Research and Scholarship

The goals of the COMSEP research and scholarship task force are to promote and facilitate educational research and scholarship in our organization and equip the members to engage in high-quality research and scholarship.

• Request and review abstracts by COMSEP members on their research and educational innovations for the annual meeting.
• Organize the oral presentation and poster sessions of COMSEP members' research and innovations for the annual meeting.
• Provide a forum to discuss ongoing and future research projects
• Present one or more workshops about research and scholarship at each COMSEP meeting.
• Foster collaboration among COMSEP members to produce scholarly work by encouraging and facilitating multi-institutional research projects, systematic reviews and workshops presented at COMSEP and other national meetings.
• Foster collaboration about research and scholarship between COMSEP and Association of Pediatric Program Directors (APPD) members.

The current co-chairs of the research and scholarship task force are Janice Hanson and Robin English.

2011 Annual Meeting

At the annual COMSEP meeting on March 3-7, 2011, we had very successful poster and platform presentations. A total of 35 posters and 4 platform presentations were presented. In addition, our task force presented workshops on educational scholarship and validating assessment tools.

Plans for the future
At the 2012 meeting in Indianapolis, we will again have both platform and poster research and scholarship presentations. These presentations provide COMSEP members the opportunity to share original research, teaching tools, and innovative programs. Although we have developed a good system through which to review abstracts, this year we are developing an Abstract Review Subcommittee in order to improve the process of submitting and reviewing abstracts even more. We will consider submissions that focus on all types of educational scholarship including:

• Educational research with relevance to pediatrics
• New methods of teaching in the classroom, the ward, clinic, or community
• New programs (learning modules) involving students and residents
• Changes in the curriculum at your institution which affect medical education in pediatrics
• New strategies and tools to evaluate students and residents
• Using technology in education

We encourage any member interested in presenting his or her educational scholarship at an upcoming meeting to consider whether an application for a small educational grant through the COMSEP grants program might be appropriate for the project.

In addition to planning for the upcoming annual meeting, our task force is involved in several projects, including data analysis which is underway for the Multi-Institutional Study of Curriculum Objectives, Individual Learning Plans and Student Learning in the Pediatric Subinternship, a joint project of the leaders of the Research and Scholarship Task Force and Curriculum Task Force. A collaborative project on clinical reasoning, an outcomes project with respect to our members' prior presentations at COMSEP meetings, and a professionalism needs assessment are additional endeavors in which our members are engaged. Our task force is growing quickly thanks to the enthusiastic involvement of our members.

The COMSEP 2012 Poster/Platform abstract entry system is now closed.
2012 Poster/Platform Call for Abstracts
2012 Poster/Platform Abstract Scoring Rubric