November 2008 - Posts

PAs in NEJM
November 26, 2008 5:52 PM by Stephen Cornell

A New England Journal of Medicine article titled " Innovation in Primary Care — Staying One Step Ahead of Burnout " mentions Kaiser Permanente Colorado replacing physicians with PAs. It takes 10 months to fill a vacancy for a general internist, as compared Read More...

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AAPA Special Election
November 26, 2008 5:49 PM by Stephen Cornell

The American Academy of Physician Assistants will hold a special election to fill the position of president-elect. The newly elected president-elect will take office immediately and serve as AAPA president in 2009-2010. The AAPA Nominating Committee will Read More...

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IMPACT 2009
November 25, 2008 4:36 PM by Stephen Cornell

The 2009 AAPA conference in San Diego is less than six months away. The AAPA is already hyping it, and a conference brochure arrived in the ADVANCE for Physician Assistants mailbox this afternoon. AAPA's 37th Annual PA Conference is not one to miss! The Read More...

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SJVC PA Program Awarded for Diversity
November 25, 2008 11:43 AM by Terri Schaefer

The San Joaquin Valley College PA program in Visalia, Calif., recently received the Physician Assistant Education Association's Excellence Through Diversity Award. According to the press release, the program was honored for “implementing specific strategies Read More...

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PA and NP Killed in Mexico
November 24, 2008 6:57 PM by Stephen Cornell

PA Roberto Martinez and NP Ruth Velasco were shot and killed on Nov. 22 during a funeral procession in Juarez, Mexico. The funeral was for Velasco's sister. Martinez and Velasco worked at Texas Tech Medical Center in El Paso, Texas, according to TV station Read More...

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"Physician Assistant Ain't It!"
November 24, 2008 1:27 PM by Stephen Cornell

Nevada physician assistant Stephen E. Lyons takes on the profession's title. In JAAPA . We need now to discuss a title that will at last reflect the reality of where we fit into the scheme of health care delivery here and increasingly around the world. Read More...

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Defending PA Practice Ownership
November 24, 2008 11:42 AM by Stephen Cornell

The AMA recently debated the possible ethical conflicts involved with PA and NP practice owners hiring supervising physicians. Some physicians are, of course, concerned about the ethics of PA-owned clinics. It’s funny. Physicians usually have complete Read More...

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Physicians Say They’ll Have to Postpone Retirement
November 21, 2008 12:32 PM by Michael Gerchufsky

A poll conducted last month by MedPageToday found, not surprisingly, that 69% of 1,131 physicians expect to keep working beyond their pre-financial crisis retirement target date. Physicians have to brace for changes, says the accompanying article . Among Read More...

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Research Demonstrates Cost Effectiveness of PAs
November 20, 2008 2:39 PM by Stephen Cornell

Duke University Health System has news of much-needed PA-related research that demonstrates the cost effectiveness of physician assistants. "Our study asked, whether PAs increase the availability of the services offered by physicians or whether they instead Read More...

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PAs vs. PTs
November 20, 2008 11:49 AM by Stephen Cornell

Apparently, physician assistant students and physical therapy students do not get along, at least at one school. PA students are the nerds who bring their laptop to class, sit in the front row, ask too many questions and try too hard. PT students, on Read More...

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In May, 'The New AAPA'
November 20, 2008 9:42 AM by Stephen Cornell

The American Academy of Physician Assistants is promoting a "grand reveal" of the new AAPA in May at the annual conference in San Diego. AAPA's 37th Annual PA Conference is not one to miss! The exciting new look, though dramatic, is just a small indicator Read More...

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There's No Patient-Provider Confidentiality in Football
November 19, 2008 2:27 PM by Stephen Cornell

Sports Illustrated columnist Selena Roberts recently wrote about some of the issues facing team physicians in the National Football League. Confidentiality is a major issue. Apparently patient-clinician confidentiality doesn't exist in the NFL, and players Read More...

