History of Yale's PA Program

The Yale PA Program was developed in 1970 under the auspices of the Trauma Program of the Department of Surgery and accepted its first class of five students in 1971. The founders of the PA Program, Jack Cole, M.D., chair of the Department of Surgery, and Alfred Sadler, M.D., created the first PA Program in the United States with emergency medicine and surgery emphases. By the mid-1980's, the program was training students as generalist PAs, preparing them for practice in diverse areas of medicine.

In January 1973, the Yale Program graduated its first class of 5 students. As of January 2009, a total of 906 physician associate students have completed their education at Yale.

 Jack Cole, founder of the Yale PA Program, surveys New Haven's Cedar Street in the mid 1960s.

"The Physician Associate"

At the time of the program's inception in the early 1970s, the name of the PA profession and the associated training programs varied greatly. The term PA is now widely used to denote physician assistant; however, the program pioneers wanted to convey the collegial relationship that exists between PAs and their supervising physicians and thus adopted the term "Physician Associate." Currently both physician assistants and physician associates operate under the title of PA.

Masters of Medical Science

The first twenty-seven classes were granted a certificate in physician associate studies. As a sign of the growing influence of PAs in American healthcare and recognition of curriculum enhancements in research, the Yale Corporation approved the awarding of a masters of medical science degree (MMSc) to be first conferred to the Yale PA Program's Class of 1999.

Accreditation

In 1971, the Council on Medical Education of the American Medical Association established the "Essentials of an Approved Educational Program for the Primary Care Physician's Assistant." Through the years, there have been several accrediting bodies responsible for accrediting Physician Assistant Programs. On January 1, 2001, the Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant (ARC-PA) became an independent review commission and created standards to which all PA programs are held. The Yale Physician Associate Program has enjoyed continuous accreditation since 1975, and recently was recertified by the ARC-PA for full accreditation through September 2012.  Please note that the ARC-PA does not accredit the Public Health curriculum associated with the PA/MPH joint degree.  The MPH curriculum is accredited by the Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH).

National Board Pass Rates

Overall, the National Commission on the Certification of Physician Assistants pass rate for Yale graduates since the mid 1970’s is 99.8%.  The table below outlines the first time pass rates for the past five years: