Letter to the Editor Regarding “The National Student Neurosurgical Research Conference: A Research Conference for Medical Students”

Letter: Addressing Barriers to Student Participation in Neurosurgical Conferences: Experiences From the Inaugural Early Career Neuroscience Virtual Research Symposium

“…This international conference seems to be larger than other previously reported student research conferences. 7,8 Notably, more than 40% of submitting authors were first-year or second-year students, and the majority had never previously presented at a neurosurgical conference (Table 2). The large representation of junior medical students and first-time presenters was reflective of the symposium's mission to amplify the efforts of early-stage researchers.…”

“…This screening process was performed by members of the editorial board associated with our online peer review publication Brain and Spine Report. Selected abstracts were then reviewed and rated by 13 resident and faculty experts representing a range of subspecialties using a scoring rubric modified from Musial et al 8 and Zappi et al 9 ( Supplemental Table 1 , http://links.lww.com/NEU/D559). Top scoring abstracts were selected for live, synchronous presentations, while the remainder were selected for 3-minute recorded presentations.…”

“…1,[4][5][6] Previous conferences hosted by student interest groups at Brown and Weill Cornell have laid the groundwork for student-centered symposia, including establishing the benefits of a virtual format to facilitate student-faculty interaction. 7,8 Recognizing the advantages highlighted by these single-institution efforts, we sought to extend their impact by hosting a multi-institutional, medical student-oriented neurosurgery research conference, the Early Career Neuroscience Virtual Research Symposium.…”