Physician Associates: Rebranding...A New Day with specific Mandates

    For a long time, we Physician Assistants (PAs) were often misunderstood and misrepresented, even ridiculed within the healthcare industry. Media outlets frequently spread misinformation and inaccurate descriptions of our profession.

    In this author's mind, this raised the question: why were PAs so misunderstood by everyone, including physicians? As a PA myself with 35 years of experience, I’ll--attempt to--explain some key reasons for this. While these explanations are based on my personal observations, I’ll strive to be as objective as possible.

Here are the main past contributing factors with minimized residual effects still lingering:

1. A Relatively New Profession: Celebrating only our 54th anniversary, our profession is much younger than other established fields like medicine, nursing, or engineering. This “newness” contributes to misperceptions and mischaracterizations, especially when people are very unfamiliar with our role, background, etc.

2. A Misleading Name: Our original title, "Physician Assistant," didn't accurately reflect our evolving role in healthcare. This misnomer confused others about our scope of practice and didn't distinguish us from other lesser-trained groups. It hindered understanding from others as to our contribution to the team-based care approach in many people's minds-- physicians included.

3. A Historically Voiceless Profession: In the past, we were less assertive as a professional group. A “just the PA” mentality held us back and prevented us from effectively advocating for ourselves, unlike other allied health professions. This passive approach was a significant obstacle until we rebranded ourselves as Physician Associates and exhibited a stronger group-independent mindset developed in recent years.

4. Lack of Strategic Partnerships: Strong business relationships are crucial. The success of Nurse Practitioners (NPs) demonstrates the power of external support, such as their partnerships with AARP and the Robert Johnson Foundation being strong vocal professional supporters. We haven’t pursued similar partnerships as effectively as they have and continue to do so. We must embrace this mindset ourselves, and seek, to foster interprofessional coalitions if we are to be competitive in the marketplace.

5. Disrespectful Media Coverage: Inaccurate and even mocking media portrayals of our profession have been damaging. These reports often lacked fact-checking and demonstrated a poor understanding of our training and qualifications, thus, undermining our credibility with the public. Our community must be proactive for which we have undertaken this responsibility more vigorously than in the past. Yet, much work remains to be done in educating others about our brand.

    Over the past 35 years as a surgical PA, I’ve witnessed many changes in healthcare, including the rise of managed care, risk management crises, the introduction of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the COVID-19 pandemic, and the global expansion of our profession.

    Certainly, we have come a long way. However, with our rebranding as Physician Associates, we’ve entered a new era. The confusion caused by our old name is finally behind us but the work continues.