Professor leads academic writing workshop

April, 2014

A WCMC-Q faculty member led the presentation of a workshop on reviewing and writing abstracts at a medical education conference held in Ottawa, Canada.

Dr. Amal Khidir, assistant professor of pediatrics at WCMC-Q, led the presentation of the workshop, entitled ‘Achieving Excellence: Reviewing, Writing and Editing Abstracts’, at a meeting of the Council on Medical Student Education in Pediatrics (COMSEP).

The workshop, which was the product of collaboration between 11 academic institutions, used interactive learning techniques to explain the criteria that should be used to review and write abstracts, how to score abstracts, and how to give useful feedback to authors.

The workshop began with an introduction to the six ‘Criteria for Scholarship’ established by renowned scholar Charles Glassick in an article published in Academic Medicine in 2000. These criteria are widely regarded as the most appropriate tools for the assessment of scholarly works. Participants then worked in small groups to practice reviewing and rating medical education abstracts and preparing narrative feedback for the authors.

Dr. Khidir said: “This workshop was a true collaboration between faculty from different institutions. The team worked together to produce this successful and well-received workshop, and I am glad that the team is planning to present it at national and international conferences in future.

“The workshop was recommended by the Research Task Force of the Council on Medical Student Education in Pediatrics (COMSEP) to recruit and prepare more reviewers for this annual academic medical education conference. The team felt that building these skills would help the participants to review abstracts for other international conferences, such as the International Association of Medical Science Educators (IAMSE), the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) and the American Academy for Communication in Healthcare (AACH), and review criteria for these organizations were shared in the workshop.

“We also believe that critically reviewing abstracts refines the individual’s skill, helping them to become better writers with a higher chance of having their abstracts accepted. I am so grateful to have worked with such a wonderful, enthusiastic team, and that the participants appreciated the workshop.”

The institutions that collaborated to produce and deliver the workshop, which ran 27-29 March, were WCMC-Q, the University of Colorado, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Pennsylvania, Baylor College of Medicine, Morehouse School of Medicine, University of Rochester, Duke University, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Weill Cornell Medical College, and the University of Washington.