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Medical Sciences Library

Poster Presentations

Content

Scientific posters should: 

  • Focus on the most important, interesting, or astounding finding
  • Limit each section to 200 words or less
  • Consider if a visual could supplement the text

Always check the conference or institution's guidelines for poster submission as the requirements may differ from those in this guide. 

Scientific posters should follow the IMRAD format (Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion).

The Introduction presents:

  • The background and the purpose of the research 
    • A statement summarizing the current knowledge in an area 
    • What knowledge is missing
    • How this research project addresses the knowledge gap
  • A hypothesis (optional)

The Methods section should specifically address:

  • Research design
  • Research setting
  • Number of patients enrolled in the study 
  • How patients were selected 
  • Description of the intervention (if appropriate),
  • Description of the outcome variables and how they were measured 
  • Method of statistical analysis

The Results section includes the quantitative data.

  • Description of the subjects in the study and a description of those who were omitted because they failed to meet the inclusion criteria or dropped out.
  • Frequencies of the most important outcome variables.
  • Comparisons of the outcome variables between various subgroups within the study (treated vs. untreated, young vs. old, male vs. female, and so forth).
  • Numerical results should include standard deviations or 95% confidence limits and the level of statistical significance

In the Discussion section:

  • State concisely what can be concluded from the study and its implications 
  • Make sure that the conclusions are supported by the data presented in the Results
  • Do not present unsubstantiated personal opinion

You also need to save enough space for:

  • References
  • Acknowledgments
  • Your Institution
  • Contact Information. 

Source: American College of Physicians 

Clinical vignette posters generally have three components: Introduction, Case Description, and Discussion.

  • A short introduction typically describes the context of the case and explains its relevance and importance.
  • When describing the case in the case description, follow the basic rules of medical communication by describing in sequence the history, physical examination, investigative studies, and patient's progress and outcome.
  • The main purpose of the discussion is to review why decisions were made and to extract the lesson from the case. Be wary of boasting that your case is the "first" to describe a particular phenomenon, since even the most thorough searches often fail to reveal all instances of similar cases. Keep in mind that the best research and clinical vignette posters are those that make a small number of points (even just one) clearly and succinctly.

Source: American College of Physicians