Clinical Vignettes

Clinical Vignette submissions are limited to 3,000 characters, including spaces. The maximum character count applies only to the following sections:

• Learning Objectives
• Case Description
• Impact/Discussion
• Conclusion

Submission Criteria

1. Title (Title case, o all caps, quotes, underlining, or bolding)
2. Learning Objectives: (2 required) focused learning objectives, stating what the physician should be able to do after learning from the case presentation. Each learning objective should reflect one of the six ACGME Core Competencies.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, diagnostic 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 or clinical practice 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.
6. Presentation Format Preference (Oral Presentation Only, Poster Presentation Only or No Preference. See below.)
7. Primary Category (See below.)
8. Secondary Category (See below.)
9. Clinical Unknown (Mystery Diagnosis) (Optional. See below.)
10. Non-Commercial Funding Source (Optional. See below.)
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.

Submission Disqualification

An abstract may be disqualified from consideration if the submission includes information within the body of the abstract that has the potential to identify your institution. Instead, institutions may be identified as either a "community" or "academic" or "VA" medical center and by region: Mid-Atlantic, Midwest, New England, Northwest, Southern, or Southwest region.

Acceptable examples:

• Focus groups were conducted at academic medical center in the Midwest region.
• Data were collected through a consortium of community medical centers in the Southern and Mid-Atlantic regions.

Unacceptable examples:

• Focus groups were conducted at an academic medical center in Ohio.
• Data were collected at a VA Medical Center in central Florida.

Identify your preference for the 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.
• If you stipulate “oral presentation only” and your submission is only ranked highly enough for a poster presentation, you will receive a rejection notification.

Oral Presentations
Highly rated submissions will be scheduled as oral presentations during designated Oral Presentation Sessions. Each session typically features four oral presentations, with 10 minutes allocated for each presentation followed by 5 minutes for audience Q&A.

Poster Sessions
Well-rated submissions will be accepted for presentation as posters.

Select the primary category that best matches the submission. You may optionally also select a secondary category that further describes your submission. Categories determine assignment to review committees. The Program Committee does its best to schedule sessions within the same category in a manner that avoids conflicts across concurrent sessions, but it is not always possible.

View Categories

You may optionally identify your submission as a Clinical Unknown case for submissions where the final diagnosis was not at first obvious. If accepted, you will present along with a Discussant who will help guide the presentation through the steps taken to come to the final diagnosis. If you would like to be considered for this type of presentation, please DO NOT include the final diagnosis in the title of your submission.

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.

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.
• Author Categories: Student, Resident, Fellow, Faculty, Health Professional (non-physician), or Other.

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 inclusive in the 3,000 character limit.

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.