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Confusion About "Doctor"
November 18, 2008 5:05 PM by Stephen Cornell

The American College of Clinicians recently adopted a position statement titled, " The Use of the Term Doctor in the Clinical Setting ." The ACC concludes that there could be some confusion, but that it really isn't a big deal. Makes a lot of sense. Today, Read More...

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Explaining PAs
November 18, 2008 3:39 PM by Stephen Cornell

Nice job by the AAPA to team with the International Food Information Council to create a patient handout about healthy eating during pregnancy. Down the right side of the handout is this explanation of the PA profession: A Message from the American Academy Read More...

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AAPA President-Elect Paul Robinson Has Died
November 12, 2008 4:51 PM by Stephen Cornell

Paul Robinson, the president-elect of the American Academy of Physician Assistants, died early this morning. Robinson became ill on Tuesday during an AAPA-related trip to Orlando. His condition worsened on his flight home, and he was taken to a hospital Read More...

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Everything Old Is New Again: PA Name Change Version
November 12, 2008 10:51 AM by Stephen Cornell

In the spirit of the resurrection of the old PA Forum (see previous post), I wanted to note that there's a new name change thread on the new PA Forum. The name change argument is truly neverending. It was an issue when I began covering the PA profession Read More...

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Where Have All the PA Blogs Gone? Part II
November 12, 2008 9:39 AM by Stephen Cornell

ADVANCE's Terri Schaefer points out that PA student blogger David Burke has fallen off the pace a little bit, too. Burke, a PA student at the Medical College of Georgia, has been trying to document his PA school experience day by day at Life of a PA . Read More...

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Where Have All The PA Blogs Gone?
November 11, 2008 3:21 PM by Stephen Cornell

The Tundra PA has left the tundra, and Homeless Heidi has a home. Where is the next generation of PA bloggers? Read More...

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Is the Old PA Forum Finished?
November 11, 2008 2:42 PM by Stephen Cornell

After a particulary nasty election-related discussion, the old school PA Forum listserv associated with Duke University has been silent since Nov. 5. Is the old PA Forum dead? And if it is, will anyone miss it? At one time, the forum was pretty much the Read More...

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The 'Evolving Partnership' Between NPs and Physicians
November 10, 2008 4:38 PM by Stephen Cornell

From ADVANCE for Nurse Practitioners , an interesting look at the relationships between nurse practitioners and physicians . An artistic rendering of the relationship between NPs and physicians would most likely take the form of an invigorating abstract Read More...

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73,893
November 10, 2008 12:47 PM by Stephen Cornell

There will be 73,893 physician assistants in clinical practice by Dec. 31, 2008, according to the AAPA. That's a whole lot of PAs. When I started covering the physician assistant profession in October 1996, there were fewer than 35,000 PAs in clinical Read More...

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Touro University Makeover
November 7, 2008 11:37 AM by Terri Schaefer

Touro University’s Henderson, Nev., campus opened in 2004 in a converted warehouse. A story in the Las Vegas Sun about a facelift to the exterior of the building mentions PA students . "Our students have commented from Day One about the fact that from Read More...

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‘AAPA Congratulates President-Elect Barack Obama’
November 6, 2008 11:59 AM by Michael Gerchufsky

The American Academy of Physician Assistants sent a post-presidential election e-mail to members yesterday congratulating President-elect Barack Obama and pledging to “put health care reform at the top of the national agenda.” We plan to meet with the Read More...

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Former PA Honored With Garden
November 5, 2008 1:48 PM by Terri Schaefer

Dr. John McElligott, a former PA who is currently a physician and businessman in Knoxville, Tenn., will be honored on Friday with the dedication of Veterans Memorial Garden in Durham, N.C. "This tribute is in recognition of his strong support in helping Read More...

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Dynamic Stretching
November 3, 2008 3:53 PM by Stephen Cornell

Interesting article on stretching from The New York Times . If you’re like most of us, you were taught the importance of warm-up exercises back in grade school, and you’ve likely continued with pretty much the same routine ever since. Science, however, Read More...

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