Critically evaluating and applying primary literature is an essential skill for clinical pharmacists. Research and scholarship contributes to improved health outcomes for patients and advances in the profession of clinical pharmacy. The ACCP Clinical Research Challenge is an innovative and unique competition that offers teams of three pharmacy students the opportunity to participate in an online journal club and submit a clinical research proposal. Plan now to participate in 2018. Team registration deadline is Wednesday, February 7, 2018.
Eligibility
Participation in the ACCP Clinical Research Challenge is voluntary, with no entry fee required. The competition is open to pharmacy students pursuing their first professional pharmacy degree from an accredited institution, or one that has been granted candidate status, who are in the first 2 years of their first professional pharmacy degree program (P1 and P2 students for 4-year programs; P1 and P2 students for 3-year accelerated programs and the first 2 professional years of 0-6 or 0-7 year programs). Only one team per institution may enter the competition. Institutions with branch campuses, distance satellites, or more than one interested team are encouraged to conduct a local competition. ACCP provides a written examination that institutions may use for their local competition, if they wish. This examination is now available and may be requested by the ACCP faculty liaison or registering faculty member by e-mailing Michelle Kucera, Pharm.D., BCPS, at [email protected].
Format
All eligible teams will have the opportunity to compete in round 1: Online Journal Club. Teams achieving the top 40 scores after round 1 will advance to round 2: Letter of Intent (LOI) Submission. If ties occur among the teams, the top 40 scores will be determined by the time required to complete the online journal club exam.
Teams advancing to round 2 will be provided information regarding the research environment, which will include a specified budget and a timeline in which the proposed research must be completed. Eligible teams will have 2½ weeks to develop and submit a LOI online following the criteria outlined here.
Teams with the top 20 scores after the LOI round will advance to round 3: Research Protocol Design and will be invited to submit a complete research proposal. Teams will be notified regarding their status to participate in round 3 by e-mail by March 23, 2018. Proposals will be due midnight (CST) April 20, 2018. For more information on round 3: Research Protocol Design, click here.
Registration
Students need not be ACCP members to participate. Team registration should 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.
The deadline to complete team registration and confirm eligibility is February 7, 2018. For additional competition information, including registration, schedule, FAQs, and sample questions, click here.