Pedersen Donald, Hooker Roderick S
Donald Pedersen is a professor emeritus and former program director of the PA program at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. Roderick S. Hooker is a health policy analyst. The authors have disclosed no potential conflicts of interest, financial or otherwise.
JAAPA. 2023 Apr 1;36(4):44-45. doi: 10.1097/01.JAA.0000921276.32817.67.
In the 1970s, busy physicians knew little about the capabilities of a new member of the healthcare team-the physician associate/assistant (PA). Internal studies by the University of Utah and University of Washington educational programs demonstrated that the MEDEX/PA could increase access to care by providing quality, cost-effective care in rural primary care practices. Marketing this concept was essential, and in the early 1970s, the Utah program devised an innovative plan, partially funded through a grant from the federal Bureau of Health Resources Development, called Rent-a-MEDEX. Physicians in the Intermountain West were introduced to graduate MEDEX/PAs in order to gain firsthand experience about how these new clinicians could benefit a busy primary care practice.
20世纪70年代，忙碌的医生对医疗团队的新成员——医师助理（PA）的能力了解甚少。犹他大学和华盛顿大学教育项目的内部研究表明，医学扩展教育/医师助理（MEDEX/PA）可以通过在农村基层医疗实践中提供高质量、具有成本效益的医疗服务来增加医疗服务的可及性。推广这一概念至关重要，在20世纪70年代初，犹他州的项目制定了一项创新计划，部分资金由联邦卫生资源开发局的一笔拨款提供，名为“租用医学扩展教育/医师助理”。美国西部山区的医生接触到了医学扩展教育/医师助理专业的毕业生，以便直接了解这些新临床医生如何能让忙碌的基层医疗实践受益。
