Know your drugs, not your trials

As an internal medicine resident, you are not expected to know a single clinical trial. Not one. That’s the fellow’s job. If you are working on a research project, know the studies that matter for it. Otherwise, spend that energy on the drugs.

• Know what each drug in a regimen is and how it is given. FOLFOX is not one drug.
• Know the expected count nadir for cytotoxic chemotherapy, usually around days 7 to 14.
• Know the class toxicities: neuropathy from platinums and taxanes, cardiotoxicity from anthracyclines and trastuzumab, immune-related events from checkpoint inhibitors.
• Know which drugs need renal or hepatic dose adjustment, and which interact with azoles and other common hospital medications.

Our Notes section has a pharmacology library built for exactly this. Start there.