UHCOP Team Earns Honorable Mention in National AMCP P&T Competition for 2nd Year in Row

March 13 — For the second consecutive year, a team of five UHCOP Pharm.D. students has been recognized as an Honorable Mention semifinalist in the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacists (AMCP) 2020 National Pharmacy & Therapeutics (P&T) Competition.

Representing UHCOP in the national competition for the second time after winning the local competition both years were Kim Dinh, Grace Pham, Jennifer Nguyen and Duc Huynh, as well as new teammate Irene Huang.

Organized by the AMCP Foundation, the competition is designed to introduce students to the work that goes into formulary management, a system by which health plans, hospitals, government agences and other organizations develop, manage, update and administer a list of medications and related products used by the organization.

As medication experts, pharmacists play a key role on, or on behalf of, P&T Committees. They "must understand how to evaluate the best available scientific, clinical, and economic evidence on medication use" and "determine the impact of medication use on patient population outcomes, conduct cost/benefit analyses, and relate drug therapy choices to current practice guidelines," according to the AMCP Foundation website.

In the competition, every team prepares a written evaluation of the competition drug, including recommendations for formulary placement, and an oral summary presentation with supporting slides. The submissions to the national competition are submitted to and scored by a panel of judges, which determines which teams advance to finals or earn honorable mention as semifinalists.