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Exhibits
Archived Exhibits
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Development
of PA Program at Duke University Medical Center 
Exhibit by Dr. Reginald Carter
Prior to Charles Hudson’s 1961 article published in
the Journal of the American Medical Association titled “Expansion
of Medical Professional Services with Nonprofessional Personnel,”
Dr. Eugene Stead, Jr., then chairman of the Department of Medicine
at Duke University, had tried to use “professional”
personnel, i.e., nurses, to expand clinical services within the
Duke University Hospital. Failing to rally nursing to the call
to be doctor’s clinical nursing assistants, Dr. Stead turns
to a new source of recruits, ex-military corpsmen. In a letter
to a Duke colleague dated April 21, 1964, Stead states that “During
the next ten years I would like to have a hand in training men
to be physicians’ assistants. This career would be open
to men with high-school or junior-college degrees or to any person
sponsored by a physician because of work already performed in
a hospital, physician’s office, or laboratory.”
A Prototypical MD/PA Practice
Exhibit by Dr. Reginald Carter, PA-C, Ph.D
Although generally recognized as the originator of the physician
assistant concept, Dr. Eugene A. Stead, Jr. is the first to note
that the idea was not his exclusively. Prior to the development
of the physician assistant program at Duke University in 1965,
many physicians were training their own assistants on the job.
Stead was aware particularly of one such proprietary trained assistant,
Mr. Henry Lee “Buddy” Treadwell, who was trained by
and worked with Dr. Amos Johnson in general practice in Garland,
North Carolina. This relationship crystallized Stead’s vision
of how a physician’s assistant could be used to help over-worked
doctors deliver health care services.
Marketing the PA Profession
Exhibit by Dr. Reginald Carter, PA-C, Ph.D
At a critical time in its development, the PA profession
gained public attention from two unlikely sources of support –
a television show promoter and novice script writer, Jerry Bredouw,
and a syndicated newspaper cartoonist, Dick Moores. Both were
intrigued by the plight of ex-military corpsmen whose clinical
training and skills could not be readily used in the civilian
health sector. Their stories are intertwined and reveal how serendipity
helped market the PA concept to the American Public in 1970 through
an episode of NBC’s THE BOLD ONES and the Chicago Tribune’s
GASOLINE ALLEY COMIC STRIP.
American Registry of Physician's Associates
Exhibit by Dr. Reginald Carter, PA-C, Ph.D
The American Registry of Physicians' Associates was incorporated
in North Carolina on May 26, 1970. The initial Board of Directors
included Robert Ewer, M.D, University of Texas, Galveston, TX;
D. Robert Howard, MD, Duke University and Leland Powers, MD, Bowman
Gray School of Medicine. The purpose of the Registry was to encourage
the training and to promote and regulate the activities of Physicians'
Associate by determining their competence through examinations
and investigative studies. It would grant and issue certificates
to graduates of approved educational and training programs and
to others who demonstrated by examination that they possessed
the background and experience to perform satisfactorily as graduates
of approved programs. The registry was the forerunner of the Association
of Physician Assistant Programs (APAP).
The
Day NBC Came to the Hill
Exhibit by Dr. Reginald Carter, PA-C, Ph.D, and Michael Holt, MS,
PA
Given the reputation and contribution of the Myers family
to health care, medical, nursing and allied health education,
and the little college that proved dreams can come true, it is
fitting that America's viewing public were first introduced to
the PA concept as it unfolded in the hills of West Virginia. Dr.
Hu and Mrs. Avanelle Myers devoted the end of their professional
carriers to establishing the first baccalaureate PA program in
the country at Alderson-Broadus College in Philippi, WV. The AB
PA program was featured on NBC’s Today Show on October 20,
1971.
From the Ranks of the Military
Exhibit by Dr. Reginald Carter, PA-C, Ph.D
An American Medical Association's advertisement placed in
the July 30, 1971 issue of Life Magazine reminds us that the plight
of former medical corpsmen was used by the pioneers of our profession
to gain professional and public support of Dr. Hudson's proposal
to train physician's assistants from the ranks of "non-medical
and non-nursing personnel." Although not an easy sale, it
made sense to expand the talents of these men by training them
to be physician's assistants to help meet the growing demand for
health care services in the 1960s caused by a shortage of all
types of medical and nursing personnel.
Accommodating a New Medical Profession: The History of Physician Assistant Regulatory Legislation
Exhibit by Dr. E. Harvey Estes and Dr. Reginald Carter
As pioneers of physician assistants education, the parent department of the program at Duke, the Department of Community Health Sciences, undertook the process of studying the unique problems of regulation of this new professional group, and designing model legislation to implement this regulation. The process used to design this model legislation was unique, as was the regulatory framework which resulted. Following the model’s development, it was proposed to the North Carolina General Assembly the following year. The legislative bill passed with no major opposition. This framework has served the State, the medical profession and the physician assistant profession well for over three decades, and has been the model for similar legislation in a number of other states. This paper describes the process, some of the options which were considered, and some of the factors which led to a new and very unique basis for regulation of physician assistants.
History and Role of the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants
Exhibit by Roderick S. Hooker, PhD, PA, Reginald Carter, PhD, PA and James F. Cawley, MPH, PA-C
Prior to working, each new physician assistant (PA) graduate must pass a national certification examination. The process used to certify PAs is distinct, differing from that used by most other health professions who oversee the process themselves. Since its inception, the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants (NCCPA) remains a free-standing certifying body. Formed by fourteen health professional organizations in 1973 and formally organized as a not-for-profit organization in 1974, the NCCPA is dedicated to assuring the public that certified PAs meet established standards of clinical knowledge and skills upon entry into practice and throughout their careers. This paper traces the evolution of the NCCPA, trends in the different examinations and the national certification process unique to the PA profession.
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