Prize Offered for Winning Abstract

The Organization for Safety, Asepsis and Prevention (OSAP), the advocate for The Safest Dental Visit™, is seeking abstracts for their Annual Infection Control Conference, June 2-4, 2016, in San Diego, CA. The abstracts will be reviewed by a prestigious panel of experts according to International Association for Dental Research (IADR) review criteria with the objective to advance infection control and patient safety research and a clinical practice agenda across international borders. The abstract judged best overall will be awarded the James A. Cottone Award for Excellence in Investigative Research, which includes a cash award of $500 and a recognition plaque. Accepted papers will be presented in poster format. OSAP may invite a limited number of researchers to present their findings orally.

Abstracts may be submitted in any of the following categories: Infection Prevention and Control, Occupational Safety and Health, Antibiotic Resistance, Environmental Science, or Other (analysis of policy development and implementation, new analysis of existing research, meta-analysis or synthesis from existing studies or behavioral studies of utilization or adoption of practices by dental personnel.)

To be considered for presentation, abstracts must meet IADR criteria for scientific merit and the research presented must not have been previously published as a note or full-length article in a journal. Abstracts published or presented at another scientific meeting during the previous year may be submitted for poster presentation, but will not be eligible to compete for the Cottone award. At least one of the authors of the abstract must be a current member of OSAP;

Abstracts will be evaluated utilizing a 100-point scale, with a minimally acceptable level of 65 points. The criteria considered by the expert reviewers include scientific rigor, originality, clinical relevance, and contribution to the scientific literature.

Non-student applicants with accepted abstracts will be granted a $100 discount on conference registration. If the applicants have previously registered at the early-bird rate, this discount will be refunded. Full-time students with accepted abstracts will receive a special student-abstract rate of $75.

All submissions must be received at the OSAP Central Office no later than 11:59 pm EST on Friday, March 18, 2016. Applicants will be notified by email of acceptance by Friday, April 1, 2016. Full details, including submission format, presentation format, and acceptance procedure, are available on the OSAP website at: www.osap.org/?page=2016Abstracts.

The OSAP Annual Conference is the premier infection control education and networking event in the dental industry. Nationally and internationally known experts discuss current and emerging issues relating to infection prevention and safety in oral healthcare settings, and provide attendees with essential resources, valuable tools, and new approaches for better protecting patients and staff. Visit http://www.osap.org/?page=2016AnnualConference for more details.

Celebrating over 30 years of service to the worldwide dental community, OSAP is a growing community of clinicians, educators, students, policy-makers, and industry representatives who advocate for safe and infection-free delivery of oral healthcare. OSAP focuses on strategies to improve compliance with safe practices and on building a strong network of recognized infection control experts. OSAP offers an extensive online collection of resources, publications, FAQs, checklists and toolkits to help dental professionals ensure that every visit is The Safest Dental Visit™ for patients and the dental team.