Overview

The Louisiana Academy of Family Physicians will host the 2025 Scientific Research Poster Contest. The purpose of the competition is to profile our family medicine residents and students and provide a venue to share research activities. Please read all of the guidelines below.  The application process has NEW guidelines for 2025!

Eligibility

The submitter must be a student, resident or fellow, and must be the primary author. The submitter must be an LAFP/AAFP resident/student/fellow member and enrolled and in good standing in a Louisiana medical school, family medicine residency program or family medicine affiliated fellowship.

Though residents may work in groups and with faculty advisors, a corresponding author must be identified with each abstract submission. If the abstract is accepted for presentation, a presenting author should also be identified. The presenting author should be prepared to discuss the formal poster verbally.

Important Dates

• February 19, 2025 - Call for Abstracts 
  
• April 15, 2025 - Abstract Submission Deadline
• May 1, 2025 - Corresponding Authors notified of approved abstracts
• May 1 - June 13, 2025 - Time period to work on and complete the accepted poster
• June 13, 2025 - Deadline for sending the finalized digital poster to the LAFP
• June 30, 2025 - Corresponding Authors will receive notice of submission status
• July 21, 2025 - Finished, mounted (on a backing board) and “display-ready” posters must be received by the LAFP at the Hotel Roosevelt. The posters must be able to stand up on an easel.  Easels will be provided. Posters not meeting all guidelines for display will be deemed ineligible.
• July 24-27, 2025 - LAFP Annual Meeting (Details to follow)

Submission Process

1. Admissions may be submitted based on and designated in one of the following categories (a description of each category is provided below):

• Category 1: Quality and Practice Improvement/Research
• Category 2: Case Presentations/ Clinical Inquiry
• Category 3: Community or Education Projects

The review and decision will be based on the submission of a short abstract of the proposed poster project. The abstract is limited to a 1500–2000 - word limit (not including Title, Authors with their institutional association, and references. Please limit references to < 5) submitted for this initial review. Please review abstracts for spelling, grammar and sentence structure prior to submission.

The abstract should include:

• Title and Author information
  • AAFP ID #
  • Contact information including Email address, cell phone and organizational affiliation
  • Headshot and short bio
• Introduction: Subject, purpose, and relevance of the submission to family medicine
• Background information: Objective, setting, participants
• Relevant Literature: focused, relevant and supporting claims made. Please limit to 1-2 sentences that highlight the most important literature
• Interventions/Treatment/Project Plan
• Results/Outcome (If project is in process, explain results/outcomes anticipated)
• Conclusions: Summary, including implications for family medicine practice, teaching, and/or impact on community.
• References: May use a QR code

2. Abstracts will be reviewed by the judging panel for adherence to guidelines, relevance to family medicine, validity of results/conclusions, and overall impact of the project. Applicants will be notified in writing of submission outcome (accepted, rejected, requires revision) and given feedback. 

3. Abstracts accepted and selected for the onsite poster competition will require submission of a completed poster by the deadline (see timeline) with the following requirements:

• The poster is expected to be consistent with the content of the abstract submitted.
• The final version of the poster must be submitted as a PowerPoint file sized for display dimensions of 48 inches (wide) x 36 inches (high).
  • Judging criteria will be made available to all who are preparing their posters, to help as guidance in creating excellent posters.
  • Please also see Hints for An Effective Poster for additional guidance and suggestions for preparing your poster.
• Attendance at the LAFP meeting by those with accepted submissions is strongly encouraged but not required for poster participants.
• Times will be designated for poster participants to stand beside their poster in the display hall to discuss their posters with LAFP meeting participants.
• Poster winners will be announced during the LAFP meeting. 

4. Sponsoring institution IRB requirements for the submitting program’s institution or school must be followed and must accompany the submission. Documentation of approval or exemption status should be initiated prior to abstract submission. Documentation of IRB status or program requirements must accompany the submission.  

Submission Categories

• Quality Improvement:
  Quality initiatives and performance improvement efforts must clearly define the problem on which the quality initiative focuses. A single project goal should be defined, and it must be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely. The project should describe why this quality problem is relevant to family medicine, must describe the gap between current practice and preferred practice and what improvement the submitter hopes to achieve.  Example poster
• Research:
  Summarize the results of a well-defined basic or clinical research project, including a hypothesis, dependent and independent variables, tests for measures of association, succinct discussion of data, etc. All work should be original and relevant to Family Medicine. Projects may involve observational, analytical or interventional studies.  Example poster
• Case presentation or Case Series:
  A clinical case presentation or case series must include an introduction, case description, discussion of current practice guidelines for management of the patient, and conclusions. Cases presented should be relevant to family medicine (e.g. uncommon presentations of common problem) and include an evidence summary.  Example poster
• Clinical Inquiry:
  Present a clinical scenario with review of current evidence-based recommendations of a clinical topic. An evidence-based review need not be based on an actual patient presentation but must provide a systematic review of the current best research evidence to answer a clinical question. The presentations should provide an evidence-based answer on a topic relevant to family medicine and common in everyday practice and include an evidence summary.  Example poster
  
• Community Project:
  Describe personal experience working on a community-based initiative to improve the health of a specific population (e.g., providing adolescent AIDS education, working with school nurses to develop asthma action plans, establishing a health care program for the homeless, etc.) The Corresponding Author must have served in a leadership role in the planning and execution of the project. The description should include an evaluation of the project, and the project must be relevant to family medicine.  Example poster 1  Example poster 2
• Educational Program:
  Describe an educational program or curricular innovation that has been evaluated for its impact on medical student or resident training. Student/resident applicant(s) must have played a substantive role in the creation, implementation, and/or evaluation of the target program. This may be done in collaboration with faculty. Applicant needs to state specifically the role played in the program and describe the projects relevance to family medicine education.  Example poster

The suggested section headings for posters, below, are provided as a guideline for structure and all are not required. Please adapt or select sections to meet the needs of your submitted poster, depending on the specific category and project.

• Title and Author information
• Introduction/Project/Program description
• Objectives/purpose/Clinical Scenario/Case Description
• Discussion of Methodology/Practice guidelines/Relevant Literature Applicant’s role in project/program
• Results/Treatment Course
• Conclusions/Discussion
• References (may use a QR Code)