Got corrections on your ABPTS case report? Step #1 is DON’T PANIC.
Corrections are common and totally fixable. Corrections don’t mean you failed your case report – they are your chance to strengthen your case report and better show off your clinical reasoning.
In this episode, I walk you through exactly how to read your feedback, make the right changes, and resubmit with confidence.
Let’s resubmit that case report.
P.S. if you need help on your case report, you’re going to looooooove Case Report Writing Workshop!
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Transcript
Elise Cantu (00:19)
Hey Onco PT and welcome back to this episode of the Onco PT podcast. In this episode, we are talking about the very actionable steps that you need to take if you got the feedback from ABPTS that your case report needs corrections. Now, if you got case report corrections that you have to make, it is okay. So let’s go ahead and just take a little breath together. In and out. corrections are not the death.
of your case report.
but you do need to take care of them ASAP. Corrections are very common. Corrections are fixable, but they are also urgent. You need to take care of them. So this episode, like I said, very actionable, very timely. I’m gonna take you through step-by-step what you need to do, as well as how to make sure that you actually address the corrections ABPTS is telling you to. So when you submit that case report back,
you’re not going to get a rejection on your case report. So let’s kind of set the scene here. You have at this point, if you’re listening to this and you’re going to implement this episode, you have already submitted your case report. Okay. As part of that specialty certification application, you are now getting it back from ABPTS and they say you need to fix some things now back in 2020, which is when I submitted my initial application, I got corrections too.
And I was a little disappointed, to be perfectly honest. ⁓ I was a little disappointed. I was a lot frightened to be completely transparent.
because what if my case report wasn’t accepted? What if I made these corrections and it still wasn’t good enough? Okay, whoa, that was a lot. Corrections are an opportunity to make your case report stronger. Now, when you submit your application for AAB PTS, there’s basically three outcomes that can happen. Number one, which is what we all desire, your application and case report are accepted, no corrections needed. Check, good to go. The second option is,
your case report and application were reviewed and it’s almost like a wait list. It’s not truly a wait list, but your case report needs corrections. And once those case report corrections are made and you resubmit that application, then they’ll hopefully say, okay, you’re good to go. Nice work. Now the third and the most dreaded news that you can get back from ABPTS when you initially submit your application is they reviewed your application.
They reviewed your case report and they outright rejected it. This is possible. I’m sure it has happened. We don’t want to be in that camp, okay?
Now, if you are in either Camp 1 or Camp 2, these are good places to be in. You cannot come back from Camp 3 until next year when you have to resubmit, okay? So if you’re in Camp 2, your case report needs corrections, this is an okay place to be because that means that AB PTS still saw the value in your case report and they just need some adjustments, okay? AB PTS, this is my opinion,
would not give you the opportunity to edit your case report if they didn’t think your work was worth refining. They have the option to outright reject it. They didn’t because they see that your case report is worthwhile. They wanna read it again with some adjustments. This is not a denial. This is not an outright rejection. It’s just a final step before you actually are accepted. And this is a chance, a ⁓ true chance to improve your case report and to make it bulletproof.
So let’s kind of get into the timeline and what’s at stake here. Most applicants, when they get their case report back from ABPTS saying, hey, you need some corrections, you’ve got about two weeks. Now, maybe this is different. I would encourage you to obviously check the email, the correspondence you got from ABPTS, check the candidate guide. But I think I had two weeks to fix my case report from the date that they notify you to when you have to make and resubmit those corrections.
If you don’t meet that deadline, or if you submit your case report with those corrections and it still doesn’t meet the requirements, you are out for the 2026 exam or whatever that exam is that we’re working towards here. If you’re listening to this later, you have to wait to then submit next year. You have to do that work and you have to submit again for next year’s application cycle.
It really, really sucks. And so this is why it’s so important that you get it right on the first try. There are no redos. There are no extensions as far as we can tell from the AB PTS resources. It sounds intense, but with the appropriate support and structure, it is a hundred percent doable. So here is my step-by-step guide on making your case report corrections. Number one, you need to read the feedback.
that the AB PTS reviewers have provided all the way through. Don’t try to fix stuff yet. Don’t react, just read and absorb the feedback that you are getting. You might be surprised. Many of the corrections that I have encountered that I had to do myself and that I know others have had to do are actually pretty small. One of my case report writing workshop students, Allie,
literally had to fix a formatting error in her citations. And it wasn’t even like she cited them wrong. Her word processor put an extra question mark in all of her citations. It was very strange. Like, clearly that was a formatting issue. That was it. Like, so easy to fix. And once she fixed it and submitted it, it was accepted right away. Sometimes it literally is just super tiny, small, dumb things that happen.
