report of a case study

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Guidelines To Writing A Clinical Case Report

What is a clinical case report.

A case report is a detailed report of the symptoms, signs, diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up of an individual patient. Case reports usually describe an unusual or novel occurrence and as such, remain one of the cornerstones of medical progress and provide many new ideas in medicine. Some reports contain an extensive review of the relevant literature on the topic. The case report is a rapid short communication between busy clinicians who may not have time or resources to conduct large scale research.

WHAT ARE THE REASONS FOR PUBLISHING A CASE REPORT?

The most common reasons for publishing a case are the following: 1) an unexpected association between diseases or symptoms; 2) an unexpected event in the course observing or treating a patient; 3) findings that shed new light on the possible pathogenesis of a disease or an adverse effect; 4) unique or rare features of a disease; 5) unique therapeutic approaches; variation of anatomical structures.

Most journals publish case reports that deal with one or more of the following:

Unusual observations
Adverse response to therapies
Unusual combination of conditions leading to confusion
Illustration of a new theory
Question regarding a current theory
Personal impact.

STRUCTURE OF A CASE REPORT[ 1 , 2 ]

Different journals have slightly different formats for case reports. It is always a good idea to read some of the target jiurnals case reports to get a general idea of the sequence and format.

In general, all case reports include the following components: an abstract, an introduction, a case, and a discussion. Some journals might require literature review.

The abstract should summarize the case, the problem it addresses, and the message it conveys. Abstracts of case studies are usually very short, preferably not more than 150 words.

Introduction

The introduction gives a brief overview of the problem that the case addresses, citing relevant literature where necessary. The introduction generally ends with a single sentence describing the patient and the basic condition that he or she is suffering from.

This section provides the details of the case in the following order:

Patient description
Case history
Physical examination results
Results of pathological tests and other investigations
Treatment plan
Expected outcome of the treatment plan
Actual outcome.

The author should ensure that all the relevant details are included and unnecessary ones excluded.

This is the most important part of the case report; the part that will convince the journal that the case is publication worthy. This section should start by expanding on what has been said in the introduction, focusing on why the case is noteworthy and the problem that it addresses.

This is followed by a summary of the existing literature on the topic. (If the journal specifies a separate section on literature review, it should be added before the Discussion). This part describes the existing theories and research findings on the key issue in the patient's condition. The review should narrow down to the source of confusion or the main challenge in the case.

Finally, the case report should be connected to the existing literature, mentioning the message that the case conveys. The author should explain whether this corroborates with or detracts from current beliefs about the problem and how this evidence can add value to future clinical practice.

A case report ends with a conclusion or with summary points, depending on the journal's specified format. This section should briefly give readers the key points covered in the case report. Here, the author can give suggestions and recommendations to clinicians, teachers, or researchers. Some journals do not want a separate section for the conclusion: it can then be the concluding paragraph of the Discussion section.

Notes on patient consent

Informed consent in an ethical requirement for most studies involving humans, so before you start writing your case report, take a written consent from the patient as all journals require that you provide it at the time of manuscript submission. In case the patient is a minor, parental consent is required. For adults who are unable to consent to investigation or treatment, consent of closest family members is required.

Patient anonymity is also an important requirement. Remember not to disclose any information that might reveal the identity of the patient. You need to be particularly careful with pictures, and ensure that pictures of the affected area do not reveal the identity of the patient.

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What Is a Case Study? | Definition, Examples & Methods

What Is a Case Study? | Definition, Examples & Methods

Published on May 8, 2019 by Shona McCombes . Revised on November 20, 2023.

A case study is a detailed study of a specific subject, such as a person, group, place, event, organization, or phenomenon. Case studies are commonly used in social, educational, clinical, and business research.

A case study research design usually involves qualitative methods , but quantitative methods are sometimes also used. Case studies are good for describing , comparing, evaluating and understanding different aspects of a research problem .

When to do a case study, step 1: select a case, step 2: build a theoretical framework, step 3: collect your data, step 4: describe and analyze the case, other interesting articles.

A case study is an appropriate research design when you want to gain concrete, contextual, in-depth knowledge about a specific real-world subject. It allows you to explore the key characteristics, meanings, and implications of the case.

Case studies are often a good choice in a thesis or dissertation . They keep your project focused and manageable when you don’t have the time or resources to do large-scale research.

You might use just one complex case study where you explore a single subject in depth, or conduct multiple case studies to compare and illuminate different aspects of your research problem.

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Once you have developed your problem statement and research questions , you should be ready to choose the specific case that you want to focus on. A good case study should have the potential to:

Provide new or unexpected insights into the subject
Challenge or complicate existing assumptions and theories
Propose practical courses of action to resolve a problem
Open up new directions for future research

TipIf your research is more practical in nature and aims to simultaneously investigate an issue as you solve it, consider conducting action research instead.

Unlike quantitative or experimental research , a strong case study does not require a random or representative sample. In fact, case studies often deliberately focus on unusual, neglected, or outlying cases which may shed new light on the research problem.

