Evolution of abstracts presented at the annual scientific meetings of academic emergency medicine

There has been a general trend in medicine toward greater sophistication in research design. To assess this trend in emergency medicine, we compared t he characteristics of abstracts presented at the 1974, 1983, 1989, and 1997 annual scientific meetings of Academic Emergency Medicine. All 870 abstrac ts were reviewed by 1 of 3 investigators who determined research design att ributes using a standardized classification scheme that has good interrater reliability. Over the last 25 years, the following trends were noted: more surveys (0% v 1% v 3% v 8%, P = .002), more randomized studies (0% v 10% v 12% v 15%, P = .05), and more blinded studies (0% v 7% v 5% v 11%, P = .01 ). Tests of statistical significance were reported with increasing frequenc y (8% v 26% v 59% v 69%, P < .001), as were power calculations (0% v 0% v 1 % v 3%, P = .02), During the study period, there were also increases in the median number of authors, proportion of foreign lead authors, and the prop ortion of studies involving human subjects. These results reflect considera ble improvement in the degree of research design sophistication reported in selected abstracts of academic emergency medicine over the study period. F urther strategies to assure continued enhancement of emergency medicine res earch should be explored. (C) 1999 by W.B. Saunders Company.