History of the PA Profession

In the mid-1960s, physicians and educators recognized there was a shortage and uneven distribution of primary care physicians. To expand the delivery of quality medical care, Dr. Eugene Stead of the Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina put together the first class of PAs in 1965. He selected Navy corpsmen who received considerable medical training during their military service and during the war in but who had no comparable civilian employment. He based the curriculum of the PA program in part on his knowledge of the fast-track training of doctors during World War II. Today, just 40 years later there are approximately 60, 000 people in clinical practice as PAs and there are 136 accredited PA programs.  Forty-nine states, the District of Columbia, and Guam have enacted laws that authorize PA prescribing, and the AAPA (American Academy of Physician Assistants has approximately 40,000 members.

The South Carolina Academy of Physician Assistants (SCAPA) was formed in 1977 when we received our charter from the AAPA. Today, SCAPA has over 242 members and is growing every day.

 

 

For more information on the PA profession, including a timeline of events, please visit the Physician Assistant History Center at: http://www.pahx.org