as part of working with technology and being a human. Okay, but again, don’t start to try fixing things yet, just absorb and read the feedback that you have. Number two, reread the feedback and make a corrections checklist. This is going to help you ensure that you don’t miss anything as you’re going through working on your case report. And I need you to pull out…
every single change that ABPTS is saying. In my case report, I actually went back to my initial application and submission and I looked at the feedback that was given. And sometimes, so in my introduction section, which I’ll actually, I’ll share here previously in just a couple minutes here, there were two things that needed to be changed within the introduction. If I just read that first line of comment that the ABPTS reviewer
provided, I would have missed that second correction I need to make. So make sure that you have pulled out every single correction and make it like its own item on the checklist that you’re creating here. But make sure that you don’t miss any of those corrections. If your ADPTS reviewer has included something on there, it’s worth fixing, right? Because they’re the ones that are ultimately going to reread your case report and give it the thumbs up or the thumbs down.
I would encourage you as you’re making this correction checklist, break it into a couple different sections. So content-based, if it’s actually the meat and potatoes of your case report, missing justifications, you need more citations, you need to spend more time, you know, fluffing out this idea, whatever that is. So that would be content. Next is formatting. Like I said, ⁓ the extra question mark in the citations.
really dumb, but again, that’s very like a tech issue. ⁓ So, you know, what are those tech issues? Methodological clarifications, if there’s issues in like how you went through your process of actually, you know, thinking and justifying, not even justifying, but laying out your clinical decision making process and how you got from point A to point Z, that might be something you need to work on.
And then grammar or editing requests. Maybe there’s an area of your case report that’s kind of confusing, just how it’s worded. ⁓ That can happen, right? But break it up into these different categories so again, you know kind of what you’re up against. Step three, start with the easy. Give yourself some easy wins, some quick things. ⁓ Usually this is like formatting or references issues, and this is gonna help you build momentum.
because sometimes your content, your fixes, especially if it’s more on the content side of things, those may take more time and you’ll need to devote more energy and focus to that. Start small and get excited, get working on this so that you can work your way up to those big changes. When it comes to these big changes you need to make, like I said, especially for like the content side of your case report, block off focused work time.
just like we recommend in case report writing workshop, have very defined times in which you are writing. Distraction free. Leave your phone in the other room if you need to even. When I’m writing, I like to set myself a timer and then I just like, that’s all I do for that time. And so I know until that timer goes off, my brain is super focused in on what I need to be doing. So that’s another strategy that we would recommend.
We also encourage you don’t try to fix everything in one sitting, unless it’s very limited stuff. ⁓ Like I mentioned, Ali’s question marks, that’s pretty easy to fix. If it’s big stuff, break it up, not only from a just workload situation, but also making sure that you are coming into each of these editing, reviewing sessions with your brain.
clear and focused. We don’t want you to miss any crucial steps because you were tired, you were overworked, you were burnt out, etc. I would also encourage you to work one section at a time. Try to keep your brain really focused on one area before moving on to the next. That way you can also make sure that each of those sections is complete and is truly finished.
in itself before you move on to your next one. Now this next part here is how to actually make fixes. I know we’ve talked about the process of how we recommend approaching your fixes, but how do you actually make the change and then acknowledge within your application, within your case report, hey, I did the thing. So if you have submitted to a journal or other peer-reviewed research of sorts,
You may already know this. If you don’t, it’s okay, my friend. So I know this because for a brief time in 2020, I worked as a medical editor. ⁓ It was a good experience, but I also know that line of work is not for me, but it was a really valuable learning experience out of all of this. But what I learned during this time is that when an author submits a manuscript for
publication. There’s a back and forth process, right? There’s reviewers, just like we’re talking about here, who are trying to make sure that, you know, the research is sound, that the methodology is cleanly laid out, it’s easy to follow, easy to replicate, and that everything makes sense, right? And so what happens is in these authors, excuse me, the authors will submit, the journal reviewers will come back and say, hey, we think you need to fix this area.
And it’s very standard practice for when authors respond to these comments of they will acknowledge, you have to acknowledge every single reviewer comment and show that you changed it. And not just like, okay, I did the thing, but again, calling the reviewers attention to, changed this thing here. We recommend the same idea when you’re making your case report corrections for your AB PTS application.
