Rules

A. Who can participate

Internal medicine specialists up to 35 years of age or senior trainees in internal medicine in the last two years of training representing national societies of internal medicine or other institutions who are the official partners of the 6th McMaster International Review Course in Internal Medicine (MIRCIM). Each partner can endorse up to 10 new* case reports for the contest. Reports are selected by the partner (for instance, through internal qualification).

*All case reports submitted in 2020 are deemed eligible for BCRC 2021.

B. Criteria for submission

1. Only original unpublished case reports endorsed by a MIRCIM partner may be submitted.

2. Case reports should describe an original observation concerning diagnosis, treatment or both. They should fit into one of the following categories:

• Rare conditions.
• Unusual presentation or complications of a relatively common condition.
• A difficult road to diagnosis.
• Cases of high educational value for other reasons.

C. Stages

Stage 1: Submission of case reports

1. Case reports should be sent by email to the MIRCIM secretariat (secretariat@mircim.eu) with the subject “BCRC 2021.” They should include an abstract, a full text and a poster. See below for detailed instructions.

2. Submissions must be made before April 15, 2021.

3. The submitted case report must be accompanied by the following documents:

• A PDF file of the submission form signed by the presenting author.
• A letter from a MIRCIM partner confirming endorsement of the case report.

Stage 2: Review and selection by the jury

Selected members of the jury, chosen by the MIRCIM Scientific Committee, will be responsible for:

• Reviewing all submitted case reports and approving the reports meeting all required criteria.
• Selecting 20 best case reports for stage 3.

The corresponding authors of the approved submissions will be contacted by April 23, 2021. The authors will be requested to register for MIRCIM by April 30, 2021 and eligible for a reduced fee.

Stage 3: Oral presentation

The authors of the submissions qualified for an oral presentation will be notified by May 10, 2021. The authors will present their case reports at the conference Clinical Cases in Internal Medicine: Learning Through Practice, which will take place on June 11, 2021.

A single presentation should not exceed 6 minutes, with the number of slides adjusted accordingly. See below for detailed instructions on oral presentation. Each presentation will be followed by 4 minutes of questions/ comments from an assigned expert.

All presentations in PowerPoint in a .pptx format must be sent to the MIRCIM secretariat before June 4, 2021.

After the conference the jury will award the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place through voting. The results will be announced on June 17, 2021, at the virtual award ceremony.

The oral presentations will be recorded and published on the MIRCIM website (www.mircim.eu) after the conference.

Stage 4: E-poster gallery

All accepted case reports (including those qualified for oral presentation) will be presented as e-posters on the course website from May 11, 2021.

D. Jury

1. Experts chosen by the MIRCIM Scientific Committee.
2. Experts delegated by MIRCIM partners participating in the contest.
3. Chair: Prof. Mark Crowther, MD, MSc, FRCPC, Chair of the Department of Medicine, McMaster University, Canada.

E. Awards

If a submitted case has more than one author the award goes to the first author or a co-author designated by the first author.

Abstracts will be published in the conference proceedings in Polish Archives of Internal Medicine (www.pamw.pl).

Main awards (oral presentation)

Award	1st place	2nd place	3rd place
Diploma	Yes	Yes	Yes
Publication in Polish Archives of Internal Medicine (IF 3.007)	Yes	Yes	Yes
Free attendance at MIRCIM 2022	Yes	Yes	Yes
Free accommodation (up to 3 days) in Kraków at MIRCIM 2022	Yes	Yes
The main prize of 2000 euro	Yes

EJCRIM

One case report selected from the oral presentations will be awarded a publication in the European Journal of Case Reports in Internal Medicine.

F. Guidelines on preparing case reports (abstract, full text, poster)

Medical jargon should not be used. The number of abbreviations should be limited with preference for those commonly used. Abbreviations should be spelled out the first time they are mentioned, except for those commonly recognized (eg, ECG).
Abstracts and full-text case reports should be submitted as a Word file (PDF and other formats are not allowed). The Times New Roman, 12 points, font should be used. Figures should be submitted in high resolution as separate files. Preferred formats are either TIFF or EPS.
Photographs should have a resolution of at least 300 dpi.

Suggested structure of a case report

1. Title (short, informative).
2. Author names (presenting author listed as the first author).
3. Institutional affiliations.
4. First author’s corresponding email address.
5. Introduction (relevance and importance of the case).
6. Case description:    
   a) Clinical situation.
   b) Course of events.
   c) Clinical resolution.
7. Discussion.
8. Lessons to be learned from the case.

Suggested reading on writing case reports:
www.acponline.org

Abstract (published in the conference proceedings)

1. Structure: see above.
2. Number of authors: up to 3.
3. Length: up to 500 words.
4. Number of keywords: up to 5.
5. References: none.
6. Figures/tables: none allowed.

Full-text case report (assessed by jurors to qualify for oral presentation)

1. Structure: see above.
2. Number of authors: up to 3.
3. Length: up to 1500 words.
4. Abstract: see above.
5. Number of keywords: up to 5.
6. References: up to 8.
7. Figures/tables: up to 3 figures and 1 table.

E-poster

1. Structure: see above.
2. Submitted in high resolution as a PDF or PowerPoint PPTX file.

Submissions that do not meet the above guidelines will be returned for revision.

G. Guidelines on preparing an oral presentation

1. Slide format: 4:3 aspect ratio and 1024 × 768 minimum resolution.
2. Presentations will be displayed on a computer running Windows 10 and PowerPoint 2016.
3. Presentations must be saved as a PowerPoint PPTX file.
4. Use standard Windows fonts only (avoid non-standard and language-specific fonts).
5. Minimum resolution of embedded images: 300 dpi.
6. Accepted video formats: MP4 (preferred), WMV, AVI.
7. Presentations created on Apple computers should be tested on a Windows computer, preferably running Windows 10, before they are submitted.

Submission form (interactive PDF)