Paul Paulman, MD Professor, Dept. of Family Medicine Case Report Writing 101 Paul Paulman, MD Professor, Dept. of Family Medicine

Session Goal: Help participants improve their ability to prepare a clinical case writeup Case Report Writing 101

Session Objectives: During this session, the participants will: Review common errors made by authors of case reports Brainstorm strategies to overcome barriers to writing case reports Case Report Writing 101

More Session Objectives: Review techniques to improve your chance of manuscript acceptance Review current opportunities for case report writeups (including letters to the editor) Review examples of case report writeups Start a case writeup, time permitting Case Report Writing 101

Case Writing 101 Why do this? Promotion and tenure Academic survival/expectations Enjoyable Leads to “next level” of writing Our job, expand knowledge, spark research, improve education and patient care Case Report Writing 101

Case Writing 101 My qualifications? Feature editor, FAMILY MEDICINE Column co editor, Journal of Family Practice Editorial Board, AAFP Home Study monograph series Edited or editing 6 clinical or educational textbooks Case Report Writing 101

Case Writing 101 My approach will be from an editor’s standpoint Case Report Writing 101

Case Writing 101 Common Errors made by case report editors Case Report Writing 101

Case Writing 101 1. Read instructions for authors Case Report Writing 101

Case Writing 101 2. Read instructions for authors Case Report Writing 101

Case Writing 101 3.Read instructions for authors Case Report Writing 101

Case Writing 101 4. FOLLOW instructions for authors 5. Follow suggested form and format 6. Respond to deadlines 7. Mechanicals, missing info, references not cited, etc Case Report Writing 101

Case Writing 101 Take Home Point (this is why you paid your money for this session….) If you read and follow the author instructions, you’ll be at the head of the pack! Case Report Writing 101

Case Writing 101 Ways to improve your chances of manuscript acceptance: -Follow instructions -Write for your reviewer/editor/audience -Plain language, active voice -Chose a case with “bite” (eg interest, illustrates a point, familiarity, timeliness) -Have a colleague review your manuscript---should make sense to her -Spell check, grammar check, needs to look good -Include all requested info Case Report Writing 101

Case Writing 101 Audience Participation: How many have done case writeups? How many would like to do case writeups? What are some of the barriers you have or may encounter? Case Report Writing 101

Case Writing 101 OK, what could we do to decrease those barriers? Case Report Writing 101

Case Writing 101 Let’s look at case writeup examples: -IMRAD -”Progressive reveal” -Letters to editor Narrative (statement of problem/concern, background, intervention/observation, discussion) Case Report Writing 101

Case Writing 101 Let’s look at educational case examples as well as clinical Case Report Writing 101

Case Writing 101 Participants: Where are you now? What is your next step in preparing a case writeup? Case Report Writing 101

Summary Why do this? Common errors Ways to improve your manuscript acceptance rate Looked at your experience/barriers and ways to overcome them Case examples Looked at your current status Case Report Writing 101

Any questions? Feel free to call on me, if I can help in this process. (ppaulman@unmc.edu) Thank you and happy writing! Case Report Writing 101