Example of an outlying case studyIn the 1960s the town of Roseto, Pennsylvania was discovered to have extremely low rates of heart disease compared to the US average. It became an important case study for understanding previously neglected causes of heart disease.

However, you can also choose a more common or representative case to exemplify a particular category, experience or phenomenon.

Example of a representative case studyIn the 1920s, two sociologists used Muncie, Indiana as a case study of a typical American city that supposedly exemplified the changing culture of the US at the time.

While case studies focus more on concrete details than general theories, they should usually have some connection with theory in the field. This way the case study is not just an isolated description, but is integrated into existing knowledge about the topic. It might aim to:

Exemplify a theory by showing how it explains the case under investigation
Expand on a theory by uncovering new concepts and ideas that need to be incorporated
Challenge a theory by exploring an outlier case that doesn’t fit with established assumptions

To ensure that your analysis of the case has a solid academic grounding, you should conduct a literature review of sources related to the topic and develop a theoretical framework . This means identifying key concepts and theories to guide your analysis and interpretation.

There are many different research methods you can use to collect data on your subject. Case studies tend to focus on qualitative data using methods such as interviews , observations , and analysis of primary and secondary sources (e.g., newspaper articles, photographs, official records). Sometimes a case study will also collect quantitative data.

Example of a mixed methods case studyFor a case study of a wind farm development in a rural area, you could collect quantitative data on employment rates and business revenue, collect qualitative data on local people’s perceptions and experiences, and analyze local and national media coverage of the development.

The aim is to gain as thorough an understanding as possible of the case and its context.

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In writing up the case study, you need to bring together all the relevant aspects to give as complete a picture as possible of the subject.

How you report your findings depends on the type of research you are doing. Some case studies are structured like a standard scientific paper or thesis , with separate sections or chapters for the methods , results and discussion .

Others are written in a more narrative style, aiming to explore the case from various angles and analyze its meanings and implications (for example, by using textual analysis or discourse analysis ).

In all cases, though, make sure to give contextual details about the case, connect it back to the literature and theory, and discuss how it fits into wider patterns or debates.

If you want to know more about statistics , methodology , or research bias , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.

Normal distribution
Degrees of freedom
Null hypothesis
Discourse analysis
Control groups
Mixed methods research
Non-probability sampling
Quantitative research
Ecological validity

Research bias

Rosenthal effect
Implicit bias
Cognitive bias
Selection bias
Negativity bias
Status quo bias

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McCombes, S. (2023, November 20). What Is a Case Study? | Definition, Examples & Methods. Scribbr. Retrieved April 3, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/methodology/case-study/

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Case Report: A Beginner’s Guide with Examples

A case report is a descriptive study that documents an unusual clinical phenomenon in a single patient. It describes in details the patient’s history, signs, symptoms, test results, diagnosis, prognosis and treatment. It also contains a short literature review, discusses the importance of the case and how it improves the existing knowledge on the subject.

A similar design involving a group of patients (with the similar problem) is referred to as case series.

Advantages of case reports

Case reports offer, in general a fast, easy and cheap way to report an unusual observation or a rare event in a clinical setting, as these have very small probability of being detected in an experimental study because of limitations on the number of patients that can be included.

These events deserve to be reported since they might provide insights on some exceptions to general rules and theories in the field.

Case reports are great to get first impressions that can generate new hypotheses (e.g. detecting a potential side effect of a drug) or challenge existing ones (e.g. shedding the light on the possibility of a different biological mechanism of a disease).

In many of these cases, additional investigation is needed such as designing large observational studies or randomized experiments or even going back and mining data from previous research looking for evidence for theses hypotheses.

Limitations of case reports

Observing a relationship between an exposure and a disease in a case report does not mean that it is causal in nature.

This is because of:

The absence of a control group that provides a benchmark or a point of reference against which we compare our results. A control group is important to eliminate the role of external factors which can interfere with the relationship between exposure and disease
Unmeasured Confounding caused by variables that influence both the exposure and the disease

A case report can have a powerful emotional effect (see examples of case reports below). This can lead to overrate the importance of the evidence provided by such case. In his book Against Empathy: The Case for Rational Compassion , Paul Bloom explains how a powerful story affects our emotions, can distort our judgement and even lead us to make bad moral choices.

When a case report describes a rare event it is important to remember that what we’re reading about is exceptional and most importantly resist generalizations especially because a case report is, by definition, a study where the sample is only 1 patient.

Selection bias is another issue as the cases in case reports are not chosen at random, therefore some members of the population may have a higher probability of being included in the study than others.

So, results from a case report cannot be representative of the entire population.

Because of these limitations, case reports have the lowest level of evidence compared to other study designs as represented in the evidence pyramid below:

Pyramid representing the levels of evidence for each study design

Real-world examples of case reports

Example 1: normal plasma cholesterol in an 88-year-old man who eats 25 eggs a day.

This is the case of an old man with Alzheimer’s disease who has been eating 20-30 eggs every day for almost 15 years. [ Source ]

The man had an LDL-cholesterol level of only 142 mg/dL (3.68 mmol/L) and no significant clinical atherosclerosis (deposition of cholesterol in arterial walls)!

