Still a New Day at AAPA: Q&A With Bill Leinweber

Since joining the American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA) in February 2008 as Executive Vice President and CEO, Bill Leinweber has brought positive energy and a new focus to the organization. Despite his busy schedule, Leinweber recently found time to speak with Clinician Reviews about AAPA’s goals and priorities, the impact of health care reform on the direction of the profession, and efforts to raise PAs’ public profile.

Clinician Reviews: When you joined AAPA, what was your assessment of the profession’s needs?

Leinweber: My observation and experience was, from a PA perspective, a very high level of enthusiasm and commitment by PAs about the profession, and a strong desire for the profession to take its rightful, prominent place in health care. I really sensed a hunger, in those who make up the profession, for recognition, of wanting to be perceived as truly a player in the delivery of health care and the policy that accompanies that delivery.

CR: Of the changes implemented at AAPA in the past two years, which for you is the most significant and/or satisfying?

Leinweber: What jumps to mind is shifting the real focus and the work of the Board of Directors of the Academy from that of an operational board to a strategic board. What are the truly big issues and major priorities that the board needs to focus their time and attention on and allocate the organization’s resources to address? As we become more strategically focused, you’ll see continuity in terms of the goals that we’re working to achieve and the resources we’re putting behind achieving those goals.

We have also worked hard to shift—and this continues; I don’t want to suggest it’s completed—from a very process-driven organization to one that really wants to look at outcomes. You need some level of process, but if you have a lot of process but not the outcomes that really move the ball forward, then you’re not serving your members.

That said, there will be things that individuals or groups of individuals in the profession believe should be a priority that aren’t. I want to be clear that even in moving to a strategic focus and direction, everybody doesn’t get everything they want addressed all the time. That’s a challenge.

CR: What are your immediate and ongoing priorities for AAPA?

Leinweber: Our policymakers just passed historic health care reform legislation. There are clearly, even within our profession, varying points of view across the political spectrum in support for or opposition to health care reform.

The Academy had no position per se on any bill in its entirety. What we focused on was to ensure that as any and all legislation began to take shape, PAs were prominently and appropriately identified as key to the success of any reform effort.

I believe we made huge headway there. PAs are called out by name in the legislation, in terms of being critical to the success of the expansion of primary care and in a number of other ways.

That has implications in terms of priorities. The country will now move from a legislative process to the implementation of many of the provisions in the reform legislation over the next several years. That will have bearing on some of our work and some of our priorities. What will this mean for us as a profession? What does it mean for us as an Academy, and how do we respond?

Certainly the number of PAs in primary care today is not what it once was. We feel an obligation to really be looking for strategies to help grow, to the fullest degree possible, interest and commitment to primary care—and to do that in a way that doesn’t detract from the important contributions PAs in specialties are making.

I look at this as, how do we grow the whole “pie” of PAs exponentially, so that we can contribute larger numbers to the critical need in primary care, in addition to having PAs filling needs in surgery, surgical subspecialties, internal medicine, etc?

We continue to move forward with the development of a research agenda for the profession. In that regard, we hosted a research summit in early March, which was very well attended. We’ll be putting out a proceedings paper from that summit soon, which will outline the steps we will take to formulate a research agenda for the profession.

Also, we’re undertaking a lot of work on the governance front of the Academy. Over the next year, we’ll be looking at the relationship AAPA has with its state chapters and with its specialty organizations. The way those relationships have been chartered and have worked hasn’t really changed in 30 or 40 years, and I think the world in that time has changed dramatically.

The profession has grown dramatically, and it’s time for us to sit down with representatives of our constituent organizations and make sure that we’re working in the best model that we can to have the fullest impact at the local and the national level.

CR: How will AAPA address the increased movement by PAs from primary to specialty care?

Leinweber: If you step back and look at primary health care in its totality, the reality is that the demand for PAs continues to outstrip the supply. When you look at health care reform and the strong focus on primary care, I don’t think we’re necessarily going to see any immediate lessening of demand for PAs in specialty areas at the expense of growth in the primary care arena. So our challenge will be to grow that pie in totality.

We worked to have incentives built into the health care reform legislation that would encourage PA programs to participate in grant programs and other efforts that would really reward them for growing the number of PAs who choose primary care as their specialty, and to incentivize students who choose that path by increasing opportunities through the National Health Service Corps and loan forgiveness programs. Those things matter.

When you look at the primary care challenges of the country, the challenges that MDs or DOs face in terms of trying to grow the cadre of individuals going into primary care aren’t all that different from what we face. It comes down to quality of life, the compensation that’s tied to that particular kind of medicine, opportunities for advancement, flexibility.

Those are all issues that we’re going to have to address. We’ve begun to do that, but we’re going to have to work with organized medicine to continue to push for a shift in how the country rewards and positions primary care.

CR: How will AAPA provide support to PAs in specialties, while maintaining its commitment to primary care?

