Call for Papers

40th Annual Meeting of the Society for Medical Decision Making
Theme: Decision Making Across the Lifespan
Saturday, October 13 - Wednesday, October 17, 2018
Montreal, QC, Canada

The abstract submission deadline is Tuesday, May 15, 2018 at 11:59 PDT.

Please e-mail any abstract submission questions to Trevor Scholl (tscholl@association-partners.com).

ABSTRACT SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

General Information

• Abstracts should report original work that has not been:

• Published or accepted for publication in manuscript form prior to abstract submission.

• Previously presented at a national or international scientific meeting, including an SMDM European, Asia-Pacific or North American Conference.

• Is not identical to a previously published abstract.

• Abstracts may reflect a similar body of research to that published or presented in any of the above categories, but should include new aspects of work (i.e., findings, results, analyses, or interpretation).
• Accepted abstracts will be published as submitted in the online version of the Society’s peer-reviewed journal, Medical Decision Making, on the SMDM website and at the Annual Meeting. Please follow the formatting guidelines and spell check your abstract. Changes to submitted abstracts will not be accepted after the submission deadline, 11:59 pm PDT, Tuesday, May 15, 2018. All submissions will be reviewed by the Scientific Review Committee, and notifications will be sent to presenting authors in July 2018.
• 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.
• Authors or co-authors from industry/pharmaceutical companies are eligible to submit abstracts.
• SMDM welcomes abstracts describing work at policy organizations (nonprofit organizations, governmental organizations). We recognize that people at such organizations may lack access to funds for abstract submissions. We therefore also offer the student discounted rate to presenters from nonprofit or governmental organizations who do not hold a paid academic appointment. Such presenters may have a status-only appointment, but are not primarily academics. Presenters from policy organizations who wish to use this discounted rate should contact info@smdm.org to verify their status.
• 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.
• The 40^th Annual Meeting will be a Patients Included meeting, meaning that patients will be in attendance and will appear as presenters. Additionally, SMDM is a multidisciplinary society and welcomes attendees such as policymakers. Please do your best to write about and present your work in a way that is understandable to an audience of peers and other experts.

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:

Category		Relevant Topics Include
Decision Psychology and Shared Decision Making (DEC)		Risk communication; Risk perception; Doctor-patient communication; Decision support; Decision aids; Patient empowerment; Health behaviors and education; Medical education
Applied Health Economics (AHE)		Cost analyses; Cost-effectiveness analyses; Health economics; Pharmacoeconomics.
Health Services, Outcomes and Policy Research (HSOP)		Administrative database and outcomes research; Applied modeling analyses; Clinical strategies and guidelines; Comparative effectiveness research; Ethical, legal and social issues; Global health research; Health policy; Health services research; Health technology assessment
Quantitative Methods and Theoretical Developments (QMTD)		Bayesian methods and analyses; Advances in simulation and decision modeling; Model calibration/validation; Decision theory
Patient and Stakeholder Preferences and Engagement (PSPE)		Stated-preferences methods (including discrete choice experiments, conjoint analysis, best-worst scaling, contingent valuation); Qualitative, mixed methods and quantitative studies exploring the priorities and preferences of patients and other stakeholders; Patient and stakeholder engagement in research; Utility and health state valuation

ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS FOR STUDENT PRIZE COMPETITION

• An abstract will be considered for the Lee B. Lusted 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 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.
• Please note that all accepted abstracts for the Lusted Student Prize Competition will be poster presentations. Lusted finalists may be asked to provide a brief 30-second oral introduction of their abstract after the conclusion of the Keynote presentation on Monday, October 15. Additional presentation details will be provided upon your confirmation as a Lusted finalist.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR ABSTRACT SUBMISSION

• All abstracts must be submitted through SMDM's online abstract system. The presenting author will receive an 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.
• If you have a Twitter handle, please indicate it in your author profile during the “Authors” step of the submission process. Author twitter handles will be posted in the online and printed programs to allow meeting attendees to tweet about your presentation during the meeting.
• 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:
  • $45 per abstract for SMDM members
  • $60 per abstract for SMDM non-members
  • $20 per abstract for students/trainees/patients/eligible submitters from policy organizations (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. All fees are in US Dollars. 

ABSTRACT FORMAT

• The title should be brief and should clearly indicate the content of the paper. Abbreviations may not be used in abstract 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.
• 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. 
• There is a limit to 1 image file per abstract.
• The use of black and white for images (e.g., graphs and figures) is strongly encouraged. 

PRESENTATION OF ACCEPTED ABSTRACTS

• All oral abstract and poster presenters must disclose conflicts of interest or perceived conflicts of interest at the time of presentation. Oral abstract presenters will be asked to include a slide at the beginning of the presentation to be shown for approximately 15 - 30 seconds 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.

EMBARGO AND PRESS RELEASE POLICY

SMDM does not place a press embargo on accepted work. However, any promotion of an accepted abstract, prior to its presentation at the SMDM meeting, should mention that the work will be presented at the upcoming SMDM meeting, state the theme of the meeting, and give the dates and location of that meeting.

Technical Support

For help in submitting an abstract online, email Tech Support.

SUBMISSION PROCESS OVERVIEW

1. General Instructions

   • No names or titles should be included in the abstract text. Names will be automatically hidden during the abstract review process and will be automatically inserted and properly formatted upon publication.
   • Presenting authors will be automatically informed of the unique ID numbers and passwords assigned to their abstracts. Abstracts may be viewed and modified at any time between submission and the deadline, using the assigned ID# and password.

   
   

   Technical Support

   For help in submitting an abstract online, email Tech Support.

2. Step 1: Enter Title

   You will need to enter the following information:

   • the Abstract Title
   • your email address (an automatic email with a link to the submission form will be sent to the submitter email upon submitting the first step)
   • Preferred Presentation Format (Oral , Poster, or Either )
   • Select up to four categories
   • Is this abstract being submitted for the Lee B. Lusted Student Prize Competition? (Yes or No)
     • If yes, then enter the Faculty Member's Contact Information
       • The Faculty Member will be automatically notified upon completion of abstract submission, to confirm student status.

3. Step 2: Authors

   • Enter contact information for each author, their affiliation, if they are an SMDM member, and if they are a student.
   • Each author will receive an automatic email, with a link to the abstract submission form.

4. Step 3: Disclosure

   • Required for each lead presenter. Submitters may fill out the disclosure form for lead presenters.

5. Step 4: Enter Abstract Text

   • You will be able to copy/paste your abstract into a text boxes, or upload your abstract (if it contains an image).
   • Your abstract should be no longer than 375 words, and have the following matching headings:

       Purpose:

       Method:

       Result:

       Conclusion:

6. Step 5: Payment

   • $45 per abstract for SMDM members
   • $60 per abstract for SMDM non-members
   • $20 per abstract for students/trainees (SMDM member or non-member)

7. Step 6: Confirmation

   • Review all information that has been entered
   • Click Conclude Submission to finish your abstract submission.
   • You will be able to make changes up until the posted deadline, by clicking the step you wish to make changes on, and resubmitting that page.

   Please Note:

   • The submitter email address, as entered on Step 1, will be sent an automatic confirmation email.
   • The faculty advisor, if entered on Step 1, will receive an automatic email upon completion of your submission, asking them to confirm student status.

Oral and Poster Abstract Presentations

New Submissions Closed