Semiannual Meeting Highlights

PAEA members met in San Francisco, May 26-28, for three days of educational sessions and meetings at the Association’s first Semiannual Meeting as an independent organization. Some highlights of the meeting follow.

PAEA President Dawn Morton-Rias welcomed members at the first public session of the meeting, the Update on PAEA Activities. She briefly reviewed the recently completed organizational transition and the various enhancements to services the Association has made in the past several months, especially to its primary communications vehicles — the Journal of Physician Assistant Education (JPAE) and the monthly Web-based newsletter PAEA Networker. She also noted that the Association has purchased an advertisement in the June 19th issue of Newsweek, which will contain a special advertising section on PA education.

Morton-Rias told members that reviewing its policies and processes related to data gathering and management would be a high priority for the Association this year. The board will soon establish a workgroup to review the questions asked in the Annual Report survey and the Association’s overall data needs, and work is also continuing on the technological front to better integrate and streamline the processes for gathering data from PA programs. The Association will also be working with other PA organizations to ensure that data supplied by PA programs is properly protected.

Morton-Rias also reported that the white paper of the PAEA Graduate Education Commission had been completed in May and formally accepted by the board just prior to the San Francisco meeting. The paper will be published in the next issue of the Journal of Physician Assistant Education and will also be mailed to all programs in the next few weeks.

At the Board of Directors Meeting, the board heard reports from representatives of several external organizations and from its own committees and councils. Noteworthy actions included the following:

• Secretary/Treasurer Dana Sayre-Stanhope reported that the Association is in excellent financial health and that costs related to the transition to independent management and new offices had been much lower than forecast, allowing the Association to move $250,000 into its investment account and to freeze dues for the 2006-2007 membership year. The board approved a budget of $1.26 million for FY2007, which includes a projected surplus of about $180,000.
• Student Member at Large David Wood reported that in an effort to promote continuity, the SAAAPA Board of Directors had agreed to PAEA’s suggestion to extend the one-year term of the student member on the PAEA board to two years. The PAEA student member will no longer also sit on the SAAAPA board, eliminating a potential conflict of interest. Wood introduced the newly elected student member, Jessica Milligan, a student at the St. Louis University PA Program. Milligan will take her seat on the PAEA board following the Annual Education Forum in October, to bring the student member’s term into line with the other board terms.
• Bill Kohlhepp, chair of the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants (NCCPA) Board of Directors, reported that the NCCPA had convened a task force to explore specialty recognition, including the development of specialty exams. NCCPA will host a forum in Atlanta on June 25 to seek the input of all PA organizations.
• Kristin Norris, president of the Association of Postgraduate Physician Assistant Programs, thanked the board for earlier meetings in which the two organizations had discussed possible future collaboration.
• The board appointed Mary Warner, Yale University, to the vacant seat on the Research Institute Advisory Committee.
• The board approved the expenditure of $300 for the Association to join the National Coalition for Health Professional Education in Genetics.

At the PAEA Awards Presentation, three PA students presented their winning entries to the PAEA Annual Student Writing Competition. The winning students and their submissions were

• Amanda Pinkert, Duke University Medical Center PA Program, for “The Effect of Treatment Options on Quality of Life in Patients with Persistent or Recurrent Atrial Fibrillation: A Review of the Literature.”
• Theresa Jones, from the Medical University of Ohio at Toledo PA Program, for “Analyzing the Attitudes and Practices of Residents of Lucas County, Ohio, in Regard to Advance Care Planning”
• Ryanne Coulson, from the Chatham College PA Program in Pennsylvania, for “Community-Acquired Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus Infection: The New Common Cold?”

Robert Hadley, a member of the student writing awards subcommittee, congratulated the winners and presented them with certificates and checks. The competition was again generously sponsored by the Journal of the American Academy of Physician Assistants.

Also at this session, Research Institute Chair Rick Dehn presented two faculty members with grant funding checks from the joint AAPA/PAEA Research Grants Program. These were:

• Perri Morgan, Duke University Medical Center PA Program. She received $8,892 for “Effects of Physician Assistant Care on Patient Satisfaction, Provision of Preventive Services, Healthcare Utilization, and Healthcare Expenditures: A Case-Control Approach.”
• Roderick Hooker, VA Medical Center in Dallas, Texas. He received $11,108 for “The Expansion of Rheumatology Services with Physician Assistants.”

At the CASPA Year 5 Data Presentation, CASPA Advisory Committee Chair Ted Ruback reported that the applicant pool continues to grow and that CASPA continued to improve its processing time and its service to applicants and programs.

Guest speaker Justine Strand encouraged attendees at the PA Honor Society Reception to encourage excellence in PA education by giving Pi Alpha membership to students, faculty, preceptors, and others. AAPA Vice President Greg Thomas received honorary Pi Alpha membership from the Wichita State University PA Program.