The physician's assistant. A controversial topic at home and abroad.

Non-physician primary care providers (physicians' assistants) have existed in under-developed or emerging nations, in various forms, for many years. It is only recently, however, that this concept has been introduced into countries with more advanced economic and medical care systems. An active and rapidly developing physician's assistant movement has been organized in the United States since the early 1960s; physician's assistants and nurse practitioners may now be found in the almost every one of the 50 United States. Recently, this kind of concept has been suggested as a possibility for improving the Australian medical care system. This article explores the history and present status of the physician's assistant/nurse practitioner movement in the American medical care scene.