2026 Resident/Student Competitions

2026 Annual Chapter Meeting Abstract Competition

The Abstract Competition submission deadline has passed.

Competition Dates: November 6th – 7th, 2026

Location: Casino del Sol, Tucson

All medical student poster presentations will take place on Friday, November 6th.

All resident poster presentations will take place on Saturday, November 7th.

Those Eligible to Submit

• A medical student in good standing at an Arizona medical school or a PGY-1, PGY- 2, PGY-3, or a PGY-4 Med/Ped in good standing at an Arizona Internal Medicine residency program.
• An ACP member (you will need your ACP number to submit your abstract). Join at www.acponline.org/membership (free for students).
• Registered to attend the annual meeting. (Resident registration fee is $40; medical student fee is $25). Registration will open later this summer.

No late entries will be considered. All posters must fall in the domain of internal medicine. 

Acceptance

Scores will first be tabulated in a virtual judging round to determine the finalists who will be invited to present onsite in Tucson. Top-scorers will be invited to present for onsite judging. Lower ranked submissions may still be invited to present onsite as non-competition posters.

Dates & Deadlines

• Submission Window Opens: July 2
• Submission Deadline: Monday, August 17th, 2026 at 11:59 pm – Closed!
• Preliminary Judging Round: August 18th – September 24th
• Decisions Shared With Applicants: September 25th
• All Presenters Must Register For Meeting: October 16th
• Medical Student Poster Session: Friday, November 6th | 4:15PM – 5:15PM
• Resident Poster Session: Saturday, November 7th | 12:30PM – 1:45PM
• Awards on Saturday, November 7th at 4:30PM

General Rules

• Posters must be submitted via the ACP AZ submission portal no later than August 17th.
• Each poster must be a unique submission. Duplicate cases may not appear on separate posters.
• Poster size must be 24 inches by 36 inches. Posters that are too large will not be displayed.
• To impart additional information and images to the poster viewer, QR codes may be included. However, the QR codes will not be part of judging the poster.
• Presenters will have 4-5 minutes to present the poster. Be prepared to answer one or two questions.
• Presenters will stand by their poster throughout the judging session until the team of judges joins them during the identified poster judging time blocks. No specific time will be assigned.
• Substitute presenters not listed on your abstract will not be accepted.
• Rankings will be based on the number of points obtained. Note: Please read the complete guidelines before submitting.

Judging Categories

Clinical Research

Patient-oriented research. Research conducted with human subjects (or on material of human origin such as tissues, specimens and cognitive phenomena) for which an investigator (or colleague) directly interacts with human subjects. This area of research includes: mechanisms of human disease; therapeutic interventions; clinical trials; development of new technologies; analysis of existing datasets; epidemiologic and behavioral studies; outcomes research and health services research.

Quality Improvement – Patient Safety

Submissions can report on efforts to improve patient safety or outcomes measurement. Such efforts may be projects developed and initiated to promote patient safety and/or processes that have improved or created a safer environment for patients. Abstracts may also be submitted that relate to the use of outcome data and how to measure and convert data into information.

Clinical Vignette

A clinical vignette is a report of one or more cases that illustrates a new disease entity, or a prominent or unusual clinical feature of an established disease. It may include a summary of pertinent patient history, physical findings, laboratory data or management description.

Oral Vignette Competition

The submission deadline has passed.

All Arizona residency programs are invited to submit one abstract on behalf of their program to be considered for our Oral Vignette Competition. This abstract will be presented orally at our annual chapter meeting of one or more cases that illustrates a new disease entity or a prominent or unusual clinical feature of an established disease.

Each program director may submit one abstract on behalf of their program. Six vignettes will be chosen for presentation at the meeting. It is up to the program how they collect eligible abstracts from their programs.

Abstracts from PGY-2 and PGY-3 residents eligible. Please see your emails for the submission link, sent from wnorth@acpazchapter.org.

Submission Deadline (Program Directors): September 3rd

Doctor’s Dilemma

The Doctor’s Dilemma Competition sign up deadline has passed. 

A team, jeopardy-style competition – teams from all participating programs compete against one another. Programs and schools may submit one team each.

Preliminary rounds for medical students will take place onsite at the annual meeting on Friday, November 6th from 10:15AM – 11:10AM.

Preliminary rounds for residents will take place virtually on the following dates: October 20th at 5PM; October 22nd at 5PM.

Final round takes place at the chapter meeting on Saturday, November 7th at 3:45PM.

Open to Medical Students & PGY-1 to PGY-3 residents.

Team & Question Submission Deadline (Program Directors): September 3rd