What a way to end the week!

Earlier today, the UCSF team was announced as the national winner of the 13th Annual Pharmacy and Therapeutics Competition sponsored by the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy Foundation.

Congratulations to the team of Tien, Tiffany, Clint and Judy! We are so honored to have these four as part our community. (Never underestimate the power of critical thinking skills + communication skills + presentation skills. It's a winning combination!)

For more about this dynamic team and their journey to the national competition, visit UCSF's Campus Newspaper, the Synapse.

About the competition:
The AMCP Foundation conducted the 13th Annual National Student Pharmacist P&T Committee Competition (P&T Competition) at the AMCP 25th Annual Meeting & Expo in San Diego, California, April 4-5, 2013.  The competition was designed to challenge students to gain a real world perspective of the formulary management process.

Following a local competition within each Chapter, the winning team from each participating Student Chapter then submitted their presentation materials to the AMCP Foundation National Competition Selection Committee.  This committee selected eight (8) teams to participate in the AMCP Foundation 13th Annual National Student P&T Committee Competition (P&T Competition) in San Diego, California.

The finalist this year included: 

• Ohio Northern University   
• University of California San Francisco   
• University of Florida   
• University of Illinois at Chicago   
• University of Maryland   
• University of Minnesota   
• University of Southern California   
• University of Washington  

Formulary management is uniquely dynamic and requires extensive and timely pharmaceutical knowledge as well as an understanding of the medical community practice standards that exist within the health care system.  A Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee (P&T Committee) is ultimately responsible for developing, managing, updating, and administering the formulary system that is utilized by managed health care systems.

Pharmacists who serve on P&T Committees must know how to evaluate the best available scientific evidence, clinical and economic, weigh its use and its impact on patient population outcomes, be able to conduct cost/benefit analyses, and relate drug therapy choices to practice guidelines.  Development of these necessary formulary management skills will help managed health care systems achieve the challenging goals of improving the quality of patient care while controlling scarce healthcare resources.

The local and national competition is intended to give students an opportunity to hone a variety of skills including critical analysis, presentation and research skills.  More importantly, the competition allows students to view different styles and processes that can be used in effective formulary management and provide exposure to, and a working knowledge of AMCP's Format for Formulary Submissions.