The American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA) and the Physician Assistant Education Association (PAEA) recently announced a set of 16 recommendations to promote the growth of the PA workforce. The task force, developed in October 2010, was charged with addressing future opportunities and challenges associated with expansion ...

A provocative commentary by Bettie Coplan, MPAS, PA-C, and James E. Meyer, MD, both on the faculty of the Midwestern University PA program in Glendale, Ariz., was published in the June 22/29 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. Under the headline, ''Physician Assistants — One Less Doctor(ate) in the House,'' the article lays ...

The fourth recommendation from the PA Clinical Doctorate Summit was particularly interesting. 4. The PA profession should explore with physician education groups the development of a model for advanced standing for PAs who desire to become physicians (sometimes called a ''bridge program.'') Not long ago, the mention of a PA-to-physician bridge ...

The American Academy of Physician Assistants and the Physician Assistant Education Association have posted a statement on last week’s PA Clinical Doctorate Summit. Forty-five people participated in the summit meeting. Here’s a set of recommendations from the meeting: The summit participants came to consensus on the following set of ...

The long-awaited PAEA-AAPA physician assistant doctorate degree summit meeting finally begins March 25 in Atlanta. One interesting note, PAEA's online message board about doctorate degrees has a lot of talk about a PA-to-physician bridge program. It'll be interesting to see what comes out of the summit. Link

The American Academy of Physician Assistants and Physician Assistant Education Association are conducting an online survey about clinical doctorate degrees and the PA profession. The survey also asks about PA-to-physician bridge programs. Is the clinical doctorate appropriate to the PA profession as an entry-level degree, as a postgraduate ...

The American Academy of Physician Assistants posted on its Web site an update about its investigation of a possible physician assistant clinical doctorate degree. Is the clinical doctorate appropriate to the profession as an entry-level degree, as a postgraduate degree, or not at all? How should the PA profession approach the emerging issue ...

The PAEA-AAPA summit to consider an entry-level doctorate degree for the profession is scheduled for March 25-27. The organizations have created a sponsor group ''to oversee the planning, research, and educational process that will support the final recommendation.'' There seems to be a lot of bureaucracy going on, but I guess that's not ...

The Physician Assistant Education Association and the American Academy of Physician Assistants will participate in a summit meeting in March 2009 to discuss the issues surrounding PA-specific doctorate degrees. Details about the summit are still to be determined.

The Physician Assistant Education Association and the American Academy of Physician Assistants have partnered to look at the issue of entry-level doctorate degrees for the PA profession. The following is from PAEA president Dana Sayre-Stanhope's 2008 annual report. The PAEA board is acting upon the October 2007 membership ...