Call for Papers

Dear Colleagues,

The 2010 Scientific Program Committee is pleased to announce the 64th Annual Meeting of the American Academy for Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine (AACPDM), which will take place September 22 – September 25, 2010, in the US nation's capital, Washington DC.

Each year, the AACPDM Annual Meeting provides high-quality dissemination of information in the basic sciences, prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and technical advances as applied to persons with cerebral palsy and childhood-onset disabilities. The 2010 Annual Meeting aims to expand our horizons to learn from and with those around the globe, with the theme Shared Learning: Global Perspective.

You are critical to making this meeting a success. We invite your participation by asking you to submit an abstract in one or more of the following categories:

1. Scientific Presentation: Your opportunity to present your scientific research and findings. The Scientific Program Committee will review all abstracts based on your choice of presentation format (i.e., Scientific Free Paper Only or Scientific Poster Only). All abstracts accepted for scientific presentation will be published. Note: Please click to view a sample Scientific Free Paper or a sample Scientific Poster.
2. Demonstration Poster: This poster style provides an opportunity to showcase emerging ideas and innovation to generate discussion. Presentation of new service delivery models or organization, novel techniques and technologies, advocacy efforts, and other areas pertaining to the care of children with childhood-onset disabilities are among the appropriate content. These posters do not contain scientific data or analyses, making them distinct from scientific presentation. Demonstration poster abstracts will not be published.
3. Instructional Course: This is a focused, in depth, two-hour educational course, which includes an interactive component and is presented by two or more individuals or groups. Note: Please click to view a sample Instructional Course abstract.
4. Multimedia Presentation: Audio/Visual presentations of up to 60 minutes may be made on CD-ROMS or DVDs. Selected submissions will be previewed at the 2010 meeting. Note: Please click to view a sample Multimedia Presentation abstract

AACPDM Annual Meeting Objectives:

• To disseminate information on new developments in applied and translational sciences, prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and technology for individuals with cerebral palsy and other childhood-onset disabilities
• To create an interdisciplinary forum to facilitate communication and team-building between professionals who are providing services and care for individuals with childhood onset disabilities

The target audience of the AACPDM Annual Meetings includes Developmental and other Pediatricians, Neurologists, Psychologists, Physiatrists, Orthopedic and Neuro-Surgeons, Physical and Occupational Therapists, Speech and Language Therapists, Orthotists, Rehab Engineers, Kinesiologists, Nurses, Nutritionists, Educators, Administrators, Researchers, and all others concerned with the care of children with cerebral palsy and other childhood-onset disabilities. All skill levels are addressed.

The abstract submission deadline for the 64th Annual Meeting is February 1, 2010. Abstract submissions undergo a blinded peer review process. Selected abstracts will be announced in April 2010.

Be a part of the 64th AACPDM Annual meeting by submitting an abstract for consideration and by joining us in Washington next fall. The preliminary program for the meeting will be available in June 2010.

Sincerely,

Kristie Bjornson, PhD, PT, PCS
2010 Scientific Program Chair

Maureen O'Donnell, MD
2010 Instructional Course Chair

Special Awards

Gayle G. Arnold Award for Best Free Paper
This award is presented to the best Free Paper that was presented at the prior year's AACPDM Annual Meeting. To be eligible for this award, a Free Paper is first nominated by the Awards Committee. Then, the authors are invited to submit a manuscript for final judging. The award of $2,000 is provided by the Children's Hospital in Richmond, Virginia. The editors of the DMCN Journal request to have first option on publication of this winning paper, as long as the authors comply with the publishing requirements of Mac Keith Press.

Mac Keith Press Promising Career Award
Mac Keith Press sponsors this award for the best Free Paper or Scientific Poster by an author who is within four years of completion of training and commencement of current career. The award recipient must be a member of the AACPDM or have an application pending. The recipient is selected by the Awards Committee on site and presented the award on the final day of the Annual Meeting.

Fred P. Sage Award
The Sage Award is given to the best audio/visual submission presenting clinical, research, or educational material on CD-ROM or DVD in a digital format. The award is named after Fred P. Sage, MD, Past President (1981) and Chairman of the A/V Committee of the AACPDM. Dr. Sage envisioned the great potential of audio-visual use in the Academy. He advocated for ways to popularize this method of teaching, and this interest eventually led to the Fred P. Sage Award for the best program submitted each year.

CPI Research Foundation's Best Scientific Poster Award
Each year, the AACPDM awards the CPI Research Foundation's Best Scientific Poster Award. During the Annual Meeting, the Awards Committee carefully reviews and grades all of the scientific posters that are being considered for the award. The award recipient is selected as the highest rated poster from all committee member ratings. The Awards Committee presents this award during the award ceremony on the final day of the meeting.

