Foundation for Managed Care Pharmacy (FMCP) Presents Awards for 2012 National P&T Competition and Best Posters

ALEXANDRIA, Va., April 25, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Foundation for Managed Care Pharmacy (FMCP) is pleased to announce the winners of FMCP's 12th Annual National Student Pharmacist Pharmacy & Therapeutics (P&T) Competition and the 2012 Best Poster Contest.

FMCP is the philanthropic arm of the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy (AMCP), and the awards were presented April 20 at AMCP's 24th Annual Meeting & Expo in San Francisco.

"FMCP's annual competitions are a great way to teach a new generation of rising pharmacists the practices of managed care pharmacy," said Edith A. Rosato, RPh, IOM, Chief Executive Officer of the Academy and Chair of the Foundation's Board of Trustees. "These activities build skills, awareness and enthusiasm for our profession."

FMCP 12th Annual National Student Pharmacist P&T Competition

The National P&T Competition attracted a record 29 teams from AMCP Student Pharmacist Chapters. Each team submitted required written materials in the preliminary round from which eight teams were selected to compete in live presentations held at the AMCP Annual Meeting.

The eight finalist teams were from the following schools and colleges of pharmacy: Purdue University, Rutgers University, The Ohio State University, University of California San Francisco, University of Georgia, University of Illinois at Chicago, University of Southern California, and University of Washington.

The 2012 winners were:

First place: Rutgers University AMCP Chapter ($2,500 scholarship). Team members are Lisa Chen, Delong Cen, Patrick Liu, Jonathan Rosen, and Faculty Advisor Saira A. Jan.

Second place: University of Georgia AMCP Chapter ($1,500 scholarship). Team members are Anqi Zhou, Wen Liu, Trent Leonard, Francisco Marrero, and Faculty Advisor Alan Wolfgang.

Third place: The University of Illinois at Chicago AMCP Chapter ($1,000 scholarship). Team members are Tom Karagiannis, Lilly Nguyen, Robin Zhou, Linda Sok, and Faculty Advisor Margaret H. Byun.

"The purpose of the P&T competition is to give AMCP student chapter members a chance to experience a taste of the real world relating to the formulary management process and analysis of a product dossier based on AMCP's Format for Formulary Submissions," said FMCP Interim Executive Director and CEO Norrie Thomas, who presented the awards. "This competition gives students an opportunity to hone a variety of skills, including presentation and research skills."

AMCP's members served as the volunteer judges and evaluated each team's case study submissions and evaluated presentations during the finalist competition.  Genentech, Inc. sponsored the Competition and Boehringer-Ingelheim provided the use of its Pradaxa® drug dossier.

FMCP 2012 Best Student Pharmacist and Best Graduate Student, Resident or Fellow Poster Contest

The winner of the 2012 Best Student Poster Contest was Meghan Frear, of the University of California San Francisco, School of Pharmacy. Her poster was titled "Student Pharmacists Teach Strategies to Lower Medication Costs for Underserved Patients."

The winner of the Best Graduate Student, Resident or Fellow Poster was Kalee Foreman, of OptumRx. Her poster was titled "Impact of Text Messaging Pilot Program on Patient Medication Adherence."

And the winner of Honorable Mention in the Best Graduate Student, Resident or Fellow Poster Category was Zhexin Zhang, of UnitedHealthcare. His poster was titled "Impact of Generic Step Therapy of Divalproex ER, Levetiracetam, Lamotrigine, and Topiramate on Healthcare Utilization in Epilepsy Patients."

A record 76 poster presentations were entered in the contest. Volunteer members of the Academy judged the posters and their authors according to the following criteria: 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. 

"This poster presentation is one of the best opportunities I know for student pharmacists to truly apply their learning and skills," said Thomas.

The poster award winners each receive a $500 check, a one-year AMCP membership, a complimentary registration for the AMCP Educational Conference this October in Cincinnati, Ohio, and an engraved plaque to commemorate this achievement.

About FMCP
The Foundation for Managed Care Pharmacy (FMCP), a 501(c)3 nonprofit, charitable trust, is a research, education and philanthropic organization supporting the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy (AMCP). The mission of the Foundation for Managed Care Pharmacy is to help people optimize medication therapy through the generation and dissemination of new knowledge. FMCP is the only non-profit charitable trust dedicated solely to supporting research and education activities in the field of managed care pharmacy. News and additional information about FMCP is available on the Foundation's Web site, www.fmcpnet.org.

SOURCE Foundation for Managed Care Pharmacy (FMCP)