School of Pharmacy team crowned 2023 ACCP Clinical Research Challenge champions

A team from UCSF’s School of Pharmacy has been named champions in the 2023 American College of Clinical Pharmacy (ACCP) Clinical Research Challenge (CRC). Pollyanna Leung, Ryan Sue, and April Zhou, all PharmD Class of 2024 students, were honored for their winning proposal, “Pharmacist Intervention in the Oncology Setting: The Impact of Telehealth Services on Cancer-Related Pain Management.”

“So many positive things could be said about this team and the achievement of these students,” said Tina Denetclaw, PharmD, faculty advisor for the UCSF student chapter of ACCP and coach of the student team. “How well they prepared for the competition, how they worked together to answer questions in practice and during the Journal Club exam, their clinical perspective as they identified a worthy project and devised a plan to study it, and their efforts to produce a well-written proposal.”

“The professionalism expressed by Ryan, Pollyanna, and April during this competition kept them firmly on a path toward an outstanding outcome,” added Denetclaw, a previous judge for the competition. “I have been impressed by them from the start, and I can assure everyone that this is a major accomplishment given the intense competition nationally.”

The innovative competition began in February, and the teams that achieved the top 40 scores advanced to round 2: the Letter of Intent (LOI) Submission, which offers teams of three pharmacy students the opportunity to participate in the Online Journal Club. Teams with the top 20 scores after round 2 are invited to compete in the third and final round, Research Protocol Development.

A total of 87 teams entered the competition, which is targeted toward pharmacy students in their first two years of their first professional pharmacy degree program. Critically evaluating and applying current research is an essential skill for clinical pharmacists, contributing to improved health outcomes for patients, as well as to advancement of the clinical pharmacy profession.

The proposals were reviewed by the CRC Review Panel, and submissions ranking in the top one-third were referred to the CRC Oversight Panel for evaluation and selection of awards.

More

• University of California San Francisco School of Pharmacy Team Crowned 2023 ACCP Clinical Research Challenge Champions
• American College of Clinical Pharmacy
• Clinical Research Challenge
• Past winners: ACCP Student Competitions