Abstract Submission Types

Please note the deadline for all submissions is February 1, 2010.

Scientific Presentations. Accepted scientific abstracts will be presented in one of three formats:

• Scientific Paper (podium presentation) - A seven-minute oral presentation held during one of the concurrent "Free Paper" sessions during the Annual Meeting.
• Scientific Poster - A poster displayed in a scientific poster presentation section of the program. Author attendance at the poster may be required at designated times.
• Student Scientific Poster - A poster that complies with the same guidelines as the Scientific Posters, but is submitted by a full-time student (including residents and fellows). Abstracts selected in this category will be featured as a student poster.

Demonstration Poster - A poster displayed in the demonstration poster section of the program. This poster style provides an opportunity to showcase emerging ideas and innovation or "work in progress" to generate discussion. Presentation of new service delivery models or organization, novel techniques and technologies, advocacy efforts, and other areas pertaining to the care of children with childhood-onset disabilities are among the appropriate content. These posters do not contain scientific data, making them distinct from a scientific presentation. Demonstration poster abstracts will not be published.

Instructional Course - A two-hour interactive course, providing detailed instruction for continuing professional education and including opportunities for audience participation.

Multimedia Presentation - An audio/video presentation that presents clinical, research or education materials on a DVD or CD-ROM. Accepted abstracts from this category become part of the Multimedia Library and are available for individuals to view during the annual meetings. The abstracts for Multimedia Presentations are submitted by sending 6 copies of the DVD or CD-ROM to the AACPDM office with an application. Online submission is not available for Multimedia Presentations.

General Submission Guidelines

Abstract submissions must be received by 11:59 pm (CST) on Monday, February 1, 2010 to be considered for presentation at the AACPDM 64th Annual Meeting. Any submission received after this will not be considered.

Each author listed on the abstract is required to submit a Financial Disclosure. Corresponding authors are also required to complete FDA status and non-exclusive license forms.

Abstracts should be submitted in "people-first" language and avoid potentially pejorative terms, such as "wheel-chair bound", "afflicted", or any other terms that may be deemed insensitive to persons with disabilities.

Abstracts accepted for the 64th Annual Meeting must be unbiased and free of conflicts of interest. Any potential commercial bias must be declared at the time of abstract submission.

It is expected that all research involving human subjects or animals has been approved by the appropriate ethical review committee.

All presenters of accepted abstracts are required to register for the Annual Meeting. Fees are not reduced or waived for presenters. The second author should be prepared to attend if an emergency causes the primary author's absence.

Withdrawal of an accepted abstract, after the program has been assembled, will result in an author being banned from submitting to future AACPDM programs.

Scientific Presentations: Podium and Posters

The members of the AACPDM Scientific Program Committee will review the abstracts, blinded to the names of the authors and institutions affiliated with the submission. Presentations will be selected on the basis of their research question or hypothesis, study design/methodology/conclusions, impact/relevance and importance. The Scientific Program Committee will review all abstracts based on your choice of presentation format (i.e., Scientific Free Paper Only or Scientific Poster Only).

In order to make fair comparisons of the quality of submitted abstracts across a wide spectrum of disciplines, it is imperative that the format of a structured abstract be followed.

There is a strict limit of 3,000 characters, including spaces, for the text of your abstract body. Author information and uploaded images will not count toward the 3,000 character count. Please note: There is a maximum of 5 uploaded images.

The structured abstract should include the following headings:

Background/Objectives: Provide a brief statement about the problem or question/s of interest followed by the specific objective/s of the study. Include a list of hypotheses, when applicable.

Study Design: Listed below are some useful terms. Please refer to the Oxford-Centre for Evidence Based Medicine website for these and related terms (www.cebm.net).

• Studies of Therapy:
  • Systematic review or meta-analysis
  • Randomized controlled trial: (double) blinded
  • Placebo controlled
  • Crossover; before-after trial
  • Cohort study (retrospective or prospective)
  • Case control study
• Studies of Prognosis:
  • Cohort study (retrospective or prospective)
  • Case series
• Studies of Diagnosis:
  • Validating cohort study or exploratory cohort study
  • Non-consecutive study or case-control study
  • Ecological study
• Health Economic Evaluations:
  • Cost-effectiveness
  • Cost utility or benefit analysis
• Instrument Development & Validation Study
• Descriptive Studies (Survey, Cross sectional or Qualitative):
  • Describe methodology (e.g. grounded theory, phenomenology, etc.)

Study Participants & Setting: Describe who is being studied and in what setting, in order to determine the generalizability of the results. The selection criteria, number who participated out of the number eligible and pertinent socio-demographic information may be described.

