Are Australians willing to be treated by a Physician Assistant?

BackgroundPhysician assistants (PAs) are deployed to extend the role of the general practitioner and other doctors in Canada, England, Scotland, The Netherlands, the United States and elsewhere.  Because Australians have little experience with this type of provider, we undertook a study to test the willingness of patients to be treated by a PA. Method  A time trade-off preference survey was administered to women naïve about PAs in Northern Queensland in 2009.  Each survey described one of three scenarios of injury and asked the patient to make a decision between waiting four hours for a doctor or one hour for a PA.  ResultsA total of 229 candidate patients unconditionally participated (225 met criteria).  Two-thirds were between the ages of 20 & 35 years.  All but two of the participants (99%) selected to be treated by the PA regardless of the scenario.  When choices of time differences between a doctor and a PA were reduced to 2 hours and 1 hour, respectively, the preferential choice of seeing the PA persisted.  ConclusionAustralian women in Northern Queensland were willing to be treated by a PA as a theoretical construct and without actual experience or knowledge of PAs.  The familiar doctor care was traded for that of a PA when access to care was more available.  Developing PAs in Australian society may be practical and patient attitudes more accepting, than realized.  The concept of willingness to be treated has utility in socioeconomic research

Are Dutch patients willing to be seen by a physician assistant instead of a medical doctor?

Background The employment of physician assistants (PAs) is a strategy to improve access to care. Since the new millennium, a handful of countries have turned to PAs as a means to bridge the growing gap between the supply and demand of medical services. However, little is known about this new workforce entity from the patient’s perspective. The objective of this study was to assess the willingness of Dutch patients to be treated by a PA or a medical doctor (MD) under various time constraints and semi-urgent medical scenarios. Methods A total of 450 Dutch adults were recruited to act as surrogate patients. A convenience sample was drawn from patients in a medical office waiting room in a general hospital awaiting their appointments. Each participant was screened to be naive as to what a PA and a nurse practitioner are and then read a definition of a PA and an MD. One of three medical scenarios was assigned to the participants in a patterned 1-2-3 strategy. Patients were required to make a trade-off decision of being seen after 1 hour by a PA or after 4 hours by a doctor. This forced-choice method continued with the same patient two more times with 30 minutes and 4 hours and another one of 2 hours versus 4 hours for the PA and MD, respectively. Results Surrogate patients chose the PA over the MD 96 % to 98 % of the time (depending on the scenario). No differences emerged when analysed by gender, age, or parenthood status. Conclusion Willingness to be seen by a PA was tested a priori to determine whether surrogate Dutch patients would welcome this new health-care provider. The findings suggest that employing PAs, at least in concept, may be an acceptable strategy for improving access to care with this population

Anticitrullinated protein antibody (ACPA) in rheumatoid arthritis: influence of an interaction between HLA-DRB1 shared epitope and a deletion polymorphism in glutathione s-transferase in a cross-sectional study

Abstract Introduction A deletion polymorphism in glutathione S-transferase Mu-1 (GSTM1-null) has previously been implicated to play a role in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) risk and progression, although no prior investigations have examined its associations with anticitrullinated protein antibody (ACPA) positivity. The purpose of this study was to examine the associations of GSTM1-null with ACPA positivity in RA and to assess for evidence of interaction between GSTM1 and HLA-DRB1 shared epitope (SE). Methods Associations of GSTM1-null with ACPA positivity were examined separately in two RA cohorts, the Veterans Affairs Rheumatoid Arthritis (VARA) registry (n = 703) and the Study of New-Onset RA (SONORA; n = 610). Interactions were examined by calculating an attributable proportion (AP) due to interaction. Results A majority of patients in the VARA registry (76%) and SONORA (69%) were positive for ACPA with a similar frequency of GSTM1-null (53% and 52%, respectively) and HLA-DRB1 SE positivity (76% and 71%, respectively). The parameter of patients who had ever smoked was more common in the VARA registry (80%) than in SONORA (65%). GSTM1-null was significantly associated with ACPA positivity in the VARA registry (odds ratio (OR), 1.45; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.02 to 2.05), but not in SONORA (OR, 1.00; 95% CI, 0.71 to 1.42). There were significant additive interactions between GSTM1 and HLA-DRB1 SE in the VARA registry (AP, 0.49; 95% CI, 0.21 to 0.77; P < 0.001) in ACPA positivity, an interaction replicated in SONORA (AP, 0.38; 95% CI, 0.00 to 0.76; P = 0.050). Conclusions This study is the first to show that the GSTM1-null genotype, a common genetic variant, exerts significant additive interaction with HLA-DRB1 SE on the risk of ACPA positivity in RA. Since GSTM1 has known antioxidant functions, these data suggest that oxidative stress may be important in the development of RA-specific autoimmunity in genetically susceptible individuals