Leinweber: There are 24 specialty organizations that have a charter agreement with AAPA and are represented in our House of Delegates. We work closely with our specialty organizations; we collaborate with them, increasingly, on continuing medical education (CME) programs that they provide to their members.

The AAPA will work with the Society of PAs in Pediatrics, for example, and work to bring the American Academy of Pediatrics to the table so that we can contribute to shaping the delivery of programs that are of value to PAs in particular specialty fields. I certainly see us continuing to do that.

We completely recognize that the demographic has shifted. Our statistics now show that 35.7% of PAs identify themselves as practicing in primary care. So, that means almost 65% are in a specialized field. That’s a reality that we look at and we shape our services accordingly.

But considering how things are moving nationwide, relative to a reformed health care system, we very much feel the need, the pressure, and the obligation to do everything we can to grow those primary care numbers.

CR: What opportunities do you see for PAs to partner with NPs?

Leinweber: We are doing some partnering now in the form of joint CME programs that we’ve conducted in the past couple of years with the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners and various doctor specialty groups. For instance, there was a boot camp last August with the Society for Hospital Medicine. We will collaboratively put on programs that are designed to serve the CME needs of PAs and NPs primarily, although physicians can participate as well. Those have been tremendously successful. We certainly want to continue to do that.

On the legislative front, I think there is value in PAs and NPs working collaboratively wherever we can at the federal level. Wherever we have common messages that support our various legislative goals, we’re certainly open to that. I think when you start to look at the state level and where health care is delivered, on the front lines, things become a little more challenging because we don’t answer to the same regulatory body at that level.

But our philosophy is, the country has an enormous need in terms of individuals requiring care from qualified, competent providers. We need many more PAs, we need more NPs; there are very important and distinct roles that we play. And wherever we can work together to bring the wherewithal of our respective professions to improve health care and health care delivery, I think we need to be open to that and look for those opportunities.

CR: NPs have been touted for significantly raising their public profile, while many PAs feel their profession has lagged behind in this area. How is AAPA approaching the public perception and marketing of the profession?

Leinweber: First of all, I think it’s accurate to say that the NPs have been ahead of us from a policymaker and a public recognition/perception point of view. But I think we’ve made some significant strides over the past couple of years with the PA profession.

We have been very targeted in our approach. We made a conscious decision that it was critical to elevate the presence and the positioning of the profession first and foremost among policymakers and thought leaders who have the authority to impact how the profession is practiced. So, much of our work has focused on building understanding and awareness among members of Congress, among the administration, among state leaders, elected and appointed officials.

We have undertaken a variety of initiatives that we have not done before: briefings, roundtables, advertising that we’re doing in targeted publications, such as Congressional Daily, Politico, Roll Call. Some of these ads have really made a difference in terms of the role that we were invited to play in shaping health care reform. We were very much at the table. We were invited to the White House continually and invited to meetings with Congressional leaders throughout the drafting of health care reform legislation. So I think we’ve made some real strides there.

We’re not ignoring the public. But in an organization with limited resources, it’s been our feeling and our belief that the best service we can provide to our members and the best return we can put on their investment, in terms of their membership dues, is to make certain that policies are put in place that allow PAs to really practice to the full degree that they’re equipped to practice and to remove any barriers we can that prevent that.

We are beginning to make some inroads, from a public perception standpoint. Increasingly, as debate and understanding around health care reform begins to trickle across the country, we hear from and are engaging more and more folks from the mainstream media, such as MSNBC, Newsweek, the Wall Street Journal, and others.

They’re seeing, from a legislative point of view, multiple references to this profession called “physician assistants,” and they want to talk to us. They want to know about the profession so they can inform consumers on how to access and utilize PAs.

So I’m really proud of the work we’ve accomplished there. We have a long way to go—and really that work will never stop. But I think we have been on target in terms of how we have focused our resources, and we need to continue that very strongly in the future.

CR: What other messages do you have for PAs and their NP colleagues?

Leinweber: From a professional point of view, I can’t imagine a more well-positioned, exciting, and thriving profession at this point in history than the physician assistant profession. We are really poised to play the leadership role that some may argue we have played for decades quietly, but I think [now] much more visibly and with much more recognition. I just think there’s a level of relevance and consideration about the profession that hasn’t existed before. That’s very exciting, and it bodes very well for the future of the profession.

Relative to our work with our NP colleagues, there is an enormous amount of work needed by NPs and PAs across the country and across the health care spectrum. PAs and NPs work extremely well together and often seamlessly on the clinical level, and my hope would be to leverage every opportunity we can at the national level to make sure patients have access to the best quality of care, to the best providers, when they need it.

Since joining the American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA) in February 2008 as Executive Vice President and CEO, Bill Leinweber has brought positive energy and a new focus to the organization. Despite his busy schedule, Leinweber recently found time to speak with Clinician Reviews about AAPA’s goals and priorities, the impact of health care reform on the direction of the profession, and efforts to raise PAs’ public profile.

