The deadline for submission of abstracts is Friday, May 18, 2012, 11:00pm PDT.

Online submission of abstracts begins on Monday, February 27, 2012.

General Information

• Abstracts should report original work that has not been published prior to the Society's meeting. Although abstracts may reflect work previously presented elsewhere, the work should not have been previously presented at the Society's meeting. Because of copyright law, a submitted abstract may not be identical to a previously published abstract.
• Accepted abstracts will be published as submitted in the Society’s peer-reviewed journal, Medical Decision Making, on the SMDM website and at the Annual Meeting. Changes to submitted abstracts will not be accepted after the submission deadline, 11:00pm PDT, Friday, May 18, 2012.
• All submissions will be reviewed by the Scientific Review Committee, and notifications will be sent to presenting authors by Friday, July 27, 2012.
• Accepted abstracts must have at least one presenting author who registers for and attends the Annual Meeting. Author(s) are responsible for expenses associated with the submission and presentation of an abstract.
• SMDM welcomes an unlimited number of abstract submissions per presenter. However, a maximum of 2 abstracts will be accepted as oral presentations. Any additional accepted abstracts beyond the 2 oral presentations will be slotted as poster presentations. There is no limit to the number of poster presentations per person.

Abstract Categories

• Scientific abstracts for oral or poster presentation are welcome in a wide range of topics relevant to medical decision making. For review purposes, submitted abstracts will be grouped in the following categories:

Eligibility for Student Prize Competition

• An abstract will be considered for the Lee B. Student Prize Competition if it meets the following criteria:
• The presenting author must have been enrolled in an educational program leading to a degree or certificate at the time the abstract was submitted. Examples of qualifying educational programs include professional school, residency, fellowship, or programs leading to degrees such as PhD, MS, MBA, MD, RN, PharmD etc.
• The student must have played a substantive role in the submitted abstract, including the conception and implementation of the research project.
• The status as a student at the time the abstract was submitted must be verified by a sponsoring faculty member. The sponsoring faculty member will be contacted by the SMDM office and asked to attest to the eligibility of the abstract for the student prize competition.
• If accepted for presentation, the student must be the first author of the poster or oral presentation and must present it at the meeting. If the student who is the first author is not able to present at the meeting, the presentation may be given by another author, but it will not be eligible for the Lusted Award.

• All abstracts must be submitted through SMDM's online abstract system. The presenting author will receive email confirmation that the abstract has been successfully submitted.
• The following contact information is required for the Presenting Author: First name, Last name, Department, Institution, Street address, City, State, Country, Phone number and a valid email address. First name, Last name, Institution, City, State, Country and a valid email address are required for all co-authors.
• Each abstract presenter must disclose his or her financial support. This information is required by the University of Alabama, the Continuing Medical Education provider for the Annual SMDM Meeting. This information will not affect the scientific review of the abstract. One of the following presentation preferences must be selected:
  • "Oral" presentation, indicating the abstract should be considered for oral presentation only.
  • "Oral or Poster" presentation, indicating the author prefers oral presentation of the abstract, but poster presentation is an acceptable alternative.
  • "Poster" presentation, indicating the abstract should be considered for poster presentation only.

Submission Fees

• There is a submission fee for Oral and Poster abstracts:
  • $40 per abstract for SMDM members
  • $50 per abstract for SMDM non-members
  • $20 per abstract for students/trainees (SMDM member or non-member)
• A MasterCard/Visa/American Express account number and expiration date must accompany each abstract submission. This fee covers administrative costs associated with the call for abstracts and is not a publication fee. The submitting author is responsible for payment of fees, including those billed to third parties. Your abstract will not be accepted for submission unless the submission fee is received. Please note, the abstract submission fee is nonrefundable.

Abstract Format

• The title should be brief and should clearly indicate the content of the paper. Abbreviations may not be used in abstracts titles.
• Enter authors' names and institutional affiliations in separate fields. If an author does not have an institutional affiliation, indicate their city, state/province, and country. Omit titles, degree, institutional appointments, street names, and postal codes.
• Each abstract, excluding title and author information, may be no longer than 375 words.
• Organize the body of the abstract as follows:
  • Purpose of the study, preferably one sentence.
  • Methods used to conduct the research in sufficient detail to evaluate their appropriateness and novelty.
  • Results, stated in sufficient detail to support conclusions. It is not satisfactory to state “Results will be discussed” or “Data will be presented.”
  • Conclusions reached.
• Single space all text with one space between paragraphs.
• Do not use underlining or capitalization for emphasis.
• Indent each paragraph with three character spaces before beginning text.
• Simple tables, graphs and figures may be included. The image will be scaled from its original size so the abstract will fit into its allotted space. The size of the scaled image will be the printed size in the final program book.
• The use of black and white for images (e.g., graphs and figures) is strongly encouraged. Images may be uploaded in color, but all images will be printed in black and white in the program book and in Medical Decision Making.

• All oral abstract and poster presenters must disclose conflicts of interest or perceived conflicts of interests at the time of presentation. Oral abstract presenters will be asked to include a slide at the beginning of the presentation disclosing potential conflicts of interest or stating that there were no conflicts. Poster presenters will be asked to include a similar statement at the bottom of the poster.
• For compliance with Continuing Medical Education (CME) rules, all materials used in live programs and enduring formats must adhere to the following requirements:
  • Educational materials that are part of a CME activity cannot contain any advertising, trade name, or product-group message. (2004 ACCME SCS 4.3).
  • Use of product brand names is not permitted.
  • Use of trademarks or registered service marks for any organization without their permission (except for clinical citations) will not be permitted. This includes but is not limited to the following examples: American Society of Clinical Oncology®, ASCO®, American Society of Hematology®, ASH®, San Antonio Breast Conference Symposium®, SABCS®, American Society of Microbiology®, ASM®, ICAAC®, DDW®, AASLD®, AGA®, ASGE®, SSAT®. A trademark can only be used to describe an event (e.g., Colorectal Cancer Report from the 40th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology). These trademarks must be used as narrowly as possible to avoid any confusion that the activity is sponsored by or associated in any way with such organizations or their events.
  • Objectivity and fair balance means that recommendations or emphasis must fairly represent, and be based on, a reasonable and valid interpretation of the information available on the subject (e.g., “On balance the data support the following …”). A balanced view of therapeutic options also means that no single product or service is over-represented in the educational activity when other equal but competing products or services are available for inclusion.
  • For slide presentations and print materials each slide or key teaching point must state the kind of trial that demonstrates the data being discussed. Slides are not required to state, for example, "Level 1 evidence" (although it is acceptable to include it), but slides are required to include a statement, for example, "Systematic review of 35 RCTs..." or "Case-controlled trial..." that supports what is being discussed and presented within each slide. This is a conventional approach in the tradition

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