Cost-Benefit Analysis of Physician Assistants

This study examined if physician assistants (PAs) are cost-beneficial to employers. In an era of cost accountability, questions arise about whether a visit to a PA for an episode of care differs from a visit to a physician, and if PAs erode their cost-effectiveness by the manner in which they manage patients. Four common acute medical conditions seen by PAs and physicians within a large health maintenance organization were identified to study. An episode approach was undertaken to identify all laboratory, imaging, medication and provider costs for these diagnoses. Over 12,700 medical office visits were analyzed and assigned to each type of provider and medical department. Patient variables included age, gender, and health status. A multivariate analysis identified significant cost differences in each cohort of patients. In every condition managed by PAs, the total cost of the visit was less than that of a physician in the same department. This was significant for episodes of shoulder tendinitis, otitis media, and urinary tract infections. In no instance were PAs statistically different from physicians in use of laboratory and imaging costs. In each instance the total cost of the episode was less when treated by a PA. Sometimes PAs ordered fewer laboratory tests than physicians. There were no differences in the rate of return visits for a diagnosis between physicians and PAs. Patient differences were held constant for age, gender, and health status. This study affirms that PAs are not only cost-effective from a labor standpoint but are also cost-beneficial to those who employ them. In most cases, they order resources for diagnosis and treatment in a manner similar to physicians for an episode of care, but the cost of an episode of an illness is more economical overall when the P A delivers the care. This study validates the federal policy of support for primary care P A education and suggests that PA employment should be expanded in many sectors of the health care system. These findings and the results of this cost-benefit model are evidence of its validity in predicting health care costs

Physician assistant education:five countries

BACKGROUND: Physician assistant (PA) education has undergone substantial change since the late 1960s. After four decades of development, other countries have taken a page from the American experience and launched their own instructional initiatives. The diversity in how different countries approach education and produce a PA for their nation's needs provides an opportunity to make comparisons. The intent of this study was to document and describe PA programs in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, The Netherlands, and the United States. METHODS: We reviewed the literature and contacted a network of academics in various institutions to obtain primary information. Each contact was asked a set of basic questions about the country, the PA program, and the deployment of graduates. Information on US PA programs was obtained from the Physician Assistant Education Association. RESULTS: At year's end 2010, the following was known about PA development: Australia, one program; Canada, four programs; United Kingdom, four programs; The Netherlands, five programs; the United States, 154 programs. Trends in program per capita growth remain the largest in the United States, followed by The Netherlands and Canada. The shortest program length was 24 months and the longest, 36 months. Outside the United States, almost all programs are situated in an academic health center ([AHC] defined as a medical university, a teaching hospital, and a nursing or allied health school), whereas only one-third of US PA programs are in AHCs. All non-US programs receive public/government funding whereas American programs are predominately private and depend on tuition to fund their programs. CONCLUSION: The PA movement is a global phenomenon. How PAs are being educated, trained, and deployed is known only on the basic level. We identify common characteristics, unique aspects, and trends in PA education across five nations, and set the stage for collaboration and analysis of optimal educational strategies. Additional information is needed on lesser-known PA programs outside these five countries