Michael Halasy, DHSc, MS, PA-C completed his Hospital Corpsman training at the Naval School of Health Sciences in San Diego, California. He served as a US Navy Corpsman from 1990 to 1993. He attained an undergraduate degree in economics from the University of Akron, Akron, OH, in 1994. He also received an Associate of Applied Science degree and certification in PA studies from Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland, Ohio in 2000. Due to being a part of a neurosurgical team during his PA clerkship that repaired a giant basilar aneurysm, he developed an interest in working in surgery.
In 2001, he began his clinical career in orthopedics at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. The clinical environment was rich with academic medical leaders. In 2007, he became enamored with research activities and clinical outcomes research. He switched his clinical focus to emergency medicine. Then in 2012, he moved into neuroscience, working on a complex PM&R (Physical Medicine and Rehabilitative) service to provide non-operative spine care.
Michael Halasy currently teaches at A.T. Still University in Mesa, Arizona, as an associate professor. As part of his academic career, Halasy’s research interests include evaluating provider behavior, communication, productivity, evidence-based care adherence and quality metrics. He also has an interest in economics, primarily provider productivity analysis. The underlying goals of his research are to better understand the issues of provider well-being, burnout, and shared decision-making, and to also improve provider and patient satisfaction, utilize evidence-based care, and increase productivity, resulting in better clinical outcomes. He also wants to use normalization process theory frameworks to better embed and normalize audit and feedback (AF) interventions in care delivery.
Halasy notes that PAs are often terrified of research. As an educator, he wants to facilitate PAs learning about the logarithmic approach to defining questions, hypotheses, testing, reviewing data and analyzing results. His publications contribute to improved quality outcomes activities that focus on provider satisfaction, decrease burnout, improve productivity, improve decision-making and communication, embed or normalize feedback interventions to reduce care variation, reduce costs, and most importantly, improve quality and clinical outcomes.
Halasy was 1 of 5 US researchers to be invited to Ottawa, Canada, to participate in an international audit and feedback research summit. He continues to work with this group on updated Cochrane reviews, as well as with researchers in Ireland examining pediatric diabetic interventions.
Michael Halasy was also selected to represent the Mayo Clinic’s non-physician providers as part of the Mayo Clinic Health Policy Center which worked with former Senator Max Baucus (Montana). He participated in health policy debates on accountable care as part of the Center.
Halasy served in the AAPA partner leadership and development council. He has been a speaker for the Minnesota State Academy and the Society for Emergency Medicine PAs (SEMPA) – where he also served as a health policy advisor on health reform. He also participated in a research roundtable at NCCPA led by Randy Danielsen in 2010 and served on the North American Spine Society section on interdisciplinary care.
While working full-time, he obtained a masters of science in sports medicine, a masters of PA studies (2005) and a Doctor of Health Science in Organizational Behavior from A.T. Still University School of Health Sciences (2012).
Halasy has been recognized with a visiting professorship in 2013 for the American Academy of Family Practice PAs. He is obsessed with golf, and is active in aikido, jiu jitsu, judo, and mixed martial arts. His career balanced clinical medicine, research, teaching and meeting luminaries. He is looking forward to his next challenge.
Acknowledgments
This biography was written by CAPT Robin Hunter-Buskey and Michael Halasy and was submitted to the Society in May 2025. Photographs are courtesy of Dr. Halasy.
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