His body adapted by reducing the intestinal absorption of cholesterol, lowering the rate of its synthesis and increasing the rate of its conversion into bile acid.

This is indeed an unusual case of biological adaptation to a major change in dietary intake.

Example 2: Recovery from the passage of an iron bar through the head

This is an interesting case of a construction foreman named Phineas Gage. [ Source ]

In 1848, due to an explosion at work, an iron bar passed through his head destroying a large portion of his brain’s frontal lobe. He survived the event and the injury only affected 1 thing: His personality!

After the accident, Gage became profane, rough and disrespectful to the extent that he was no longer tolerable to people around him. So he lost his job and his family.

His case inspired further research that focused on the relationship between specific parts of the brain and personality.

Sayre JW, Toklu HZ, Ye F, Mazza J, Yale S. Case Reports, Case Series – From Clinical Practice to Evidence-Based Medicine in Graduate Medical Education . Cureus . 2017;9(8):e1546. Published 2017 Aug 7. doi:10.7759/cureus.1546.
Nissen T, Wynn R. The clinical case report: a review of its merits and limitations . BMC Res Notes . 2014;7:264. Published 2014 Apr 23. doi:10.1186/1756-0500-7-264.

How to write a case study — examples, templates, and tools

It’s a marketer’s job to communicate the effectiveness of a product or service to potential and current customers to convince them to buy and keep business moving. One of the best methods for doing this is to share success stories that are relatable to prospects and customers based on their pain points, experiences, and overall needs.

That’s where case studies come in. Case studies are an essential part of a content marketing plan. These in-depth stories of customer experiences are some of the most effective at demonstrating the value of a product or service. Yet many marketers don’t use them, whether because of their regimented formats or the process of customer involvement and approval.

A case study is a powerful tool for showcasing your hard work and the success your customer achieved. But writing a great case study can be difficult if you’ve never done it before or if it’s been a while. This guide will show you how to write an effective case study and provide real-world examples and templates that will keep readers engaged and support your business.

In this article, you’ll learn:

What is a case study?

How to write a case study, case study templates, case study examples, case study tools.

A case study is the detailed story of a customer’s experience with a product or service that demonstrates their success and often includes measurable outcomes. Case studies are used in a range of fields and for various reasons, from business to academic research. They’re especially impactful in marketing as brands work to convince and convert consumers with relatable, real-world stories of actual customer experiences.

The best case studies tell the story of a customer’s success, including the steps they took, the results they achieved, and the support they received from a brand along the way. To write a great case study, you need to:

Celebrate the customer and make them — not a product or service — the star of the story.
Craft the story with specific audiences or target segments in mind so that the story of one customer will be viewed as relatable and actionable for another customer.
Write copy that is easy to read and engaging so that readers will gain the insights and messages intended.
Follow a standardized format that includes all of the essentials a potential customer would find interesting and useful.
Support all of the claims for success made in the story with data in the forms of hard numbers and customer statements.

Case studies are a type of review but more in depth, aiming to show — rather than just tell — the positive experiences that customers have with a brand. Notably, 89% of consumers read reviews before deciding to buy, and 79% view case study content as part of their purchasing process. When it comes to B2B sales, 52% of buyers rank case studies as an important part of their evaluation process.

Telling a brand story through the experience of a tried-and-true customer matters. The story is relatable to potential new customers as they imagine themselves in the shoes of the company or individual featured in the case study. Showcasing previous customers can help new ones see themselves engaging with your brand in the ways that are most meaningful to them.

Besides sharing the perspective of another customer, case studies stand out from other content marketing forms because they are based on evidence. Whether pulling from client testimonials or data-driven results, case studies tend to have more impact on new business because the story contains information that is both objective (data) and subjective (customer experience) — and the brand doesn’t sound too self-promotional.

89% of consumers read reviews before buying, 79% view case studies, and 52% of B2B buyers prioritize case studies in the evaluation process.

Case studies are unique in that there’s a fairly standardized format for telling a customer’s story. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for creativity. It’s all about making sure that teams are clear on the goals for the case study — along with strategies for supporting content and channels — and understanding how the story fits within the framework of the company’s overall marketing goals.

Here are the basic steps to writing a good case study.

1. Identify your goal

Start by defining exactly who your case study will be designed to help. Case studies are about specific instances where a company works with a customer to achieve a goal. Identify which customers are likely to have these goals, as well as other needs the story should cover to appeal to them.

The answer is often found in one of the buyer personas that have been constructed as part of your larger marketing strategy. This can include anything from new leads generated by the marketing team to long-term customers that are being pressed for cross-sell opportunities. In all of these cases, demonstrating value through a relatable customer success story can be part of the solution to conversion.

2. Choose your client or subject

Who you highlight matters. Case studies tie brands together that might otherwise not cross paths. A writer will want to ensure that the highlighted customer aligns with their own company’s brand identity and offerings. Look for a customer with positive name recognition who has had great success with a product or service and is willing to be an advocate.

