Faculty of Physician Associates

General information

A physician associate (PA) is a dependent health care professional who has been trained in the medical model and works with supervision of a doctor or surgeon. PAs obtain medical histories, conduct comprehensive physical exams, request and interpret tests, diagnose and treat illnesses and injuries, and counsel on preventive health care.

As in the early days in the United States, PAs in the UK are not able to prescribe medication at this time. PAs are involved in acute medicine as well as chronic disease management in both primary and secondary care in a wide variety of specialties.

The PA concept started in the United States more than 45 years ago, and the model has since spread to Canada, Australia, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. A number of other countries around the world have similar but not identical non-physician providers.