Case reports serve as educational tools for medical students, residents, and practicing physicians, offering valuable learning opportunities by presenting real-life clinical insights, challenging diagnostic dilemmas, and innovative treatment approaches.
The Medicine Core Clerkship Case Report is the third metric of your final grade in the clerkship. This report is an opportunity to dive deeply into a clinical domain, while also developing important skills with regard to academic case preparation.
<aside> <img src="/icons/reference_orange.svg" alt="/icons/reference_orange.svg" width="40px" /> SUMMARY of REQUIREMENTS
Prior to submitting, students are asked to review their Case Report with their supervising resident or attending for feedback prior to submission for scoring.
All submissions must include this informed consent signed by the patient of the case:
Case Report Informed Consent.pdf
Length: ~500 - 1000 words, excluding references
Case Selection:
The case can be from the inpatient or outpatient setting
The case does not need to be a rare diagnosis, and can be a common diagnosis with an excellent discussion of the clinical reasoning and educational points.
<aside> <img src="/icons/brain_orange.svg" alt="/icons/brain_orange.svg" width="40px" /> Consider choosing a case that increases awareness of a condition, suggests a more elegant diagnostic strategy, or demonstrates an exemplary approach to management. Alternatively, a case can be selected because it represents an unusual presentation of a relatively common condition, or offers valuable insights into the diagnosis or management of a common condition. In the end, the most important aspect of the case selection is the educational lesson that the case can deliver. [Adopted from the American College of Physicians]
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Remember, this case report is a great start towards a submission to a journal or presentation at a medical conference. Talk to your clerkship director for more information.
Organizational Format:
Title and Author Information: The title is a summary of the report itself and should convince the reader that the topic is important, relevant, and innovative.
Introduction: Most case reports begin with a short introduction. This typically describes the context of the case and explains its relevance and importance.
Case Description: When reporting the case, follow the basic rules of medical communication; describe in sequence the history, physical examination, investigative studies, therapeutic options, and the patient's progress and outcome. The trick is to be complete without obscuring the essence of the case with irrelevant details.
Discussion: The main purpose of the discussion is to review why decisions were made and extract the lessons from the case. Keep in mind that the best case reports are those that make a small number of teaching points (even just one) in clear and succinct language.
References: List the references used to gain a deeper understanding of the clinical details and context in this section. It does not count against the ~500 word limit.
[Adopted from the American College of Physicians]
Additional Formatting Recommendations:
Due Date: Friday of the 6th week of the rotation
Submission: Case reports will be emailed to the Nashville Clerkship Coordinator at [email protected], who will forward them to the Memphis coordinator for blinding and distribution to clerkship directors for grading.
Late submissions: One point deducted for every day past the due date.
File Type: Accepted document types are: Word File, Google Doc, or PDF
Evaluative Categories (5 points per):
An example rubric can be accessed here.