The client should also match up with the identified target audience. Whichever company or individual is selected should be a reflection of other potential customers who can see themselves in similar circumstances, having the same problems and possible solutions.

Some of the most compelling case studies feature customers who:

Switch from one product or service to another while naming competitors that missed the mark.
Experience measurable results that are relatable to others in a specific industry.
Represent well-known brands and recognizable names that are likely to compel action.
Advocate for a product or service as a champion and are well-versed in its advantages.

Whoever or whatever customer is selected, marketers must ensure they have the permission of the company involved before getting started. Some brands have strict review and approval procedures for any official marketing or promotional materials that include their name. Acquiring those approvals in advance will prevent any miscommunication or wasted effort if there is an issue with their legal or compliance teams.

3. Conduct research and compile data

Substantiating the claims made in a case study — either by the marketing team or customers themselves — adds validity to the story. To do this, include data and feedback from the client that defines what success looks like. This can be anything from demonstrating return on investment (ROI) to a specific metric the customer was striving to improve. Case studies should prove how an outcome was achieved and show tangible results that indicate to the customer that your solution is the right one.

This step could also include customer interviews. Make sure that the people being interviewed are key stakeholders in the purchase decision or deployment and use of the product or service that is being highlighted. Content writers should work off a set list of questions prepared in advance. It can be helpful to share these with the interviewees beforehand so they have time to consider and craft their responses. One of the best interview tactics to keep in mind is to ask questions where yes and no are not natural answers. This way, your subject will provide more open-ended responses that produce more meaningful content.

4. Choose the right format

There are a number of different ways to format a case study. Depending on what you hope to achieve, one style will be better than another. However, there are some common elements to include, such as:

An engaging headline
A subject and customer introduction
The unique challenge or challenges the customer faced
The solution the customer used to solve the problem
The results achieved
Data and statistics to back up claims of success
A strong call to action (CTA) to engage with the vendor

It’s also important to note that while case studies are traditionally written as stories, they don’t have to be in a written format. Some companies choose to get more creative with their case studies and produce multimedia content, depending on their audience and objectives. Case study formats can include traditional print stories, interactive web or social content, data-heavy infographics, professionally shot videos, podcasts, and more.

5. Write your case study

We’ll go into more detail later about how exactly to write a case study, including templates and examples. Generally speaking, though, there are a few things to keep in mind when writing your case study.

Be clear and concise. Readers want to get to the point of the story quickly and easily, and they’ll be looking to see themselves reflected in the story right from the start.
Provide a big picture. Always make sure to explain who the client is, their goals, and how they achieved success in a short introduction to engage the reader.
Construct a clear narrative. Stick to the story from the perspective of the customer and what they needed to solve instead of just listing product features or benefits.
Leverage graphics. Incorporating infographics, charts, and sidebars can be a more engaging and eye-catching way to share key statistics and data in readable ways.
Offer the right amount of detail. Most case studies are one or two pages with clear sections that a reader can skim to find the information most important to them.
Include data to support claims. Show real results — both facts and figures and customer quotes — to demonstrate credibility and prove the solution works.

6. Promote your story

Marketers have a number of options for distribution of a freshly minted case study. Many brands choose to publish case studies on their website and post them on social media. This can help support SEO and organic content strategies while also boosting company credibility and trust as visitors see that other businesses have used the product or service.

Marketers are always looking for quality content they can use for lead generation. Consider offering a case study as gated content behind a form on a landing page or as an offer in an email message. One great way to do this is to summarize the content and tease the full story available for download after the user takes an action.

Sales teams can also leverage case studies, so be sure they are aware that the assets exist once they’re published. Especially when it comes to larger B2B sales, companies often ask for examples of similar customer challenges that have been solved.

Now that you’ve learned a bit about case studies and what they should include, you may be wondering how to start creating great customer story content. Here are a couple of templates you can use to structure your case study.

Template 1 — Challenge-solution-result format

Start with an engaging title. This should be fewer than 70 characters long for SEO best practices. One of the best ways to approach the title is to include the customer’s name and a hint at the challenge they overcame in the end.
Create an introduction. Lead with an explanation as to who the customer is, the need they had, and the opportunity they found with a specific product or solution. Writers can also suggest the success the customer experienced with the solution they chose.
Present the challenge. This should be several paragraphs long and explain the problem the customer faced and the issues they were trying to solve. Details should tie into the company’s products and services naturally. This section needs to be the most relatable to the reader so they can picture themselves in a similar situation.
Share the solution. Explain which product or service offered was the ideal fit for the customer and why. Feel free to delve into their experience setting up, purchasing, and onboarding the solution.
Explain the results. Demonstrate the impact of the solution they chose by backing up their positive experience with data. Fill in with customer quotes and tangible, measurable results that show the effect of their choice.
Ask for action. Include a CTA at the end of the case study that invites readers to reach out for more information, try a demo, or learn more — to nurture them further in the marketing pipeline. What you ask of the reader should tie directly into the goals that were established for the case study in the first place.

