This section is designed to keep North Carolina physician assistants involved in the activities of the NCMS Physician Assistant Section and to provide information about the Physician Asssistant (PA) profession for our physician colleagues and other health care providers. Please address any questions regarding the NCMS-PA Section to Jim Hill, Jr., PA-C, MEd Chair, or to Kristen Shipherd of the Medical Society.
The mission of the North Carolina Medical Society Physician Assistant (PA) Section shall be to unite PAs and to enhance the physician/PA working relationship through professional, clinical, political and service-oriented partnerships, such that the ultimate beneficiaries of the PA Section's mission are the patients, the health care system and the camaraderie of medical colleagues.
The North Carolina Medical Society recognized in the early 1990s that the relationship between physician assistants and physicians was an important one that should be nurtured within the Medical Society itself; in 1992, E. Harvey Estes, MD, and Eugene Stead, MD, proposed that PAs be invited to join the Medical Society, a measure that was quickly passed. In 1993, the NCMS Physician Assistant Section was created and now, more than 13 years later, there are nearly 350 active physician assistant members within the Medical Society.
The NCMS PA Section's role is to continue to cultivate the relationship between PAs and physicians and to initiate collaborative public health projects that tackle some of today's biggest health concerns. The latest focus of the NCMS PA Section is on the epidemic of obesity, with PA Section members participating on an obesity subcommittee of the Family and Public Health Committee. The NCMS PA Section's role in organized medicine differs from the mission of the NC Academy of Physician Assistants (NCAPA), which advocates on behalf of physician assistants and promotes the PA profession. For more information about the Academy, visit www.ncapa.org.
Read an article by NCMS PA Section Chair Jim Hill: "The Physician / PA Team and A Collaborative Relationship Between the NCMS and the NCAPA: Are We or Are We Not Working Together?"
Print Page