My friend @BilalMohammadMD recently posted on how to convert abstracts into manuscripts. https://twitter.com/BilalMohammadMD/status/1316135691508736000?s=20

Many academics offered great advice and described the pitfalls of having an abstract-heavy CV.

This is a contrarian thread on why I think abstracts are THE BEST.

It's a bit butterfly effect-ish, but the general thesis is:

Don't be afraid to test ideas that don't end up amounting to much in the traditional academic sense.

What you gain out of it can be spectacular regardless.

This is an abstract I presented at @DDWMeeting 2008 in San Diego when I was a clinical associate @UofT_GI_Head @uoftmedicine.

https://www.gastrojournal.org/article/S0016-5085(08)61518-8/abstract

It's a descriptive analysis of @Wikipedia @WikiProjectMed articles in GI. It went nowhere. We never published it.

It got me interested in research in Wikipedia, which was was starting out. I thought it would be useful in #MedEd. But I had NO IDEA about research methods. My mentor Cliff Ottaway told me to quit the Master Teacher courses I was doing and do an MEd.

This is Cliff - he's dope.

On the first day of my MEd I met a fellow student @CatharineMWalsh who #GITwitter interested in #MedEd will know has become a giant in endoscopic teaching, curriculum and assessment. Catharine approached me about starting a course in simulation for GI trainees @UofT_DoM.

We've run 10 iterations of this 3-week course for entry trainees in endoscopy in Toronto, having trained 250 residents over 10 yrs. It's one of my favourite academic activities. From this I've met dozens of amazing students, including Nikko seen in this pic.

And we've written SO MANY ABSTRACTS to explore cool ideas that went "NOWHERE"

Here's an abstract on gamification of simulation training in colonoscopy https://academic.oup.com/jcag/article/2/Supplement_2/412/5381336

This is how we train at U of T now. The game is "Started from the Bottom" @Drake. Trainees love it.

Back to that DDW Wikipedia abstract. Samy Azer built on our work and showed deficiencies that may limit the use of WP for med students. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24276492/ 

@WikiDocJames @jfdwolff and I tried to test this robustly. I met those great guys because of the Wikipedia abstract.

We tested Wikipedia vs. POC resources vs. textbooks to see which resource helped med students do better on the LMCC exam. @ZDoggMD picked this up for an episode of Incident Report (and mercilessly made fun of me, much to @MichaelScaffidi's amusement)

In 2013 Kalin Ovtcharov found me after presenting this abstract https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/6901124?section=abstract looking to see if we could apply HDR to endoscopy.

Guess what - we did. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzbsSg8RwOl8N1oyYVBTWGFjSjg/view?usp=sharing

We started a company with @ababut. And that didn't work out but I learned A LOT about startups and I met scores of amazing people.

Including Dr. Nora Ovtcharova, Kalin's sister, who was into medical wt loss

We started a metabolic clinic with @drjasonfung https://www.torontometabolicclinic.com/ 

And then there was this abstract we never finished. I met Paul Ritvo after he was running a focus group at @Sunnybrook, to pass along a USB stick with transcripts.

A resident he was meeting with @nadabachi needed a ride downtown, so I drove her and we got to know each other.

That worked out really well.

In summary:
1. Abstracts are a great way to try out ideas that are underdeveloped, and to get a forum to discuss them with others;
2. Abstracts can lead to MANY other opportunities (collaborations, meeting new colleagues, etc.)
3. Others can build on work that you do in abstract

form, even if it isn't something you want to do.
4. Sure, you will want to develop your best ideas into manuscripts, but even if you don't, there is a ton to gain from abstracts, even for those well into their careers!

(and enjoy the poster gallery at @AmCollegeGastro even more)