Template 2 — Data-driven format

Start with an engaging title. Be sure to include a statistic or data point in the first 70 characters. Again, it’s best to include the customer’s name as part of the title.
Create an overview. Share the customer’s background and a short version of the challenge they faced. Present the reason a particular product or service was chosen, and feel free to include quotes from the customer about their selection process.
Present data point 1. Isolate the first metric that the customer used to define success and explain how the product or solution helped to achieve this goal. Provide data points and quotes to substantiate the claim that success was achieved.
Present data point 2. Isolate the second metric that the customer used to define success and explain what the product or solution did to achieve this goal. Provide data points and quotes to substantiate the claim that success was achieved.
Present data point 3. Isolate the final metric that the customer used to define success and explain what the product or solution did to achieve this goal. Provide data points and quotes to substantiate the claim that success was achieved.
Summarize the results. Reiterate the fact that the customer was able to achieve success thanks to a specific product or service. Include quotes and statements that reflect customer satisfaction and suggest they plan to continue using the solution.
Ask for action. Include a CTA at the end of the case study that asks readers to reach out for more information, try a demo, or learn more — to further nurture them in the marketing pipeline. Again, remember that this is where marketers can look to convert their content into action with the customer.

While templates are helpful, seeing a case study in action can also be a great way to learn. Here are some examples of how Adobe customers have experienced success.

Juniper Networks

One example is the Adobe and Juniper Networks case study , which puts the reader in the customer’s shoes. The beginning of the story quickly orients the reader so that they know exactly who the article is about and what they were trying to achieve. Solutions are outlined in a way that shows Adobe Experience Manager is the best choice and a natural fit for the customer. Along the way, quotes from the client are incorporated to help add validity to the statements. The results in the case study are conveyed with clear evidence of scale and volume using tangible data.

The story of Lenovo’s journey with Adobe is one that spans years of planning, implementation, and rollout. The Lenovo case study does a great job of consolidating all of this into a relatable journey that other enterprise organizations can see themselves taking, despite the project size. This case study also features descriptive headers and compelling visual elements that engage the reader and strengthen the content.

Tata Consulting

When it comes to using data to show customer results, this case study does an excellent job of conveying details and numbers in an easy-to-digest manner. Bullet points at the start break up the content while also helping the reader understand exactly what the case study will be about. Tata Consulting used Adobe to deliver elevated, engaging content experiences for a large telecommunications client of its own — an objective that’s relatable for a lot of companies.

Case studies are a vital tool for any marketing team as they enable you to demonstrate the value of your company’s products and services to others. They help marketers do their job and add credibility to a brand trying to promote its solutions by using the experiences and stories of real customers.

When you’re ready to get started with a case study:

Think about a few goals you’d like to accomplish with your content.
Make a list of successful clients that would be strong candidates for a case study.
Reach out to the client to get their approval and conduct an interview.
Gather the data to present an engaging and effective customer story.

Adobe can help

There are several Adobe products that can help you craft compelling case studies. Adobe Experience Platform helps you collect data and deliver great customer experiences across every channel. Once you’ve created your case studies, Experience Platform will help you deliver the right information to the right customer at the right time for maximum impact.

To learn more, watch the Adobe Experience Platform story .

Keep in mind that the best case studies are backed by data. That’s where Adobe Real-Time Customer Data Platform and Adobe Analytics come into play. With Real-Time CDP, you can gather the data you need to build a great case study and target specific customers to deliver the content to the right audience at the perfect moment.

Watch the Real-Time CDP overview video to learn more.

Finally, Adobe Analytics turns real-time data into real-time insights. It helps your business collect and synthesize data from multiple platforms to make more informed decisions and create the best case study possible.

Request a demo to learn more about Adobe Analytics.

https://business.adobe.com/blog/perspectives/b2b-ecommerce-10-case-studies-inspire-you

https://business.adobe.com/blog/basics/business-case

https://business.adobe.com/blog/basics/what-is-real-time-analytics

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Methodology
Case Study | Definition, Examples & Methods

Case Study | Definition, Examples & Methods

Published on 5 May 2022 by Shona McCombes . Revised on 30 January 2023.

A case study is a detailed study of a specific subject, such as a person, group, place, event, organisation, or phenomenon. Case studies are commonly used in social, educational, clinical, and business research.

A case study research design usually involves qualitative methods , but quantitative methods are sometimes also used. Case studies are good for describing , comparing, evaluating, and understanding different aspects of a research problem .

When to do a case study, step 1: select a case, step 2: build a theoretical framework, step 3: collect your data, step 4: describe and analyse the case.

Case studies are often a good choice in a thesis or dissertation . They keep your project focused and manageable when you don’t have the time or resources to do large-scale research.

You might use just one complex case study where you explore a single subject in depth, or conduct multiple case studies to compare and illuminate different aspects of your research problem.

Prevent plagiarism, run a free check.

Once you have developed your problem statement and research questions , you should be ready to choose the specific case that you want to focus on. A good case study should have the potential to:

Provide new or unexpected insights into the subject
Challenge or complicate existing assumptions and theories
Propose practical courses of action to resolve a problem
Open up new directions for future research

Unlike quantitative or experimental research, a strong case study does not require a random or representative sample. In fact, case studies often deliberately focus on unusual, neglected, or outlying cases which may shed new light on the research problem.

