The BPS Board Certified Infectious Diseases Pharmacist. (BCIDP) program is a credential for pharmacists who have met the eligibility criteria and who in their unique practice specialize in the use of microbiology and pharmacology to develop, implement and monitor drug regimens that incorporate the pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics of antimicrobials to optimize therapy for patients.

The purpose of the BPS Board Certified Infectious Diseases Pharmacist (BCIDP) program is to validate that the pharmacist has the advanced knowledge and experience to:

• Use clinical and evidence-driven knowledge to develop appropriate antimicrobial therapies to more rapidly resolve infections while decreasing adverse events, complications, and resistance;
• Provide direct patient care through interprofessional health care teams, collaborative leadership of antimicrobial stewardship programs, education of health care providers, and preventive services including immunizations;
• Advocate for appropriate antimicrobial utilization; and
• Improve public health by optimizing antimicrobial potential in individual patients and narrowing the resistance trends that occur in society by preventing progression of antimicrobial resistance and infectious diseases.

An applicant for board certification in Infectious Diseases Pharmacy must demonstrate all of the requirements listed below prior to sitting for the initial certification examination. Once all of the requirements below are met, an applicant will be deemed eligible to sit for the Infectious Diseases Pharmacy specialty certification examination. If an applicant achieves a passing score on the Infectious Diseases Pharmacy specialty certification examination, they may use the designation Board-Certified Infectious Diseases Pharmacist, or BCIDP.

The rationale for the appropriateness of the requirements for BPS certification programs are based upon the following:

• BPS recognizes individuals who graduate from a recognized school or college of pharmacy within the candidate’s jurisdiction. Those jurisdictions recognize and evaluate programs on the extent to which it accomplishes its stated goals and is consistent with the concept that pharmacy is a unique, personal service profession in the health science field. In the United States, the responsibility for recognizing schools and colleges of pharmacy falls to the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE).
• The rationale for requiring licensure or registration of pharmacists within their jurisdiction is based upon the fact that for public protection, all pharmacists must be licensed or registered. This is considered a baseline requirement to be a pharmacist specialist. In the United States, BPS recognizes the licensure process administered by the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP). The National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) aims to ensure the public’s health and safety through its pharmacist license transfer and pharmacist competence assessment programs. NABP’s member boards of pharmacy are grouped into eight districts that include all 50 United States, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Bahamas, and all 10 Canadian provinces.
• The experiential component is required to help assure practical application of components of the specialty knowledge being certified. There are multiple pathways to meet the practice experience requirement. The faster eligibility pathways recognize accredited residencies through the American Society of Health System Pharmacists (ASHP). The ASHP residency accreditation program identifies and grants public recognition to practice sites having pharmacy residency training programs that have been evaluated and found to meet the qualifications of one of the ASHP’s residency accreditations standards. Thus, accreditation of a pharmacy residency program provides a means of assurance to residency applicants that a program meets certain basic requirements and is, therefore, an acceptable site for postgraduate training in pharmacy practice in organized health care.
• Passing the BPS pharmacy specialty examination helps assure knowledge consistent with the validated content outline for the BPS specialty.

The appropriateness of the BPS program requirements are consistent with the Council on Credentialing in Pharmacy’s Resource Paper titled: Scope of Contemporary Pharmacy Practice: Roles, Responsibilities, and Functions of Pharmacists and Pharmacy Technicians.

Pharmacists who earn the designation Board Certified Infectious Diseases Pharmacist® (BCIDP) will be required to maintain their certification over a seven year period by completing one of the following professional development activities:

For full details regarding recertification, please refer to the BPS Recertification Guide.

Board Certified Infectious Diseases Pharmacists® are also required to pay the BPS Annual Certification Maintenance fee of $125 each year for years one through six and a $400 recertification fee in year seven. Individuals with more than one BPS certification will only be assessed one BPS Annual Certification Maintenance Fee each year.