Panel sessions

A panel session contains 3 or 4 related presentations.  A panel session will last 60 or 90 minutes and will run concurrently with oral sessions within a parallel session. 

The aim is to provide an opportunity for those with a particular interest to ensure a coherent set of papers for presentation in a single oral parallel session, with a chair to introduce and summarise the session, and with some flexibility over how the time is organised. Panels can be on any topic provided there is a clear and convincing thread for the whole session.

How to submit a panel

A panel overview form must be submitted by the panel chair or person responsible for convening the panel.  In addition the individual presentations within the panel must be submitted on-line as presentation abstracts.  The titles of each presentation should be entered on the panel overview form so that we can link abstract submissions to panels.

Panels will run in a 60 or 90 minute slot and although there can be some flexibility at the discretion of the group submitting.

Contents of the panel session
 

  • A brief introduction by the chair giving the background to the topic, and explaining the link between the papers.
  • Three (60 minute session) or four (90 minute session) separate presentations with at most brief questions after each for clarity. Length of presentations can vary, but cannot crowd out discussion time at the end.
  • A summing up by the chair (or alternatively by a discussant).
  • Discussion time at the end for the session as a whole.

Criteria influencing selection:

  • Scientific merit of the individual abstracts, each of which should score highly enough to be selected for oral presentation.
  • Demonstration in the chair’s summary that there is a clear link that makes the sum of the panel greater than its parts (ie that the session will deliver more than might have happened if the organising committee had put a group of separate abstracts together).
  • Preference for at least one panel member who would not normally attend SAPC (eg someone from other speciality working in primary care related research or an overseas attendee).
  • Preference for a multi-institutional panel.

Panel overview submissions will be assessed at the same time as workshops and presentations. Abstracts from rejected panels will automatically be considered in the normal selection process for individual presentations (ie there will be no risk to submitting an abstract as part of a panel).