If you find yourself aiming to simultaneously investigate and solve an issue, consider conducting action research . As its name suggests, action research conducts research and takes action at the same time, and is highly iterative and flexible.

However, you can also choose a more common or representative case to exemplify a particular category, experience, or phenomenon.

Exemplify a theory by showing how it explains the case under investigation
Expand on a theory by uncovering new concepts and ideas that need to be incorporated
Challenge a theory by exploring an outlier case that doesn’t fit with established assumptions

There are many different research methods you can use to collect data on your subject. Case studies tend to focus on qualitative data using methods such as interviews, observations, and analysis of primary and secondary sources (e.g., newspaper articles, photographs, official records). Sometimes a case study will also collect quantitative data .

The aim is to gain as thorough an understanding as possible of the case and its context.

In writing up the case study, you need to bring together all the relevant aspects to give as complete a picture as possible of the subject.

How you report your findings depends on the type of research you are doing. Some case studies are structured like a standard scientific paper or thesis, with separate sections or chapters for the methods , results , and discussion .

Others are written in a more narrative style, aiming to explore the case from various angles and analyse its meanings and implications (for example, by using textual analysis or discourse analysis ).

In all cases, though, make sure to give contextual details about the case, connect it back to the literature and theory, and discuss how it fits into wider patterns or debates.

Cite this Scribbr article

If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the ‘Cite this Scribbr article’ button to automatically add the citation to our free Reference Generator.

McCombes, S. (2023, January 30). Case Study | Definition, Examples & Methods. Scribbr. Retrieved 2 April 2024, from https://www.scribbr.co.uk/research-methods/case-studies/

Is this article helpful?

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How to write a medical...

How to write a medical case report

Related content
Peer review
Seema Biswas , editor-in-chief, BMJ Case Reports, London, UK ,
Oliver Jones , student editor, BMJ Case Reports, London, UK

Two BMJ Case Reports journal editors take you through the process

This article contains...

- Choosing the right patient

- Choosing the right message

- Before you begin - patient consent

- How to write your case report

- How to get published

During medical school, students often come across patients with a unique presentation, an unfamiliar response to treatment, or even an obscure disease. Writing a case report is an excellent way of documenting these findings for the wider medical community—sharing new knowledge that will lead to better and safer patient care.

For many medical students and junior doctors, a case report may be their first attempt at medical writing. A published case report will look impressive on your curriculum vitae, particularly if it is on a topic of your chosen specialty. Publication will be an advantage when applying for foundation year posts and specialty training, and many job applications have points allocated exclusively for publications in peer reviewed journals, including case reports.

The writing of a case report rests on skills that medical students acquire in their medical training, which they use throughout their postgraduate careers: these include history taking, interpretation of clinical signs and symptoms, interpretation of laboratory and imaging results, researching disease aetiology, reviewing medical evidence, and writing in a manner that clearly and effectively communicates with the reader.

If you are considering writing a case report, try to find a senior doctor who can be a supervising coauthor and help you decide whether you have a message worth writing about, that you have chosen the correct journal to submit to (considering the format that the journal requires), that the process is transparent and ethical at all times, and that your patient is not compromised in your writing. Indeed, try to include your patient in the process from the outset, and always gain consent.

A case report is the first line of medical evidence, and over time has become an important medium for sharing new findings (box 1). High quality case reports successfully bring together the various domains of medicine such as physiology, pathology, and anatomy. Using the patient as the focus, case reports provide a clinical “coat peg” on which to hang this knowledge.

Box 1: Notable case reports through the ages

Many case reports have changed the way clinicians view health and disease. For example, in 1861 the French surgeon Pierre Paul Broca reported the case of a dysphasic patient nicknamed “Tan”—owing to his inability to say any other words. After Tan’s death, Broca did an autopsy and discovered a syphilitic lesion in the frontal lobe of the brain, leading to the hypothesis of a speech centre in the brain—later known as Broca’s area. 1 Other notable case reports have documented the discovery of the Bence-Jones protein, 2 the first descriptions of Parkinson’s disease, 3 and AIDS. 4

Choosing the right patient

We can learn from all patients, but choose a patient from whom there is something new to learn. Search the literature and decide whether the topic you want to discuss, whether clinical or non-clinical (a radiological or microbiological finding, for example), has already been well discussed.

Your patient should ideally be someone who is not simply a willing participant in this process but someone who wants their story to be told to educate students, doctors, and other patients. Many journals have an option for patients to contribute to the manuscript.

Choosing the right message

Rare diseases are not in themselves a reason to write up a case, but unusual presentations of a common disease are important to communicate to the medical community. Early or subtle signs and symptoms that are easily missed are important for us to learn from. Indeed, the learning value of your case is the single most important factor in determining whether it is likely to be published.

