AB090. 248. An archival analysis of presentations at the Head & Neck section of Sylvester O’Halloran

Background: A multitude of authors have reported on the publication rates of medical congresses but few have delved deeper into the anatomy or demographics of the respective conference. The annual section of the Head and Neck multidisciplinary subspecialty of the Sylvester O’Halloran Surgical Scientific Meeting provides a platform for scientific presentation and discourse. The aim of this study was to ascertain whether an analysis of the historical records of this symposium could be in any way an enlightening experience.

Methods: A review of all presentations and published abstracts in the Irish Journal of Medical Science from 2005 to 2017 with a Medline and Google Scholar enquiry of the authors and presented topics was performed. Data recorded included level of training of presenter, Institutional source, failure to attend and full publication rates of related papers in international peer-reviewed journals.

Results: Participating papers totalling 145 ranging from 10 to 16 presentations annually were assessed with an over-riding representation from ORL-HNS and a sporadic but reducing input from MFU, Endocrine, Plastic and General Surgery. Source Institutions were countrywide and abroad with a trend towards less trainee presentations and more medical student participation. A low subsequent full article publication rate was identified while some similar topics ultimately appeared from separate units with 3 meeting no-shows despite abstract inclusion in the journal supplement.

Conclusions: analysing the archives of a meeting can provide evidence of changes that reflect the evolution of surgical training and medical education while confirming the known observations that topical subjects predominate and follow-up rates of publications are low.

Keywords: Conference proceedings; abstract publication