27th Annual Scientific Assembly

AAEM/RSA Western Journal of Emergency Medicine Population Health Research Competition

Congratulations to the 2021 Winners!

  • 1st Place: Joshua Tiao, MD
    Geospatial Analysis Of Pediatric Gunshot Wounds Presenting To A Level I Trauma Center In New Orleans
     
  • 2nd Place: Matthew P. Czaja, MPH
    Non-fatal injuries from Mass Shootings, 2012-2019: Epidemiology, Outcomes and Medical Resource Use
     
  • 3rd Place: Sofia Ruiz-Castaneda
    Evaluation of Homeless Patients Presenting to the Emergency Department with Psychiatric Complaints

 

The Western Journal of Emergency Medicine: Integrating Emergency Care with Population Health (WestJEM) is proud to sponsor the AAEM/RSA & WestJEM Population Health Research Competition. This is designed to showcase medical student and resident research specifically in areas that affect the health of populations of patients in and around the ED.

Appropriate submissions should focus on ED operations, technology solutions, education, throughput, crowding, access to care, injury prevention, public policy and advocacy, disaster management, patient safety, endemic infections, and other systems of medicine. Successful submissions will include methodologies such as randomized trials, observational cohort studies, before-and-after intervention studies, cross-sectional studies and longitudinal studies. Case reports and reviews will not be considered.

 

Competition Schedule

Monday, June 21 | Burlington / Frisco

3:20pm-3:25pm

Welcome | Mark I. Langdorf, MD MHPE FAAEM RDMS

3:25pm-3:40pm

Non-fatal injuries from Mass Shootings, 2012-2019: Epidemiology, Outcomes and Medical Resource Use | Matthew P. Czaja, MPH

3:40pm-3:55pm

Evaluation of Homeless Patients Presenting to the Emergency Department with Psychiatric Complaints | Sofia Ruiz-Castaneda

3:55pm-4:05pm

Geospatial Analysis Of Pediatric Gunshot Wounds Presenting To A Level I Trauma Center In New Orleans | Joshua Tiao, MD

4:05pm-4:15pm

Judges' Deliberation

 

Eligibility for Awards

The top six abstracts submitted by students and residents will be selected for oral presentation at AAEM21. The presenter of the oral abstract judged to represent the most outstanding research achievement will receive a $500 honorarium, while second and third place will receive $250 and $100 honoraria, respectively.

Abstract Submission Guidelines

Please read the abstract submission instructions carefully. The deadline and space requirements are strictly enforced in order to give all authors an equal opportunity to submit their data in the same amount of space and under the same time constraints.

  1. AAEM/RSA Member Status – Only current resident or student paid members can submit an abstract for the competition.
  2. Submission Deadline
    • Electronic submissions will be accepted beginning January 5, 2021.
    • Abstract receipt deadline for electronic submission is 11:59pm CT on February 9, 2021.
  3. There is no fee for submitting an abstract. All abstracts must be submitted and presented in English.
  4. You must submit both a blind and formal version of your abstract.
  5. If you have questions regarding the abstract submissions for the 27th Annual Scientific Assembly, please call AAEM at (800) 884-2236 or email info@aaem.org.

Presenting Author Information

You will need to submit the presenting author’s name, address, telephone, and fax numbers, as well as an email address. Only the presenting author listed on the submission form will be notified of abstract acceptance.  The presenting author must be a resident or student.

Funding

Indicate what monies have funded the research.

Disclosure of Relevant Financial Relationships

In accordance with the essentials and standards set forth by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education, as well as guidelines proposed by the Food and Drug Administration and endorsed by the American Medical Association, an author with a conflict of interest with the content of their abstract must disclose that conflict prior to presentation. A conflict of interest includes, but is not limited to, any relevant financial relationship in a company, product or procedure mentioned in the abstract or in the presentation to be given at the conference. The authors must complete the disclosure form included in the electronic submission. A conflict in and of itself will not eliminate an abstract from consideration.

Previous Presentations of Abstracts

No abstract published as an article on or before February 9, 2021, may be submitted for this competition. Abstracts that have been presented at the national meetings of other organizations should not be submitted for consideration. You cannot submit the same abstract for this and the AAEM/JEM Resident and Student Abstract Competition.

Informed Consent

Any studies involving human subjects must conform to the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki of the World Medical Association (Clinical Research 1966; 14:103) and must meet all the requirements governing informed consent of the country in which the research was performed.

Abstract Publication

Oral abstracts presented at AAEM’s 27th Annual Scientific Assembly may be published in the Western Journal of Emergency Medicine: Integrating Population Health with Emergency Medicine. Ownership of abstracts not accepted reverts to the authors.

Notification of Abstract Selection

The presenting author of all abstracts submitted by February 9, 2021, will receive notification of acceptance or rejection in April 2021.

