Thomas Varga, MD (fictional sample interviewer)

Associate Professor of Medicine, Pulmonary and Critical Care · Washington, District of Columbia

Fictional profile written for the MyRound GW School of Medicine sample. The person, his hospitals and his clinic are invented.

About

Pulmonologist and ICU doctor. I spend half my weeks in a medical ICU and the other half in an outpatient lung clinic where most of my patients have asthma or COPD and a housing, work or insurance problem that matters as much as their inhaler. I teach second-year students how to listen to a chest and third-year students how to present a sick patient in two minutes. I've interviewed applicants for the MD program since 2019. I like hearing what people actually did, not what they were in charge of.

Experience

George Washington University School of Medicine & Health Sciences (Washington, DC) - Associate Professor of Medicine, Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, Jul 2020 - present - Attending physician in the medical ICU (about 14 weeks a year) and a weekly outpatient asthma and COPD clinic. - Course co-director, respiratory block (second year), since 2022. - MD admissions interviewer since 2019; clerkship small-group preceptor.

Potomac Valley Medical Center (Arlington, VA) - Staff Intensivist, Aug 2015 - Jun 2020 - Led a project that cut ventilator days after sepsis by getting patients out of bed earlier; trained nurses and respiratory therapists on the protocol.

Harborview Community Lung Clinic (Baltimore, MD) - Volunteer physician, 2016 - present - Saturday clinic for uninsured adults; runs a donated-inhaler program with a local pharmacy school.

Education and training

• Fellowship, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Brookline University Hospital (Boston), 2012 - 2015
• Residency, Internal Medicine, Brookline University Hospital, 2009 - 2012
• MD, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, 2009
• BA, History, Oberlin College, 2004. Taught high-school biology for a year in Cleveland before medical school.

Research and writing

• Co-author of 11 papers, mostly on ICU mobility and asthma care after hospital discharge.
• Current project: whether a home visit in the week after an asthma admission keeps adults out of the emergency department.
• Member of the school's working group on using AI note-drafting tools in outpatient clinics (2025 - present).

Languages

English (native), Hungarian (conversational).

Interests

Rides a bike to work year-round; sings bass in a community choir; cooks badly for large groups.