Have in mind the journal that you want to submit your manuscript to before you begin to write. Your case and the message should fit with the style of the journal, whether a specialist journal, a case reports journal, or a journal that publishes case presentations in different formats. This may include question and answer formats, quizzes, or even interactive online educational formats useful for exam revision—for example, Endgames ( The BMJ ), Epilogue ( Archives of Disease in Childhood ), or Images ( New England Journal of Medicine ). These adapted formats are important, as most of these journals no longer accept case reports written in their traditional format.

Also, be careful in your claims about new diseases and new treatments. Case reports cannot make claims about the efficacy of novel treatments on the basis of individual cases and limited follow-up time. The most important message is a new or novel learning point—that is, the educational message.

Before you begin

Once you have chosen your patient and discussed with them what you would like to write, show them the case report so that they may give informed consent to your manuscript submission and familiarise themselves with the website.

It is important that a patient understands how their case will appear online or in print and that they truly give informed consent. You should do this under the supervision of the senior doctor who is the supervising coauthor of your manuscript; ideally, the senior doctor would obtain consent.

Writing the case report

Case presentation.

Begin with the case presentation (box 2): describe your encounter with the patient, their symptoms, and their signs. You should already have an idea what your take home messages will be. If the journal presentation of the case report allows, you can write these take home messages as bullet points (box 3).

Box 2: Case presentation

Acute pancreatitis and severe hypertriglyceridaemia masking unsuspected underlying diabetic ketoacidosis.

After 48 hours of anorexia, nausea, and non-bloody vomiting at home, the patient presented to her local hospital, where the diagnosis of moderate acute pancreatitis was made, based on an abdominal computed tomogram and ultrasound and serum chemistry. Ongoing symptoms, including left upper quadrant, 7/10 stabbing pain with generalised abdominal cramps, led to her transfer to the closest tertiary hospital for further management.

On admission to the tertiary hospital, the patient was treated as having uncomplicated pancreatitis. Immediate management included intravenous rehydration therapy, antiemetics, and narcotics for pain control with further orders for nothing to be ingested until the patient was re-evaluated. Initial assessment of the patient showed a temperature of 37.3ºC, heart rate 110 beats/min, blood pressure 126/68 mm Hg, respiratory rate 14 breaths/min, and oxygen saturation 98% on room air. She had a normal body habitus and was not in distress; however, she had a moderate amount of abdominal discomfort. Her physical examination showed no xanthalasmas or skin eruptions, nor was a fruity odour detected. Her gastrointestinal examination showed diffuse tenderness, with a soft, non-distended abdomen. Also, no organomegally was noted. Other than tachycardia, her cardiorespiratory examination was unremarkable with the notable absence of tachypnoea.

The patient was previously healthy without any medical history or surgical history. Her medication list was limited to the oral contraceptive pill (ethinyl oestradiol, norgestimate). The patient described only occasional social alcohol consumption (none within the last week) and no binge drinking or recreational drug use in the past. There were no recent surgeries, gastrointestinal endoscopic procedures, or abdominal trauma. She denied fever, chills, rigors, or recent unintended weight loss. There was no history of polyuria or polydipsia.

She did not have any prodromal abdominal symptoms There had been no similar episodes previously. There was no family history of dyslipidaemias, pancreatitis, or gallstones. Her family history was relevant for rectal carcinoma in her paternal grandfather and type 2 diabetes in her maternal grandmother. Six hours after her arrival at the tertiary hospital, and 12 hours from her first presentation and assessment at the local rural hospital, the patient began to decompensate with rapid progression of hypotension, tachycardia, and tachypnoea. The acute decompensation to hypotension and shock was assumed to be due to progression of the pancreatitis with potential infection complicating the pancreatitis. The patient was aggressively rehydrated and started on broad spectrum antibiotics. However, the hypotension failed to respond to fluid resuscitation and there was increased patient distress. She was urgently referred to the intensive care unit for supportive measures and management.

Aboulhosn K, Arnason T. Acute pancreatitis and severe hypertriglyceridaemia masking unsuspected underlying diabetic ketoacidosis. BMJ Case Rep 2013;2013, doi: 10.1136/bcr-2013-200431 .

Box 3: Learning points

Postpartum hellp syndrome and subcapsular liver haematoma.

Subcapsular liver haematoma is a potentially life threatening complication of severe pre-eclampsia and haemolysis, the breakdown of red blood cells; elevated liver enzymes; low platelet count syndrome.

The complication is rare but should be considered with severe upper abdominal pain in obstetric patients, especially in the presence of pre-eclampsia.

Real time ultrasound imaging of the liver is often diagnostic.

Messerschmidt L, Andersen LL, Sorensen MB. Postpartum HELLP syndrome and subcapsular liver haematoma. BMJ Case Rep 2014, doi: 10.1136/bcr-2013-202503 .

You should separate your case presentation section from the investigations and differential diagnoses. The key points to remember to include are your choice of investigations and how they helped you establish a working diagnosis (box 4).

Box 4: Investigations

Unilateral presentation of postpartum cardiomyopathy misdiagnosed as pneumonia.

