Artificial Intelligence in Managed Care Pharmacy

• Only one first author per paper is allowed. The first author must be a graduate student, postdoctoral fellow, or clinical resident (e.g., intern, resident, or fellow in medicine or pharmacy). All award money will be distributed to the first author only.
• Papers must be submitted by March 2, 2026.
• Authors must indicate that the paper is for the competition in the article title, as follows, “PhRMA Foundation Challenge Award: [Article Title].”
• Employees of pharmaceutical companies are allowed to compete but are not eligible to receive award money due to restrictions on provision of financial awards by the Foundation.

As AI rapidly transforms managed care pharmacy, it is essential to share learnings across communities. Trainees are often at the forefront of innovations. This call for papers invites trainees working on AI technologies and applications to share their work relevant to managed care pharmacy and its impact on patient care.

We welcome a wide range of submissions in any of JMCP’s article categories: Research, Research Brief, Systematic Review, and Viewpoints. Articles that address one of the following broad topic areas are preferred:

• Analytical innovations. Papers presenting how AI methodologies can be applied, replicated, and validated in managed care pharmacy to promote high-quality, cost-effective, and patient-centered care.
• Use cases of AI to support patient-centered practice. Papers describing or evaluating application of AI technology to pharmacy benefit design, clinical programs, formulary management, quality improvement, and access to patient care.
• Policy and regulatory considerations. Papers informing readers of policies that may affect use of AI in managed care pharmacy, including analyzing the implications of proposed or existing policies on patient care and offering new policy recommendations.
• Governance and ethical issues. Papers addressing transparency, auditability, privacy, fairness, and related issues that arise with increasing use of AI in patient-centered managed care pharmacy.

Eligible authors should submit manuscripts through JMCP’s online submission portal and indicate that the paper is for the competition in the article title, as follows, “PhRMA Foundation Challenge Award: [Article Title].”

Submissions are due by March 2, 2026. All submissions must adhere to JMCP author guidelines. All submissions will undergo JMCP’s peer-review process. All papers accepted for publication will be published, but only those selected as winners by the PhRMA Foundation’s Scientific Advisory Committee will receive the $5,000 Challenge Award.

Please direct any questions about the scope of the call or submission requirements to jmcpreview@amcp.org. Please direct any Challenge Award eligibility questions to info@phrmafoundation.org.