How to optimize the value of academic seminars and poster sessions & ask the right questions

06-24

One of the bonuses studying in Johns Hopkins School of Public Health is that there are tons of high quality seminars with free food ( Put it before the contents of seminars -_- !) and up-to-date researches. Here I summarized some personal thoughts on how to maximize the value of seminars and poster sessions besides the bonus of free lunches.

Seminars

1. Preparatory work : Obtain the seminar brochures and schedules beforehand, locate the topics that you are most interested in and the speakers you would like to talk with later (You could actually formulate the questions or conversations that you are going to have with the speakers during breaks or lunch time later). When looking at the titles of presentations, google the concepts that you are not family, think about what you expect to hear and formulate several questions first:

eg. immunotherapy of glioblastoma with C,novyi-NT

Do your homework: Clostridium novyi-NTis a modified form of Clostridium novyithat is under investigation as a cancer treatment. It is one of several pathogenic species of Clostridium bacteria that have been examined for that purpose. The modification eliminated the secretion ofα-toxin.[1]

Potential questions: Whats the mechanisms for this brain-gut connection? Which stage is this therapy? Will the speakers talk about some observational studies such as prospective cohort study ? Has the effectiveness and safety been tested by clinical trials?

2. Pay attention to big pictures while listening : Dont get lost into technical details that you are not familiar with. Constantly remind yourself of the big pictures, go back to the questions you have at the beginning, summarize the points the presenters made so far.

3. Ask the right questions: Compare and contrast with similar researches you know in the area ;

Checklist of commonly asked questions: Have you stratified by XXX (effect measure modification or moderator or subgroup such as gender, race, genes [Apoe4 for Alzheimers disease research], disease severity ); Have you adjusted for the confounders (such as social economic status, disease severity, geographic area, drug use, comorbidiites etc) ;

Poster sessions

No question is a dumb question —— Ask to clarify if you dont understand or have some doubts. Most of the time, the presenters omitted a lot of details or even important points since they are so familiar with (tired of) their own researches.

Let them to walk you through their posters if you cant think about specific question. However, dont listen passively, formulate the research questions in mind, whats the exposure? outcome ?methods? results? conclusion ?feel free to interrupt their wordy introductions.

some general questions:

How do you come up with this research questions? Why you are interested in this specific topic? (Sometimes you will get interesting answers. )
Are there any clinical trials about ... [replace with their research questions] (if their researches are cohort or case control study and the assignment of exposure - such as physical exercise- is ethical ) ; Are there any prospective studies about xx [replace with their research questions] (if their researches are case control or cross-sectional studies etc)
How do you interpret your data? Whether the results is consistent with your assumptions or other literature ? Do you expect to obtain this results? If not, what do you think contribute to the difference?
I know the results are statistically significant, but are they also clinically significant? ( personally ,I hate this question, ??)
This risk factor is statistically significant, but compared to other risk factors, does it still play a major role? In other works, whats the attributable risk of xxx (the exposure of the research) ?
Whats your next step ? conduct clinical trial? Test the hypothesis in a more heterogenous population ? Upscale your implementation ?

Final thoughts

Actually, you should forget all you obtained so far and start networking since the optimal values of seminars and posters lies in networking.

So... Start with their posters or presentations but ask beyond that. Ask about their other research interests besides what they presented today , their mentors and institutions ( usually on the poster already), their academic career trajectories and their future plans. Introduce yourself, your research areas and future plans. Poster session is more about networking than learning something useful. Talk to the presenters who has similar research interests, ask their contact information at the appropriate timing. You will at least have their E-mail (know their name and check online) and you can at least start the E-mail with " Its my pleasure to talk with you during the poster session on xx research retreat "