On arriving at the emergency department, the patient had severe shortness of breath at rest 10 days after delivery. Her vital signs included an oral temperature of 36.7ºC, blood pressure 163/102 mmHg, pulse rate 146 beats/min, and oxygen saturation 88% in room air. Treatment with supplemental oxygen by mask yielded an increase in oxygen saturation to 95%. Her physical examination revealed no jugular venous distension, hepatic enlargement, or pedal oedema; heart sounds were fast and regular, with no evidence of murmurs or additional sounds. On lung auscultation bilateral crackles were present. Her laboratory analysis showed mild non-specific indicators of stress with a leucocyte count of 9.3×10 3 cells/mm 3 , haemoglobin value of 10.6 g/dL, and a platelet count of 791×10 3 cells/mm 3 . Her electrocardiogram was similar to the one obtained a day earlier showing T wave inversion in leads V4–V6; however, chest radiography showed a more bilateral presentation compared with the previous one showing both heart enlargement and pulmonary oedema. A chest computed tomography angiography performed to exclude pulmonary artery embolisation confirmed the presence of cardiomegaly and pulmonary oedema with bilateral effusions (fig 1). ⇓ An echocardiogram showed a diminished ejection fraction of 15-20% confirming the diagnosis of postpartum cardiomyopathy.

Amit BH, Marmor A, Hussein A. Unilateral presentation of postpartum cardiomyopathy misdiagnosed as pneumonia. BMJ Case Rep 2010, doi: 10.1136/bcr.05.2010.3039 .

Fig 1 Chest computed tomogram performed after deterioration showing heart enlargement, pulmonary oedema, and bilateral pleural effusions mainly on the right. From Amit BH et al. BMJ Case Rep 2010, doi: 10.1136/bcr.05.2010.3039 .

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Imagine that you are presenting at a grand round and have to explain your choices to your colleagues—this is essentially what you are doing as you write your case report. Do not simply list your differential diagnoses; describe how you worked through your list of differentials and how you established a final diagnosis.

Also, make sure you collect and include high quality and well annotated images that not only explain radiological findings but also show their importance in establishing your diagnosis.

Good quality annotated images

Fig 2 Craniocervical x ray film showing fusion of the posterior arch of C1 to the occiput. A fracture was not evident, but clinical suspicion prompted a computed tomography scan

Fig 3 Axial, left, and sagittal, right, computed tomography scans of the craniocervical junction at presentation showing fusion of the left occipital condyle with the lateral mass of C1 and a fracture involving both elements. The fracture is indicated by the arrowheads

Outcome and follow-up

The outcome and your follow-up of the patient are important. In both your case presentation and the section on patient outcome, you should describe what happened to your patient in terms of their specific symptoms, their general wellbeing, and their lifestyle and activity.

Some journals require you to write a summary of your case report. This usually has a word limit and appears in medical search engines, such as Pubmed/MEDLINE. It is the equivalent of the abstract of a research paper.

Ensure that your title is scientific and clinical. Cryptic and humorous titles translate poorly across a global audience and do not always accurately reflect the content of your case report. You may find that the word limit does not permit you to write all the detail you would want to include in the summary, but the background section allows you to do this. Try to make sure that the background section does not repeat the summary.

Publication process

Clinical videos and images are important alternatives or potential additions to clinical case reports which many journals encourage authors to submit. Again, prepare these in collaboration with clinical teachers or coauthors, who will help you annotate these images and point out important learning messages, and do this from the outset in the format of the journal that you have researched well and decided to submit your manuscript to.

All submitted case reports are usually sent for peer review. Reviewers are chosen according to their specialty and clinical or academic interests. Your choice of key words is therefore important as these are the basis for the assignment of reviewers. Keywords are also important for other authors doing literature searches who discover your case report and cite this in their own writing.

Decisions to accept, revise, or reject are based on editors’ and reviewers’ opinions together, and every attempt is made to ensure that criticism is constructive and useful.

Dependent on how quickly your manuscript is reviewed, you should receive a decision on your manuscript within three to six weeks of submission. Outright rejections for reasons such as the unsuitability of your manuscript for the particular journal and its audience, manuscripts in the wrong format, incomplete sections (especially the case presentation and differential diagnosis sections), and plagiarism tend to be prompt, and they would be easily avoided by following the steps above and choosing your patient, your topic, your journal, and your particular manuscript format well.

Rejections on the basis of the content of the case report tend to be at the peer review stage and may be a few weeks after submission. They could include reasons such as the lack of novelty or educational message, a poor literature search, or inconsistent clinical management. Again, this is avoidable by preparing well. It is unusual for a well thought out and well prepared manuscript to be rejected.

Autoformatting software, especially with references, may produce errors, so do double check these. Syntax errors, spelling mistakes, and poor grammar create a poor impression of an otherwise good case report. As always, first impressions matter, so be meticulous as you proofread your manuscript before you submit.

The entire process of publication depends on the number of revisions necessary and how quickly you submit a revised manuscript. For those of you aiming to submit in time to prepare for job applications, do take into account the time taken in the process of publication.