October 6, 2000

Each year on Oct. 6, physician assistants (PAs) celebrate the more than 38,000 members of the profession, who provide essential medical and surgical services to patients all over the country.

PAs are health care professionals licensed to practice medicine with the guidance of a supervising physician. PAs conduct physical exams, diagnose and treat illnesses, order and interpret tests, counsel patients on preventive health care, assist in surgery and in most states, can write prescriptions. At the MGH, PAs care for patients in a variety of settings. While some work in the operating rooms in cardiac and thoracic surgery, others work in such places as the Hematology/Oncology Unit, the Reproductive Endocrine Unit, Orthopædics and at the MGH health centers.

PAs are trained in intensive education programs accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs and must pass a national certification examination. To maintain their national certification, PAs must log 100 hours of continuing medical education every two years and pass a recertification exam every six years.

MGH PAs have many reasons why they chose their profession. "I was working at the former Harvard Community Health Plan when I was trying to decide which direction to take," says Kate Spurrier, PA-C, of MGH Everett Family Care. "There were quite a few PAs who worked there, and they encouraged me to go back to school to become a PA."

Walter Howard, PA-C, of MGH Hematology/Oncology, adds, "I was already 32 years old when I decided to go back to school, and I realized that becoming a PA would allow me to have a career in medicine without the extended years of education that medical school requires."

For more information about the PA profession, visit www.aapa.org.

Some of the MGH PAs. Clockwise from left, Jennifer Ciarlone, PA-C; Eric Haas, PA-C; Dan Mortin, PA-C; Jerene Bitondo, PA-C; Darryk Modracek, PA-C; Kate Spurrier, PA-C; Cara Penney, PA-C; Walter Howard, PA-C.