020: RSVP deadline

Submission Criteria

Submission Length

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

• Learning Objectives
• Case
• Impact/Discussion
• Conclusion

Submission Structure

1. Title (No all caps, quotes, underlining, or bolding.)
2. Learning Objective(s):  Up to two 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, treat, 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
3. 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, pertinent diagnosis studies, and interventions.  Highlight key elements from clinical course.  
4. 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?
   • Authors should use the learning objectives and discussion to illustrate the unique teaching points, as if submitting the vignette for peer-reviewed publication.
5. 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.

Additional Submission Details

1. Presentation Format Preference (Oral Presentation Only, Poster Presentation Only or No Preference. See below.)
2. Primary Category (See below.)
3. Secondary Category (Optional. See below.)
4. Scheduling Restrictions (Optional. See below.)
5. 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? Yes/No)
6. Non-Commercial Funding Source (Optional. See below.)
7. Accuracy (Confirm accuracy of information submitted.)
8. Policy Verification (Confirm understanding of Submission Policies & Presenter Register Policy.)
9. Authors (Name, Institution, City/State, Email)

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.
• Submissions funded through direct commercial support should select “poster only” as their choice, as poster sessions do not offer CME credit hours.

Primary Submission Categories

Authors must choose ONE submission category.  This selection will NOT be known to vignette reviewers; categories are used to help organize presentation scheduling.

• Cardiovascular Disease
• Endocrinology and Metabolism
• Gastroenterology and Hepatology
• Hematology/Oncology
• Immunology/Rheumatology
• Infectious Diseases
• Mental Health
• Nephrology
• Neurology
• Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine
• Social Determinants of Health/Health Disparities
• Substance Use/Chronic Pain
• Women's Health

Secondary Submission Categories (Optional)

You may choose one secondary submission category, if applicable:

• Errors in Clinical Reasoning
• Ethics
• Geriatrics
• Health Information Technology
• HIV
• Medication-related complications
• Patient-centered care
• Patient Safety
• Social Determinants of Health/Health Disparities
• Women's Health

Plenary Oral Presentation Scheduling

• The top-ranked peer-reviewed submissions will be accepted and scheduled as oral presentations during Plenary Sessions on Thursday and Friday
• Presentations are scheduled for 10 minutes with an additional 5 minutes for audience Q&A
• There are a total of 4 presentations that will be scheduled during each plenary session

Oral Presentation Session Scheduling

Highly-rated peer-reviewed 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 Session Scheduling

Highly-rated submissions will be accepted and scheduled as Poster presentations during Poster Sessions.
Poster Session Schedule

• Poster Session 1: Wednesday, May 8, 2019 (5:30 – 7:00 pm)
• Poster Session 2: Thursday, May 9, 2019 (10:15 – 11:45 am)
• Poster Session 3: Thursday, May 9, 2019 (4:30 – 6:00 pm)
• Poster Session 4: Friday, May 10, 2019 (10:15 – 11:45 am)
• Poster Session 5: Friday, May 10, 2019 (4:30 – 6:00 pm)
• Poster Session 6: Saturday, May 11, 2019 (10:00 – 11:30 am)

Poster Session Organization
Poster Sessions will be organized by submission type, then submission categories.

Scheduling Restrictions for Presenting Authors (Optional)

You will have the option to note any days or times that you will be unable to present due to a religious observance or other schedule conflict.

Non-Commercial Funding Source (Optional)

You may identify any funding received that supported your work:

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

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

Citations

• They are optional, as space allows, and will be included in the 3,000 character limit.

Submission & Presentation Tips

Designing a Poster

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. Then identify as many tracks as you think apply.

Peer Review Criteria

Key Dates

October 28, 2019: Peer Review Signup Open
January 9, 2020: Peer Review Signup Closes
January 28, 2020: Peer Review Opens
February 11, 2020: Peer Review Closes

Peer Review Criteria

Panels of SGIM member volunteers will review blinded submissions. Clinical Vignette submissions will be ranked using the following criteria:

1. Important Clinical Problem: To what extent does the abstract illustrate an important clinical problem(s) commonly encountered by internists, such as diagnostic, therapeutic, or management dilemma?
2. Insight into Clinical Practice, Education, or Research: To what extent does the abstract provide insight into clinical practice, education or research in either outpatient or hospital settings?
3. Relevance to General Internal Medicine: To what extent does the abstract offer a diagnosis, physical examination or management pearl that is important to general internists?
4. Discussion on Relevant Literature: To what extent does the abstract include a discussion of relevant literature, as if submitting the vignette for peer-reviewed publication?
5. Quality of Writing: Is the writing clear and organized to effectively communicate findings?

Peer Review Rubric

Peer Review Instructions

INSTRUCTIONS