Withdrawals and Revisions

Withdrawals and revisions must be received in writing to info@aaem.org by February 15, 2021. No changes can be submitted after that date.

Abstract Formatting

  1. Use 12-point Times New Roman (or similar) type. Limit text to 2,500 characters, including spaces, and single space all text in the body of the abstract.
  2. Do not indent the title. Capitalize only the first letter of each word in the title. List author names using initials only for first and middle names. Underline author names continuously. Include institution, city, and state where research was performed. When submitting the blind copy, omit author names, institution, city, state or any other identifier where research was performed. Omit degrees, titles, institutional appointments, street addresses, and ZIP codes. Single space entire abstract. The left-hand margin of the abstract’s text should be perfectly aligned.
  3. Use of abbreviations — The use of standard abbreviations is desirable. A special or unusual abbreviation should be placed in parentheses after the first appearance of the full word it represents. Numerals rather than words should indicate numbers, except to begin sentences.
  4. Use of drug names — Each time a proprietary drug name is used in the abstract, the first letter is capitalized. Nonproprietary (generic) drug names are preferred and are not capitalized.
  5. Structuring the abstract — Structured abstracts facilitate explicit presentation of critical information and objective assessment of scientific validity. Each abstract should include the following topic headings. It is not necessary to begin a new line or leave extra space between topic headings.

Objectives: A precise statement of the purpose of the study or the pre-study hypothesis. This may be preceded by a brief introduction summarizing past work or relevant controversies that place the study in perspective.

Methods: A brief statement of the methods used, including pertinent information about the study design, setting, participants, subjects, interventions, and observations.

Results: A summary of the results presented in sufficient detail to support the conclusions.

Conclusions: Conclusions should be succinctly stated and firmly supported by the data presented. Note important limitations.

1st Place Submission from the 25th Annual Scientific Assembly

Use of the Updated Google Translate Algorithm for Spanish and Chinese Discharge Instructions

EC Khoong, MD MS1 .E Steinbrook, BA2 .C Brown, MD3 .A Fernandez, MD1,4

Affiliations

1Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA
2University of Michigan School of Medicine, Ann Arbor, MI
3Department of Emergency Medicine, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA
4Center for Vulnerable Populations at University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA

Importance

The health disparities experienced by limited English proficient (LEP) patients are well-documented. Despite the benefits of written instructions on communication, clinicians have few resources to provide free-texted written instructions to LEP patients. Google Translate is a tool commonly used for this purpose. Since a 2017 change in its translation algorithm, no previous study has assessed Google Translate’s accuracy for medical purposes.

Objective

To determine the accuracy and potential harm of Google Translate for emergency department discharge instructions.

Methods

Discharge instructions for 100 adult patients at two urban emergency departments, oversampled for common chief complaints, were translated using Google Translate and back-translated by bilingual translators. The primary outcome was accuracy of translations. The secondary outcome was potential harm associated with inaccurate translations. Two clinician review adjudicated both outcomes. Logistic regression analyses were used to determine instruction characteristics (sentence type, Flesh-Kincaid readability score, use of medical jargon, and four subtypes of non-standard English) associated with inaccurate translations and potential for significant harm.

Results

The 100 instructions contained 647 sentences, of which 42% contained medical jargon. Overall, 92% of Spanish and 81% of Chinese translations were accurate; potential for significant clinical harm was identified in 2% and 8% of translations, respectively. In multivariable logistic regression analyses, only spelling/grammar anomalies were associated with inaccurate translations: (Spanish - odds ratio [OR] 2.6, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.1-5.8, p=0.025; Chinese - OR 2.6, 95% CI 1.3-5.0, p=0.005). Potentially significant harm was identified in Spanish translations if instructions had a readability score > 8th grade (OR 4.0, 95% CI 1.2-13.5, p=0.026) or sentences were follow-up instructions (OR 3.5, 95% CI 1.2-10.2, p=0.021). Potentially significant harm was identified in Chinese translations of sentences with medical terminology (OR 2.4, 95% CI 1.2-4.9, p=0.012), spelling/grammar anomalies (OR 3.1, 95% CI 1.4-7.2, p=0.006), or colloquial English (OR 5.9, 95% 1.4-24.7, p = 0.015).

Conclusions

The updated Google Translate can accurately convey the majority of free-texted, written emergency department discharge instructions into Spanish and Chinese, but there is possibility of significant error, particularly in Chinese. Clinicians using Google Translate should adhere to clear communication guidelines to minimize translation errors.

Other 2019 top submissions included

  • Development of Protocol-Driven Prehospital Care in a Rohingya Refugee Camp
  • Assessing Linkage to Care of an Emergency Department Hepatitis C Screening Program
  • An Assessment of Loyola University Medical Center Emergency Department Utilization by Homeless Compared to Non-Homeless Patients