Who Are We?
The Physician Assistant History Society, Inc., is dedicated to the history and legacy of the physician assistant profession through the identification and collection of appropriate papers, manuscripts, magazine and newspaper clippings, newsletters, reports, dissertations, oral histories, and visual artifacts, such as films, slides, videos, photographs, and digital images.
Establishing the PAHx
A Collaborative Effort
The office began as a collaborative effort between the DUMC Library and Archives, the American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA), the Association of Physician Assistant Programs (APAP), and the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants (NCCPA). Other PA organizations soon joined the effort as sponsors of ongoing projects. In October 2001, the office’s Board of Advisors discussed creating a Society for the Preservation of Physician Assistant History (SPPAHx) to eventually supersede the PA History Office as the preeminent leader in fostering the preservation, study and presentation of PA history. The Society was incorporated on January 17, 2002 and became fully operational in July 2002 under the leadership of Dr. J. Jeffery Heinrich, the Society’s first elected president.
PAHx Today
The PA History Society began as a membership organization that eventually became a supporting organization first of the AAPA and then the NCCPA.
On June 15, 2011, the Society became a supporting organization of the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants (NCCPA). The Society’s archives were transferred from the Duke University Medical Center Archives to the NCCPA headquarters in Johns Creek, GA. The PA History Society is governed by the Board of Trustees.
