ADVANCE Blog for PAs : Specialties

"No Such Thing as Too Many PAs"

Heather Simons — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:52:00 GMT

AAPA president Stephen Hanson has published an opinion piece, " 'Make more of them' isn't the only solution to America's physician shortage ," in The Bakersfield Californian endorsing PAs as an integral part of the solution to a growing physician shortage....(read more)

Fixing the Problem with Primary Care

Heather Simons — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:05:00 GMT

A recent article in The New York Times discusses how " Primary Care's Image Problem " is leading the vast majority of med students into specialties over primary care and how the patient-centered medical home model could alter the course of this alarming...(read more)

Society of Dermatology Physician Assistants Announces Election Results

Stephen Cornell — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 16:07:00 GMT

The Society of Dermatology Physician Assistants announced the results of its 2009 elections on Facebook. The winners are: Abby Jacobson (president-elect) CaSondra Soto (vice president) Mark Hyde (director at large) John Notabartolo (director at large)...(read more)

Physician Assistants and Nurse Practitioners Working Together

Stephen Cornell — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 19:39:00 GMT

The American Academy of Physician Assistants is teaming with the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners and the Society of Hospital Medicine to offer a CME titled, "Adult Hospitalist Physician Assistant and Nurse Practitioner Boot Camp."

This highly specialized and educationally intense "boot camp" will immerse hospitalist PAs and NPs in the most important Core Competencies-based topics routinely encountered in adult hospital medicine practice.

The course will take place in August in Chantilly, Va.

Link

Physician Assistant Specialty Credentials: The Plot Thickens

Stephen Cornell — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 18:57:00 GMT

The NCCPA isn’t the only organization working on physician assistant specialty credentials.

Apparently, a relatively new group calling itself the American Board of Physician Assistant Specialists is looking into creating “board certification” for PAs in certain specialties.

The ABPAS recently sent out a message to the leaders of some PA specialty organizations, asking them to participate in an information session at the May AAPA conference in San Diego.

Today, the AAPA sent out a response e-mail referencing the ABPAS e-mail and emphasizing AAPA's intention to work with the NCCPA in the NCCPA’s efforts to create a specialty credential program no later than 2011.

After 40 years of little organized support for a PA specialty credential process, it suddenly seems that the profession is racing to create such a process.

The bottom line? Specialty credentialing is coming by 2011.

Will it be good for the profession? Don’t expect PAs to agree on an answer.

New SEMPA Web Site

Stephen Cornell — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 16:09:00 GMT

The Society of Emergency Medicine Physician Assistants has redesigned its Web site.

www.sempa.org

NCCPA Will Develop Specialty Credential Program for Physician Assistants

Stephen Cornell — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 18:57:00 GMT

The NCCPA will develop a voluntary specialty credential program for physician assistants. The NCCPA has posted a statement on its Web site at www.nccpa.net/News_A_SpecialtyCredential.aspx.

After several years of thoughtful consideration of how to best serve the public interest and discussions with numerous PA and physician specialty organizations and others, at a February 8, 2009 meeting, NCCPA's Board of Directors reaffirmed its commitment to offering a mechanism for the achievement of a voluntary PA specialty credential. ...

The NCCPA is developing a model for the program and will launch the program no later than 2011, according to the statement. The statement also says that NCCPA will continue to work with AAPA, physician specialty organizations and PA specialty organizations.

How will voluntary specialty credentials affect the PA profession? Hard to say. But there has never been a shortage of opinions on the subject.

Link

New Society of Dermatology Physician Assistants Podcasts

Stephen Cornell — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 19:45:00 GMT

The Society of Dermatology Physician Assistants has two new audio podcasts available on its Dermcast.tv Web site.

On one, SDPA immediate past president Robert Higham interviews New Jersey derm PA Casey Croes about the society's Distance Learning Initiative for experienced PAs.

On the other is an education sessing about coding in dermatology with PA CaSondra Soto.

Link

12 Physician Assistant Moments for 2008

Stephen Cornell — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 15:07:00 GMT

This is the 448th and final post to the ADVANCE Blog for PAs in 2008. Check back on Jan. 2 for the first blog post of 2009.

Until then, here's a quick look back at some of the notable PA stories of the last year.

