Journal Notes: JGME’s Collaboration with ICRE and 2023’s Top Research Abstracts
Every year in its December issue, the Journal of Graduate Medical Education (JGME) publishes the Top Research Abstracts presented at the International Conference on Residency Education (ICRE). These abstracts are selected by JGME editors along with The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, a collaboration that goes back over a decade and continues to inspire new ways of thinking in graduate medical education (GME).
JGME began publishing the abstracts in its December 2012 issue. At the time, the journal had been around for less than three years and was pursuing several avenues to gain attention. As Dr. Gail Sullivan, MD, MPH, who has been JGME’s Editor-in-Chief since the beginning, recalls, “A high priority back then was getting the word out that the journal even existed. We wanted to stimulate submissions by authors, bring in reviewers, and broaden our readership. Dr. Ingrid Philibert, Executive Managing Editor at the time, had worked closely with members of the Royal College. They needed to disseminate work presented at the ICRE meeting and wanted to diversify judges for their ‘best paper’ sessions, so we volunteered two judges (at the time, Ingrid and me) and to publish their top research abstracts in JGME.”
Now well established, JGME has continued this partnership, one that Dr. Sullivan describes as a “win-win” for both organizations, but especially for the journal. “[Our] presence, in the exhibitor booth and as judges, has garnered great publicity for JGME, as well as new submissions and reviewers,” she notes. “We added a Canadian editor, as well, and have had at least one ever since. The quality of Canadian GME is generally very high. In many ways, it is far ahead of the United States in terms of trying new ideas and then adopting those that work (they don’t all work!). Our readers definitely benefit from getting access to Canadian work.”
This year is no different. The 2023 overall winning abstract, “Your Comment Is Not as Helpful as It Could Be…Do You Still Want to Submit?” Using Natural Language Processing to Identify the Quality of Supervisor Narrative Comments in Competency-Based Medical Education, reports on the development of a natural language processing model for rating the quality of narrative supervisor comments in competency-based medical education using the Quality of Assessment of Learning score. The winning abstract for best resident research was Integration of Planetary Health in Undergraduate and Postgraduate Medical Education: A Scoping Review, which attempts to understand how to incorporate planetary health into residency programs. This paper was submitted to JGME’s upcoming Climate and GME Supplement.
In 2023, ICRE was held in Halifax, where the JGME exhibitor booth attracted the interest of potential authors and reviewers, especially for the upcoming Climate and GME Supplement. JGME editors also hosted two popular workshops, Grabbing Your Audience’s Interest to Boost Success: Writing to Attract Reviewers, Readers, and Funders and Bam! Zap! Pow! Visual Media for Teaching and Medical Education Scholarship, the second of which will also be presented in an updated version at the 2024 ACGME Annual Educational Conference. JGME will present again at ICRE later this year in Ottawa with two new workshops: Did I Do the Right Thing? Navigating Ethical Dilemmas in Scholarship and Authorship (also being presented at the ACGME Annual Educational Conference this year) and Less Angst and More Fun: Writing Strategies and Writing Groups for Scholarship. The JGME team looks forward to what the next collection of GME abstracts has to offer, as well as what this partnership will continue to inspire in years to come.
Journal Notes blogger Kevin Gladish is a staff editor for the Journal of Graduate Medical Education. He’s been at the ACGME since 2016, and is also a performer, writer, and storyteller.