The University of Minnesota’s winning Clinical Pharmacy Challenge team. From left to right: Ramy Elshaboury, Lacy Ternes, and Camille Beauduy.
The student team from the University of Minnesota was the winner of ACCP’s first annual Clinical Pharmacy Challenge. Team leader, Lacy Ternes, and team members, Camille Beauduy and Ramy Elshaboury, each received a $500 cash prize and a commemorative plaque and had the honor of bringing the championship trophy home to their school of pharmacy.
Team Minnesota withstood challenges from 93 other student teams representing 74 schools and colleges of pharmacy in this first offering of ACCP’s student competition. The two preliminary rounds of the quiz bowl–style competition were conducted virtually. Of the 48 teams that progressed to the second online round of the competition, the top four advanced to the semifinals, conducted live on Saturday, October 16, in Austin.
In the semifinals, the University of Minnesota competed against Purdue University, and Nova Southeastern University–Puerto Rico campus competed against the University of California–San Diego. The University of Minnesota and the University of California–San Diego won the semifinals and advanced to the finals.
The two teams squared off in the final round of the competition on Sunday evening after ACCP’s Annual Business Meeting and Town Hall. A large and enthusiastic crowd of supporters watched the finals, applauding spontaneously as the teams’ respective scores grew close. ACCP’s Past President, John Murphy, Pharm.D., FCCP, served as moderator for the finals of the competition, which was developed in concept during his presidency by the 2008–2009 ACCP National StuNet Advisory Committee. “The development of this new program was truly member inspired and member driven,” he said.
Throughout each round of the competition, the student teams answered questions in three distinct categories. In the Trivia/Lightning category, students answered true/false and multiple-choice questions on pharmacology, pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics and/or pharmacogenomics, pharmacy history, federal pharmacy law and regulatory issues, and biostatistics. In the Clinical Case category, students reviewed a clinical case vignette and answered a series of related multiple-choice questions. In the Jeopardy-style category, students had a chance to answer questions of varying point values in predetermined categories of biostatistics, cardiovascular disorders, endocrinology, hematology/oncology, and infectious diseases.
Each member of the second-place team from the University of California–San Diego received a commemorative plaque and a $250 cash prize. Team leader was Angel Lam; the other two team members were Timothy Bassell and Shaddy Javadinejad.
“The first annual ACCP Clinical Pharmacy Challenge was a tremendous success,” Dr. Murphy said. “We had four outstanding teams on-site, and all the members represented their schools well.”
Dr. Murphy thanked all the student teams who competed in this inaugural event. To accommodate a larger field of participants, ACCP plans to expand next year’s competition to include additional online and live rounds. Information about ACCP’s 2011 Challenge will be available in early 2011 at www.accp.com/stunet.