ACCP’s novel pharmacy student team competition returns for its 16th season. The ACCP Clinical Pharmacy Challenge offers eligible teams the opportunity to compete in up to 4 online rounds, with the top 8 teams in 2025 advancing to the live quarterfinal competition at the ACCP Annual Meeting in Minneapolis, Minnesota, October 18 to 21. Team registration is now available online. Plan now to participate this fall.

Competition Overview

The ACCP Clinical Pharmacy Challenge is a team-based competition in which teams of 3 students compete against teams from other schools and colleges of pharmacy in a “quiz bowl”–type format. Only 1 team per institution can enter the competition. Institutions with branch campuses, distance satellites, and/or several interested teams are encouraged to conduct a local competition. ACCP provides a local competition exam that institutions can use in selecting their team. Faculty members interested in using the exam can send an email request to Michelle Kucera, Pharm.D., BCPS, at [email protected].

Preliminary rounds of the 2025 national competition will be conducted virtually in September. The quarterfinal, semifinal, and final rounds will be held live at the 2025 ACCP Annual Meeting in Minneapolis.

Each round will consist of questions offered in the 3 distinct segments indicated below. Item content used in each segment has been developed and reviewed by an expert panel of clinical pharmacy practitioners and educators.

• Trivia/Lightning
• Clinical Case
• Jeopardy-style

Each team advancing to the quarterfinal round held at the ACCP Annual Meeting will receive 3 complimentary student full-meeting registrations. Each team member will receive an ACCP gift certificate for $125 and a certificate of recognition. In addition, semifinal teams not advancing to the final round will receive a semifinal team plaque for display at their institution. The second-place team will receive a $750 cash award ($250 to each member) and a commemorative team plaque. The winning team will receive a $1500 cash award ($500 to each member), and each team member will receive a commemorative plaque. A team trophy will be awarded to the winning institution.

Students are not required to be members of ACCP to participate. Team registration may be submitted online and must be initiated by a current faculty member at the respective institution. Students interested in forming a team should contact their ACCP faculty liaison. If no ACCP faculty liaison has been identified, any faculty member from the institution may initiate the registration process. The registering faculty member must confirm the eligibility of all team members and/or alternates online before a team will be permitted to compete in the Clinical Pharmacy Challenge. The deadline to complete team registration and confirm eligibility for the 2025 Clinical Pharmacy Challenge is September 1, 2025.

For more information on the ACCP Clinical Pharmacy Challenge, including the competition schedule, sample items, and FAQ section, please click here.