Fall 2012 Alumni Magazine - Lake Erie College

feature PA Program
LEC to Add a Physician’s Assistant Program
by Milena Velez
In the summer of 2014 Lake Erie College
will open its doors to students looking
to complete a degree as physician’s
assistants. Over the past few months
the College has been working on the
accreditation process for putting in place
a Master of Physician Assistant Studies
(MPAS) degree, with a strong community
presence and support, and opportunities
for prospective students from local and
national pools.
“This program is two years in the
making,” said Joe Weber, director of the
Physician’s Assistant (PA) program, “since
the formal proposal was brought before
the Board of Directors in Spring 2011
for review and approval.” Weber holds
MPAS and MBA degrees, and is currently
working on his Doctorate of Health
Sciences in Global Health. The application
for accreditation will be submitted to
the Accreditation Review Commission
on Education for the Physician Assistant
(ARC-PA) in February of 2013. The next
step of the process will be a formal site
visit in April 2013, after which the College
will be looking to receive feedback by
September 2013.
The idea and the initial push for the
establishment of the PA program came
largely from within the institution. Richard
Hanson, member of the Lake Erie College
Board of Directors and the president of
University Hospitals (UH) Community
Hospitals and Ambulatory Networks, has
been a major driving force behind the
program. He was joined by President
Michael T. Victor, Vice President for
Academic Affairs Jana Holwick, and Dr.
Steven Reynolds, dean of the School of
Natural Science and Mathematics. They
set up a feasibility study to determine
what it would take to launch a PA program
at LEC, while at the same time looking
at a number of factors relevant to the
success of the program, such as local and
global trends in PA programs.
Following the initial steps, the College
assembled a Steering Committee
charged with building the foundations
of the program. Among the members
of the Committee are a number of local
medical professionals, including Steve
Jones, president of UH-Geauga
and Dr. David
Kosnosky, chief
medical
officer at
UH-Geauga,
who are taking
active roles in
planning the
initial
design. Dr. Kosnosky will also serve as the
medical director for the PA program.
“UH has been an extremely valuable
partner from day one,” Weber said.
“They will not only provide guest lecturers
in various specialties, physicians and
physicians’ assistants, but also a large
number of clinical rotations in emergency
medicine, family medicine, internal
medicine, women’s health, and surgery.
Our students will spend [a considerable
amount] of time at UH during the
clinical phase.”
There will be another side of the
partnership between LEC and UH –
there is the potential for utilizing the
LEC program as a feeder program for
UH. While the LEC students are doing
their clinical rotations at UH, the medical
professionals there will be able to review
and evaluate them, and potentially
consider them for positions at UH. For
the students, this will be an extraordinary
opportunity to learn from some
of the best physicians in the country,
and possibly to begin their careers at
world-class facilities.
6 LAKE ERIE | FALL ‘12