PA-Trolling: The New Social Media Venomous Activity by the American Medical Association ©

Physician Assistants know all too well about “cancel culture.”  In fact, we have lived & experienced this discriminatory malady on a daily basis for the past fifty-four years. Even before this term became in vogue in recent years as seen throughout  the various social media platforms, we even knew this firsthand, before it became ingrained in our societal fabric. Fortunately, we have not been cancelled yet, even some Physician groups and/or some of their organizations are on the offensive of their mission-driven agenda of fostering inter-professional divisiveness by undermining the professional legislative gains of PAs & NPs.

But, what is new these days is their open and intense negative rhetoric about our competent quality care provided by us to the healthcare industry as non-physician providers. This venomous activity has been amplified more than ever before as seen in the American Medical Association (AMA) recent nationwide campaign about refraining the advancement and modernization of PAs Scope of Practice throughout the country. Adding insult to injury, are many other physician organizations supportive of this deceitful and shameful blatant disingenuous disinformation and misinformation campaign presented to the American healthcare consumer.

This scaring and disenfranchising message explicitly displayed in the reckless graphic above with the PA profession represented on scrabble tiles with the message “because patient safety is not a game”  was felt to be beyond unconscionable by us-- the PA community. This message was felt to be a full frontal attack on our proven professional delivery track care over the past five decades provided to the patient community.

I personally, recall thirty-two years ago when I first graduated, yes, we did grapple with the subtle resentment shown to us by many practicing physicians. You see, we were relatively unknown at the time, much to the liking of many old school physicians  who would have preferred for us to have remained brand less, until this day. However, and fortunately  medicine has evolved significantly since then. Plus, it will continue to do so at a fast pace

Personally, their assertion that a patient's safety is at risk if their care was or is provided by a physician assistant is simply flawed, false and deceitful.  This very short-sided discrediting narrative can be debunked by  many studies proving our competent and quality care.( see attached references ).1-2  

In fact, many studies and evidence-based research has shown time after time that PAs have provided cost efficient patient-centered Healthcare services with similar health care outcomes as physicians. Could this be why we are constantly discredited and never-ending being marginalized? 3-8

Let's let the facts speak for themselves against the #stop scope creep campaign by the American Medical Association and their sister medical physician associations. Hopefully then the PA-trolling can stop and the American healthcare consumer can become better informed in this Machiavellian disinformation age that so many like to perpetuate for their own nefarious & driven divisive agendas.

In sum, this post is not meant to pin the professions against one another, but rather to point out how their outdated regulatory views on PAs limit patient access by stalling or restricting the modernization of Scope of Practice and respective impact of Physician Assistants over the last several decades.  And even though, we & other advanced practice providers realize that we fall beneath the regulatory hierarchy of physicians, nevertheless we feel  and we know we're highly capable trained healthcare professionals able & poised to increase access of healthcare to the American Medical consumer along with our physician counterparts in this day and age of limited access to health care and politicized world. 

The way I/we see it, deceitful and disingenuous marketing campaigns as this one is not a game either when it comes to our role, industry recognition and professional livelihoods..

______________________________________________________________

References accessed on 3-11-21

1. Kurtzman ET, Barnow BS. A Comparison of Nurse Practitioners, Physician Assistants, and Primary Care Physicians’ Patterns of Practice and Quality of Care in Health Centers. Med Care. 2017;55(6):615-622. doi:10.1097/MLR.0000000000000689.
2. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration. National Practitioner Data Bank. Rockville, MD: U.S. Department of Health. https://www.npdb.hrsa.gov/index.jsp. Accessed November 2, 2020.
3. Jackson GL, Smith VA, Edelman D, et al. Intermediate Diabetes Outcomes in Patients Managed by Physicians, Nurse Practitioners, or Physician Assistants: A Cohort Study. Ann Intern Med. 2018;169(12):825-835. doi:10.7326/M17-1987.
4. Rymer JA, Chen AY, Thomas L, et al. Advanced Practice Provider Versus Physician-Only Outpatient Follow-Up After Acute Myocardial Infarction. J Am Heart Assoc. 2018;7(17):e008481. doi:10.1161/JAHA.117.008481.
5. Yang Y, Long Q, Jackson SL, et al. Nurse Practitioners, Physician Assistants, and Physicians Are Comparable in Managing the First Five Years of Diabetes. Am J Med. 2018;131(3):276-283.e2. doi:10.1016/j.amjmed.2017.08.026.
6. Mitchell PM, Wynia R, Golden B, et al. Institute of Medicine. Core principles and values of effective team-based health care. https://nam.edu/perspectives-2012-core-principles-values-of-effective-team-based-health-care. Published October 2, 2012. Accessed November 2, 2020.
7. Doherty RB, Crowley RA; Health and Public Policy Committee of the American College of Physicians. Principles supporting dynamic clinical care teams: an American College of Physicians position paper. Ann Intern Med. 2013;159(9):620-626. doi:10.7326/0003-4819-159-9-201311050-00710.
8. Jabbarpour Y, DeMarchis E, Bazemore A, Grundy P. The impact of primary care practice transformation on cost, quality, and utilization: A systematic review of research published in 2016. Washington, DC: Patient Centered Primary Care Collaborative. https://www.pcpcc.org/sites/default/files/resources/pcmh_evidence_report_08-1-17%20FINAL.pdf. Published July 2017. Accessed November 2, 2020.