Thomas McGinley

By Pamela L. Valenza, Thomas C. McGinley, James Feldman, Pritiben Patel, Kristine Cornejo, Najmus Liang, Roopa Anmolsingh and Noble McNaughton

Although the definition of polypharmacy has evolved over time, it has been and remains to be an issue in healthcare. With the prevalence of polypharmacy increasing, those in the health care field must remain vigilant of the adverse effects of medications and work to coordinate care and maintain appropriate prescribing practices. Here we present a clinical vignette that describes an encounter of a patient on multiple medications and the individual, provider, and systems‐level issues that may have contributed to an adverse event resulting in a hospital stay. We will discuss the definition of polypharmacy, review the prevalence and economic implications of drug prescription practices, and examine the consequences and complications of polypharmacy in a number of different patient populations. We will discuss a number of scenarios involving polypharmacy that lead to medication errors, decreased quality of life, and patient harm, and then review evidence‐based methods of interventions aimed at reducing the prevalence of polypharmacy and its associated complications.

Part of the book: Vignettes in Patient Safety

By Jameson Petrochko, Jeffrey Panting-Crespo, Christopher Smith, Megan Minor, Holly Stankewicz, Thomas McGinley, Meredith Harrison, Erin Bendas and Stanislaw P. Stawicki

Virtual interviewing for graduate medical education (GME) had been experimented with on a small scale in the late 2000s and early 2010s, but it became a necessity for the 2020–2021 match season as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. We will briefly discuss the history of virtual interviewing and the published literature on virtual interviewing in GME. Based on the literature and recommendations from various organizations, we address preparation for virtual interviews including special considerations for programs and fellowships. We discuss the pros and cons of virtual interviewing both in order to better understand the current situation and to make informed choices moving forward regarding continuation of virtual interviewing versus returning to in-person interviewing.

Part of the book: Contemporary Topics in Graduate Medical Education