Some terms used to describe participant selection include: random sample, consecutive series, convenience sample, volunteer sample, purposeful sample. The settings may include primary care setting, tertiary or referral center, institutional setting, general community, etc.

Materials/Methods: Describe the methods used to conduct the study. Where applicable, identify the primary (and important secondary) outcome measures to be reported and what statistical methods (where applicable) were used to conduct the analyses.

Results: Scientific abstracts must contain analyzed data from the completed study. The results are reported including standard deviations or 95% confidence intervals and the level of statistical significance when applicable. Results of qualitative studies must include appropriate description and analysis.

Conclusions/Significance: Only those conclusions that can be supported by the data presented in the study should be reported. The significance or implications of the findings may be described.

Note: Please click to view a sample Podium presentation abstract.

Demonstration Posters

The purpose of a Demonstration Poster is to showcase emerging ideas and innovation or to present "work in progress" to generate discussion. Presentation of new service delivery models or organization, novel techniques and technologies, advocacy efforts, and other areas pertaining to the care of children with childhood-onset disabilities are among the appropriate content for a demonstration poster. These posters do not contain (or contain very little) data, making them distinct from scientific presentation. Rather, they present novel and innovative ideas that may, potentially, later be studied with more scientific rigor.

The Demonstration Posters are expected to have similar quality of production as scientific posters, although the content is not expected to have the supportive data required of a Scientific Paper or Poster. The Demonstration Posters will be fully recognized in the program; however, please note that these abstracts will not be published with the Scientific Abstracts of the meeting in the Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology (DMCN) journal.

The abstract should be structured as follows:

Background/Objectives: Provide a brief introductory statement about the issue at hand followed by the specific objectives of the demonstration poster.

Description: Provide a description of the information to be presented in the poster.

Significance: Briefly explain the significance or importance of the information being presented, highlighting the novel and innovative aspects. Where appropriate, suggest future research that might help establish, validate or strengthen these new ideas.

Instructional Courses

Instructional Courses are two hours in length, providing formal in depth instruction for continuing professional education combined with audience participation and interaction.

Instructional courses are an extremely important component of the Academy meeting. From evaluations of previous courses, we recommend that authors structure their course according to the following guidelines:

1. Content should be current, evidence based, practical, applicable and balanced.
2. The most positively evaluated courses are those which encourage audience participation in a variety of ways throughout the session.
3. Prepared background material (handouts, references) are helpful and should be made available prior to or at the meeting. Prior permission must be obtained to duplicate copyrighted materials.
4. Careful consideration should be given to the number of presenters. Involvement of two or three presenters is suggested. Having more than three presenters often results in loss of continuity and excess use of time.
5. The Corresponding Author will provide leadership throughout the session.

One digital projector and one screen will be available. Participant must supply their own laptop computer. Other equipment must be requested individually. An embedded video is the preferred method for showing video clips.

Note: Please click to view a sample Instructional Course abstract.

Multimedia Presentations

A multimedia abstract is an audio/visual presentation that displays clinical, research, or educational material on DVD or CD-ROM. Accepted abstracts from this category become part of the AACPDM Multimedia Library and are available for meeting attendees to view during the Annual Meetings. Submissions in this category are not blinded and will be reviewed by the Multimedia Committee.

Presentations will be judged on quality, clarity, effectiveness a teaching tool for a specified audience, and use of media. Abstracts submitted in this category will be automatically considered for the Fred P. Sage Award.

To submit a multimedia abstract, complete an application form, and send by mail to the AACPDM office with six copies of the DVD and electronic version of the abstract. Click here for the Multimedia Abstract guidelines and application form.

Note: Please click to view a sample Multimedia Presentation abstract.

Send Multimedia Submissions postmarked no later than February 1, 2010 to:

AACPDM
Attn: Carol Spankus
555 E. Wells Street, Suite 1100
Milwaukee, WI 53202

Online Abstract Submission  (for all abstracts except multimedia)

1. Go to http://aacpdm.abstractcentral.com. Link may also be accessed through www.aacpdm.org
2. Choose "Create an Account" and take note of your username and password.
   NOTE: The AACPDM does not have access to your username or password. If you forget your username or password, select "Forgot Your Password?" and enter your e-mail address, then click the "Check for Account" button. An e-mail will be sent to your email address containing your login information.
3. Once you log in, you can modify your account, start a new submission or update and review previously submitted abstracts.
4. To begin a New Submission or review other submissions, select the "Submission" tab. Thoroughly read all the instructions.
5. There are several steps involved in the Abstract Submission Process. Complete each step and follow the directions that are provided.

DEADLINE: The submission site will close at 11:59 pm CST on Monday, February 1, 2010. Notifications will be emailed to all Corresponding Authors in April 2010.