Yale_Physician_Associate_Program
Yale Physician Associate Program
Physician assistant program in the United States
The Yale Physician Associate program accepted its first class in 1971. The mission of the program is to educate individuals to become outstanding clinicians and to foster leaders who will serve their communities and advance the physician assistant (PA) profession. The program's founder, Dr. Alfred M. Sadler Jr., served as its first director in 1970. Yale School of Medicine maintains the only PA program named "Physician Associate" program instead of a "Physician Assistant" program in the United States, as it pre-dates the formation of the accreditation body and has elected to retain its original name.[1] Note that despite the difference in name, graduates of the program will take the Physician Assistant National Certifying Exam and will be called a physician assistant when practicing.[2]