***

January
Annals of Family Medicine publishes a study that concludes, “Family practices employing NPs performed better than those with physicians only and those employing PAs.”
Link

February
Bill Leinweber officially joins the AAPA as its CEO and executive vice president.
Link

March
For the first time, ARC-PA grants accreditation to two clinical postgraduate PA programs: the MD Anderson Cancer Center postgraduate PA program in oncology and the Johns Hopkins Hospital Department of Surgery postgraduate PA surgical residency.
Link

April
The Society of Emergency Medicine Physician Assistants draws a record 400 PAs to its annual conference in Tucson, Ariz. Despite the shaky economy, many PA state and specialty conferences continue to draw crowds.
Link

May
PA Karen Bass is sworn in as the first African-American woman to serve as the speaker of California’s General Assembly.
Link

June
The Society of Dermatology Physician Assistants launches its Distance Learning Initiative to provide advanced training to experienced dermatology PAs.
Link

July
The NCCPA posts information about the new practice-focused PANRE on its Web site. Beginning in March 2009, PAs will be able to take recertification exams with some of the content focused on one of three areas: adult medicine, primary care or surgery.
Link

August
The Journal of Physician Assistant Education publishes a study about PA perceptions regarding entry-level doctorate degrees for the profession. The authors conclude that PAs participating in the study “do not favor the profession moving toward offering a DPA degree.”
Link

September
The number of accredited PA programs reaches an all-time high of 142.
Link

October
The Association of Family Practice Physician Assistants and ADVANCE name Washington PA Tom Hughes as the fourth Family Practice PA of the Year.
Link

November
AAPA president-elect Paul Robinson dies suddenly while returning from a meeting in Florida.
Link

December
California PA Steve Hanson wins a special election held to fill the vacant position of president-elect.
Link

Physician Assistant Letter in New England Journal of Medicine

Stephen Cornell — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 17:00:00 GMT

Stony Brook University PA program chair Paul Lombardo's letter about physician assistants and primary care was published in the Dec. 18 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Link

Mandatory Physician Assistant Specialty Residencies?

Stephen Cornell — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 16:29:00 GMT

Interesting poll and thread over at the PA Forum about the future of PA specialty residencies. This is from the first post on the topic:

time to stir the pot some more.....
should pa's who work outside of primary care have to do a residency in their specialty(assume for a moment there were enough slots to make this viable).
this would allow anyone to do fp/im/peds right out of school or at any time in their career but if they wanted to work outside of these areas a residency would be required...this would accomplish a few things:
1.more folks going into primary care as they could do it right out of school
2. a very highly skilled pa specialty workforce..

Link

The PA Forum has 16,709 members and 159,805 posts.

Society of Physician Assistants in Hallway Medicine (SPAHM)

Stephen Cornell — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 19:00:00 GMT

Hard to believe this is health care in the United States. It reads like a goof piece from The Onion.

It may not sound like ideal health care, but hospital officials nationwide are being urged to consider hallway medicine as a way to ease emergency department crowding, and some are trying it.
Leading the way is Stony Brook University Medical Center at Stony Brook, N.Y., where a study found that no harm was caused by moving emergency room patients to upper-floor hallways when they were ready for admission.

What's next? Storing overflow patients in parking garages or hospital gift shops?

Link

Resource for Hospitalist PAs

Stephen Cornell — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 16:44:00 GMT

The Society of Hospital Medicine has created an online resource center for PAs and NPs in hospital medicine.

Link

Is PA Postgraduate Program Accreditation a 'Danger' to the Physician Assistant Profession?

Stephen Cornell — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 18:09:00 GMT

Now that ARC-PA has granted formal accreditation to three postgraduate PA programs, it's interesting to go back and read the AAPA's vigorous warnings against an accreditation process.

The American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA) recognizes the value that voluntary participation in postgraduate clinical training programs may have for physician assistants (PAs) who seek additional knowledge and skills. However, the AAPA does not believe that there should be an accreditation system for these programs. This paper discusses why accreditation of postgraduate clinical training could jeopardize the role and mission of the PA profession and suggests other ways to promote quality and protect participants. ...

Link

ARC-PA Accredits Postgraduate PA Program No. 3

Stephen Cornell — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 21:06:00 GMT

At its recent meeting, ARC-PA also granted accreditation to a third postgraduate physician assistant program.

Duke University Medical Center's postgraduate PA surgical residency earned accreditation.

Previously accredited were M.D. Anderson Cancer Center's postgraduate PA program in oncology and Johns Hopkins Hospital Department of Surgery's postgraduate PA surgical residency.

Link

(Note: I believe the accreditation dates are incorrect on ARC-PA's site. MD Anderson and Johns Hopkins received accreditation in March. Duke received accreditation this month. Update: It's fixed now. I guess ARC-PA is reading this blog.)