Resident Poster Competition

Check back soon for more information on the 2026 Resident Poster Competition application and timeline. The presentation of posters will take place at the Family Medicine POP! event in San Diego on August 21-23, 2026. Please see below for information on the 2025 competition.

The CAFP Foundation is pleased to support the 12th Annual Resident Poster Contest at our biggest education event, Family Medicine POP! on September 5-7, 2025 in San Diego, CA. The poster competition promotes scholarly activity by family medicine residents and provides an opportunity for residents to share their research with a network of family doctors.

Application Process:
The online application must be submitted by Tuesday, March 25. An abstract must accompany the application, and incomplete applications will not be considered. 

Eligibility:

• Resident physician at a California Family Medicine Residency Program
• CAFP/AAFP Member

Categories:

1. Original Research: summarize the results of a well-defined research project. Include hypotheses, methods, results, and discussion/conclusion. All work should be original.
2. Case Report: present a clinical case scenario. Include an introduction, case description, and discussion of patient management.

Additional Information:

• The topic must be of value to family medicine and within the scope of family medicine.
• All projects must be completed at the time of application. 
• Every program is encouraged to participate - please limit submissions to THREE PER PROGRAM.  
• The number of posters for display and stage presentation will be determined by the number of entries received during the call for applications. Stage presenters will be asked to give a 2-minute/2-slide oral presentation. The top poster for each category will be awarded a monetary prize.  
• Each abstract will undergo a double-blind review process by family physicians on the Foundation Board of Trustees and the San Diego AFP Board of Directors.  
• Must be able to attend the FM POP event in-person September 5-7, 2025

Evaluation Criteria:

• Clarity in the research and/or clinical question, study design and discussion/conclusion
• Originality of project or question
• Relevance to family medicine
• Impact on future work
• Potential to improve patient care or resident skills, knowledge and performance

Timeline:

• February 20 | Application Opens
• March 20 | Application Closes
• April 1 | Abstracts and scoring sheets sent to reviewers for blind review #1
• April 15 | Reviewers’ score sheets due back to CAFP
• April 21 | Acceptance decisions go to lead authors (and their program directors)
• May 2 | Final poster submission deadline (PDF version)
• May 9 | Final posters and scoring sheets sent to reviewers for blind review #2
• May 19 | Reviewers’ score sheets due back to CAFP
• May 26 | CAFP notifies residents of scoring results
• August 15 | Posters go to print
• September 5 | Stage presentations and displays of the top scoring posters