Pediatric Orthopaedic Society of North America Annual Meetings Consistently Provide Academic Value for Attendees.

Abstract

The annual meeting program committees for orthopaedic subspecialty societies now receive more abstract submissions while conference durations remain similar. This study estimated the quality of the Pediatric Orthopaedic Society of North America (POSNA) annual meeting by analyzing abstract acceptance and publication characteristics. Abstracts featured in recent POSNA annual meetings (2017 to 2020), whereafter presentations had 3 subsequent years to reach publication were reviewed to determine annual acceptance rates, publication status, country of origin, study type, level of evidence, journal impact factor (JIF), and time to publication. Abstracts published with dissimilar results, altered methodology, or lacking the original first author were excluded. The abstract acceptance rate during the 4-year study period averaged 32%±3% despite the number of submitted abstracts varying per year. Among 1306 included abstracts, 760 (58.2%) were published in peer-reviewed journals. The vast majority (95%) were published after the annual meeting. The JIF of publications averaged 2.8±2.0 without significant variation between years. Featured abstracts were most commonly retrospective (n=510; 67.1%). Podium presentations were published at a significantly higher rate than posters (63.1% vs. 51.8%, P<0.001), and had a higher average JIF (2.9±2.3 vs. 2.5±1.0, P=0.006). A total of 137 unique journals published abstracts, with The Journal of Pediatric Orthopaedics publishing the highest proportion of articles (n=231). Abstracts featured in the most recently applicable POSNA annual meetings boast high rates of subsequent publication in relevant journals. This implies that the POSNA annual meeting offers strong educational value. When compared with posters and e-posters, podium presentations were more often published and appeared in higher impact journals. However, the prevalence of publication among both podium and poster presentations is encouraging for authors looking to substantiate the educational value of their research. Leve IV-retrospective study.