AMCP Foundation Announces Recipients of 2015 National P&T Competition, Best Posters

PRESS RELEASE

Alexandria, Va., April 14, 2015 — The Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy (AMCP) Foundation is proud to announce recipients of its 15th Annual National Student Pharmacist Pharmacy & Therapeutics Competition (P&T) and 2015 Best Student Pharmacist Poster and Best Resident or Fellow Poster contest.

The awards were presented at AMCP’s 27th Annual Meeting & Expo, April 7-10 in San Diego, California.

“Winners of these competitions represent some of the brightest up-and-coming pharmacists in the country today,” said Edith A. Rosato, RPh, IOM, AMCP’s Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the AMCP Foundation Board of Trustees. “The P&T competition gives student pharmacists the chance to experience firsthand the complex practice of managing the formulary process. Similarly, the poster presentation allows them to demonstrate managed care pharmacy skills and knowledge that they have learned throughout their education.”

15th Annual National Student Pharmacist P&T Competition

The 2015 P&T Competition attracted a record 55 teams from AMCP Student Pharmacist Chapters nationwide. The four-member teams worked through a case study involving a drug product dossier based on the AMCP Format for Formulary Submissions. Using the available evidence, the teams at the local level presented their recommendations for formulary placement to a panel of judges representing a P&T committee.

The winning team from each school advanced to the semifinals, where eight finalists were selected to compete at AMCP’s Annual Meeting & Expo. The 2015 recipients are:

First place: Rutgers University Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy, with team members Danielle Tompkins, Alexander Mozeika, Ena Todorovska, Serena Arnouk and faculty advisor Saira A. Jan. The first place team’s school receives a $2,500 scholarship.

Second place: Purdue University College of Pharmacy, with team members Hannah Han Le, Dong Helen Shao, Limin Zhang, Madeline Merkel and faculty advisor Amy Heck. The second place team’s school receives a $1,500 scholarship.

Third Place: University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy, with team members Rebecca Pulk, Scott Baird, Mary Walter, Ryan Langem and faculty advisor Randall Seifert. The third place team’s school receives a $1,000 scholarship.

The competition is supported by Genentech, Amgen and Dymaxium. Other 2015 finalists represented Lipscomb University (Tennessee), Touro University (California), University of California at San Diego, University of California at San Francisco, and the University of Illinois at Chicago. Judges at the national level were AMCP members Cody Ball, Vivien Chan, Melissa Denno, Cheryl Kaltz, Jeff Lee, Alexandra Tungol Lin, Craig N. Mattson, Leia Roeges, Barbara Roper and Elizabeth Sampsel.

2015 Poster Competition Award Recipients

This year’s competition for Best Student Pharmacist Poster and Best Resident or Fellow Poster drew a record 66 poster presentations. The 2015 recipients are:

Best Student Poster: Aashish Surti, University of California, San Francisco, “Industry Diagnostic Test Information Provision versus Expectations”

Best Graduate Student, Resident or Fellow Poster: Shivali Shah, CVS Health, “Evaluation of Treatment Adherence and Persistence Based on Dosing Frequency and Route for Self-administered Disease-modifying Therapies in Multiple Sclerosis”

Honorable Mention this year in the Resident/Fellow Poster Category: Ahmed Guhad, CVS Health, “Utilization and Cost Metric Analysis on the Impact of a PA Program Targeting Compound Claims”

The posters were judged on criteria including the paper’s scientific merit; evidence that the research conducted was innovative and practical; evidence that the results of the study match the paper’s conclusions; the relevance of the study to managed care pharmacy practice; the clarity of the material; and the knowledge of the author regarding the subject matter during his or her presentation.

The posters were evaluated by 12 Academy members: Donna Bell, Heather Bonome, Mark Brueckl, Kenneth Bykowski, Larry Georgopoulos, Frederick Manasseh, Debbie Meyer, Carly Rodriquez, Tim Sawyers, Kenneth Schaecher, Diana Toe and Steven Zona.

The poster award recipients receive a $500 check, a one-year AMCP membership, a complimentary registration for the AMCP Nexus 2015 this October in Orlando, and an engraved plaque.