So again, when ABPTS provides you feedback on your case report, you need to assume they want every single one of their comments addressed, clearly in your resubmission. They don’t just make comments for the fun of it. They want these fixed, which is why they tell you to do so. So a good kind of general rule or process to follow here is these three things. Number one, acknowledge the correction. Number two,
briefly describe the change you made and make it obvious in your document. What I did in my case report, because a couple of the things that I got dinged on, I use ampersands in my writing all the time. I love ampersands. I think they’re just so convenient. You can’t use ampersands in academic writing. So I had to go and like control G and find all of them and replace them with the actual word and. So what I did,
is I bolded every single instance of where I changed that in my case report. And I made sure that that bolding was reflected actually in the text boxes of my case report. So it was very, very clear. I thanked them for the insightful comment. I made the change and then I called it clearly out within my case report. So here is the example, an example.
of how to do this, and this is literally what I wrote in my case report corrections. “Thank you for the insightful comment. I have inserted the VRD abbreviation after the chemotherapy name and changed the ampersand to and as recommended. Both changes are now in bold within the methods section.”
or whatever section that is for you. This is polite, this is professional, and most importantly, it tells the reviewer, I read the feedback, I understood your request, I have made the change. Even if ABPTS doesn’t request this formality, it’s still a good practice because it shows that you are responding and acknowledging every single correction, and that way, there is no confusion when you submit your case report again.
It shows that you’re thorough. It shows that you care. It shows that you put work into this case report and it’s going to help the reviewer say yes a lot faster. Now, as we wrap up this big process of how do you respond and how do you actually work with these corrections? Last two things here, get a second pair of eyes. Even if you already had someone reviewing your case report previously, it’s still good practice. And especially if you didn’t,
have someone review your case report before you submitted it the first time, which gives me a little bit of heart palpitations. You absolutely need to do that. It’s always nice to know that there is another set of eyes looking out for stuff to make your case report as strong as possible. Last thing here, resubmit with intention. Make sure that you are including all of those requested changes.
Double check to make sure that you have responded and addressed all of those recommended changes and proofread your dang case report one more time before you submit. It’s just good practice. You’ll never know what you catch. This is not about making your case report perfect. There is no such thing, truly. It’s about clarity. It’s about demonstrating your clinical reasoning.
and making sure that your case report aligns with the expectations and standards of ABPTS. I wish when I did my case report corrections way back when that I, like there was a process to this. A lot of this was me like piecemealing things together. ⁓ I think this should work. I hope that this works over here. I don’t actually know. I tried to do my case report and the corrections all on my own and
It was very stressful and I almost didn’t make it in on time for that initial deadline of my application. And that’s exactly one of the reasons why I created Case Report Writing Workshop, because your case report should not be a solo mission that you are trying to rag tag together on this journey to becoming a specialist. Corrections on your case report are not punishment. They are adjustments to making your case report as strong as possible.
waiting to ask for help on this process is going to lead you to unnecessary stress. And this feedback from the ABPTS reviewers is a form of belief in your potential. Truly. If ABPTS thought your case report was trash, they would outright reject it in the first place. If they are providing you corrections, that means that they see the potential in your case report and they want to read that case report in its fullest potential.
So let’s make sure to deliver that. Okay. Now, if your ABPTS feedback feels like more than just a few tweaks, like I’ve been talking about in this episode, right? Some grammar here, redefining abbreviations, taking out ampersands or other silly things like that. That’s not what we’re talking about. Okay. If you got substantial feedback on your case report, that feels like this is, this is a lot. This is more than I was prepared for. ⁓
If your case report is needing major rewriting, you are exactly who the case report writing workshop was built for. Inside case report writing workshop, I guide you step by step through how to build your case report with clarity, with confidence, and aligning to the standards of AB PTS, whether it is your clinical reasoning that needs to be stronger, sections that need to be completely rewritten,
or you’re starting to doubt the strength of your case at all, this is the support that you need. This isn’t a quick fix. This is a strategic proven process that I have refined over years of working with students who have had their case reports accepted by ABPTS to make your case report what it needs to be. Not just good enough, but strong, clear, and submission
This is your one chance to get those corrections right. And Case Report Writing Workshop can help you get there. Save your seat today at TheOncoPT.com/casereport and I will see you inside of Case Report Writing Workshop. You have come this far. A correction or corrections do not erase the work that you’ve already done.
It’s time to take a deep breath, make your plan, and then resubmit your case report with confidence. You are not alone in this process, and I am cheering you on every step of the way. And until next time, this is Elise with the Onco PT. And remember, you are exactly the physical therapist that your patients with cancer need. So let’s get to work.