Call for Papers

Making Difficult Clinical and Policy Decisions: The Example of Ageing and End of Life Care in Asia-Pacific

January 8 - 10, 2016
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Jockey Club School of Public Health and Primary Care
Shatin, New Territories, Hong Kong

Theme: Making Difficult Clinical and Policy Decisions: The Example of Ageing and End of Life Care in Asia-Pacific

Online submission of abstracts begins on June 5, 2015

The deadline for submission of abstracts is October 12, 2015 17:00 HKT (Hong Kong Time)

ABSTRACT SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

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 online version of the Society's peer-reviewed journal, Medical Decision Making, and will be available for download at the Conference. Changes to submitted abstracts will not be accepted after the submission deadline, October 12, 2015 at 17:00 HKT (Hong Kong Time). All submissions will be reviewed by the Scientific Review Committee, and notifications will be sent to presenting authors by early November 2015.
  • Accepted abstracts must have at least one presenting author who registers for and attends the Conference. Author(s) are responsible for expenses associated with the presentation of an abstract.
  • Authors or co-authors can be from industry/pharmaceutical companies.
  • SMDM welcomes an unlimited number of abstract submissions per presenter. However, a maximum of 2 abstracts will be accepted as long-form oral presentations. Any additional accepted abstracts beyond the 2 long-form oral presentations will be slotted as short-form oral presentations. There is no limit to the number of short-form oral presentations per person.

ABSTRACT CATEGORIES

Scientific abstracts for long-form oral or short-form oral presentations 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
Making Difficult Clinical Decisions   Ethical and legal issues in clinical decision making; Shared decision making; Decision aids; Risk communication; Risk perception; Eliciting patient and provider preferences; Preference elicitation and utility assessment; Health behaviors and education; Medical education; Clinical decision analysis; Clinical strategies and guidelines
Making Difficult Policy Decisions   Economic evaluation, including cost-effectiveness and cost-benefit analyses; Macroeconomics in health; Ethical, legal and social aspects of health policy decisions; Pharmacoeconomics; Health administrative database research; Population-level modeling; Comparative effectiveness research; Global health research; Health policy evaluation; Health services research; Health technology assessment; Costing studies
Methodological and Theoretical Developments   Decision psychology methods; Advances in simulation and decision modeling; Health economics methods; Preference elicitation methods; Discrete choice experiments and conjoint analysis; Bayesian methods; Model calibration and validation; Decision theory; Health policy analysis; Advances in health technology assessment; Patient and public engagement methods

INSTRUCTIONS FOR ABSTRACT SUBMISSION

  • 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: Given Name (First name), Family 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 will not affect the scientific review of the abstract. One of the following presentation preferences must be selected:
    • Long-Form Oral Abstract Presentations: Authors are invited to present their work from a podium followed by a Q&A session with the audience. Each session is organized around a specific topic. We typically have 6 presentations per session.
    • Short-Form Oral Abstract Presentations: Highly interactive sessions allowing authors to present and receive feedback on their research in small groups with a poster display of their work. Conference attendees are free to move about to view and discuss the research with presenters. We typically have 25-30 presenters per session.
    • Either: Either a long-form or short-form oral presentation is acceptable.

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.
    • Method(s) used to conduct the research in sufficient detail to evaluate their appropriateness and novelty.
    • Result(s), stated in sufficient detail to support conclusions. It is not satisfactory to state �Results will be discussed� or �Data will be presented.�
    • Conclusion(s) 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.
  • 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. 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.

PRESENTATION OF ACCEPTED ABSTRACTS

  • All long-form oral abstract and short-form oral presenters must disclose conflicts of interest or perceived conflicts of interests at the time of presentation. Long-form 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. Short-form oral presenters will be asked to include a similar statement at the bottom of the poster.
  • 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


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 (Long-Form Oral , Short-Form Oral or Either )
    • Select up to three categories
  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: 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(s):

        Result(s):

        Conclusion(s):

  5. Step 4: 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.

Begin a submission to the following:

SMDM Asia-Pacific Conference, January 8 - 10, 2016, Hong Kong
Abstract Submission Deadline 17:00 HKT: October 12, 2015