I have tremendous respect for my PA and NP colleagues in dermatology. With eyes as skilled as Picasso's, they have the horribly difficult job of identifying literally thousands of skin conditions, ranging from benign to deadly. Dermatology confuses me. It must me my engineering background. I'm more comfortable with mathematical equations and ...

A few weeks ago, ADVANCE posted excerpts from a discussion happening over at Sermo, an exclusive online MD and DO community, about the proposed professional name change from ''physician assistant'' to ''physician associate.'' The vast majority of the physicians who responded to the thread were, to put it mildly, not at all happy. In response, ...

In a letter to the editor on May 3, AAPA president Stephen Hanson responded to an opinion piece published on April 10 in The Bakersfield Californian called ''Doctor shortage is first ObamaCare issue.'' The author, Dr. Robert S. Hooker, made a strong case about the looming physician shortage, but failed to mention PAs as a critical part of the ...

In reaction to the passage of health care reform legislation, Jack Cassell, MD, a urologist in Orlando, Fla., posted a sign on the door of his practice telling supporters of Obama to seek care ''elsewhere,'' according to the Orlando Sentinel. The sign reads, ''If you voted for Obama...seek urologic care elsewhere. Changes to your ...

In a letter to the editor at the Indianapolis Star, Sharon Sims, PhD, and Marcia Plant Jackson, FNP, state their support for PAs and NPs as part of the team approach to health care:  We struggle with educating enough physicians who are committed to primary health care, yet we don't take the next logical step to look at our resources in ...

A recent entry in NPR's health blog Shots turns its attention to the growing presence of PAs in current health care reform discussions, focusing specifically on AAPA president Stephen Hanson's appearance at the bipartisan health summit. As ADVANCE reported last week, Hanson stood directly behind President Obama as he pledged to push through ...

One of my readers had some good questions that I would like to address. Being that I am a student, my answers may need some help from practicing PAs. Here we go: ''I want to be in surgery, but I'm afraid that being a PA won't allow me to be as involved and hands-on as I want to be. What do you think of this?'' Surgery PAs are very involved and ...

Physician assistants are receiving support from physicians to assume a growing role in health care across Canada, though some nurses still maintain that PAs are inadequately trained, overly expensive and unsafe for patients, according to an article in The Canadian Press. The article profiles Susi Schoeley, a 24-year-old ...

It's undeniable. PAs have made significant progress in educating the public, but there is still confusion surrounding the PA title and what, exactly, a PA does. An animated video posted on YouTube on December 22 illustrates these misunderstandings in a fictional exchange between two old high school friends. Watch the video here. Do you find ...

In the November 26, 2009, issue of The New England Journal of Medicine, an analysis of health care spending cites an increase in physician assistants and nurse practitioners as one option for improving quality and efficiency of care. ''Controlling U.S. Health Care Spending - Separating Promising from Unpromising Approaches'' by Peter S. Hussey, ...