Clinician Reviews: When you joined AAPA, what was your assessment of the profession’s needs?

Leinweber: My observation and experience was, from a PA perspective, a very high level of enthusiasm and commitment by PAs about the profession, and a strong desire for the profession to take its rightful, prominent place in health care. I really sensed a hunger, in those who make up the profession, for recognition, of wanting to be perceived as truly a player in the delivery of health care and the policy that accompanies that delivery.

CR: Of the changes implemented at AAPA in the past two years, which for you is the most significant and/or satisfying?

Leinweber: What jumps to mind is shifting the real focus and the work of the Board of Directors of the Academy from that of an operational board to a strategic board. What are the truly big issues and major priorities that the board needs to focus their time and attention on and allocate the organization’s resources to address? As we become more strategically focused, you’ll see continuity in terms of the goals that we’re working to achieve and the resources we’re putting behind achieving those goals.

We have also worked hard to shift—and this continues; I don’t want to suggest it’s completed—from a very process-driven organization to one that really wants to look at outcomes. You need some level of process, but if you have a lot of process but not the outcomes that really move the ball forward, then you’re not serving your members.

That said, there will be things that individuals or groups of individuals in the profession believe should be a priority that aren’t. I want to be clear that even in moving to a strategic focus and direction, everybody doesn’t get everything they want addressed all the time. That’s a challenge.

CR: What are your immediate and ongoing priorities for AAPA?

Leinweber: Our policymakers just passed historic health care reform legislation. There are clearly, even within our profession, varying points of view across the political spectrum in support for or opposition to health care reform.

The Academy had no position per se on any bill in its entirety. What we focused on was to ensure that as any and all legislation began to take shape, PAs were prominently and appropriately identified as key to the success of any reform effort.

I believe we made huge headway there. PAs are called out by name in the legislation, in terms of being critical to the success of the expansion of primary care and in a number of other ways.

That has implications in terms of priorities. The country will now move from a legislative process to the implementation of many of the provisions in the reform legislation over the next several years. That will have bearing on some of our work and some of our priorities. What will this mean for us as a profession? What does it mean for us as an Academy, and how do we respond?

Certainly the number of PAs in primary care today is not what it once was. We feel an obligation to really be looking for strategies to help grow, to the fullest degree possible, interest and commitment to primary care—and to do that in a way that doesn’t detract from the important contributions PAs in specialties are making.

I look at this as, how do we grow the whole “pie” of PAs exponentially, so that we can contribute larger numbers to the critical need in primary care, in addition to having PAs filling needs in surgery, surgical subspecialties, internal medicine, etc?

We continue to move forward with the development of a research agenda for the profession. In that regard, we hosted a research summit in early March, which was very well attended. We’ll be putting out a proceedings paper from that summit soon, which will outline the steps we will take to formulate a research agenda for the profession.

Also, we’re undertaking a lot of work on the governance front of the Academy. Over the next year, we’ll be looking at the relationship AAPA has with its state chapters and with its specialty organizations. The way those relationships have been chartered and have worked hasn’t really changed in 30 or 40 years, and I think the world in that time has changed dramatically.

The profession has grown dramatically, and it’s time for us to sit down with representatives of our constituent organizations and make sure that we’re working in the best model that we can to have the fullest impact at the local and the national level.

CR: How will AAPA address the increased movement by PAs from primary to specialty care?

Leinweber: If you step back and look at primary health care in its totality, the reality is that the demand for PAs continues to outstrip the supply. When you look at health care reform and the strong focus on primary care, I don’t think we’re necessarily going to see any immediate lessening of demand for PAs in specialty areas at the expense of growth in the primary care arena. So our challenge will be to grow that pie in totality.

We worked to have incentives built into the health care reform legislation that would encourage PA programs to participate in grant programs and other efforts that would really reward them for growing the number of PAs who choose primary care as their specialty, and to incentivize students who choose that path by increasing opportunities through the National Health Service Corps and loan forgiveness programs. Those things matter.

When you look at the primary care challenges of the country, the challenges that MDs or DOs face in terms of trying to grow the cadre of individuals going into primary care aren’t all that different from what we face. It comes down to quality of life, the compensation that’s tied to that particular kind of medicine, opportunities for advancement, flexibility.

Those are all issues that we’re going to have to address. We’ve begun to do that, but we’re going to have to work with organized medicine to continue to push for a shift in how the country rewards and positions primary care.

CR: How will AAPA provide support to PAs in specialties, while maintaining its commitment to primary care?

Leinweber: There are 24 specialty organizations that have a charter agreement with AAPA and are represented in our House of Delegates. We work closely with our specialty organizations; we collaborate with them, increasingly, on continuing medical education (CME) programs that they provide to their members.

The AAPA will work with the Society of PAs in Pediatrics, for example, and work to bring the American Academy of Pediatrics to the table so that we can contribute to shaping the delivery of programs that are of value to PAs in particular specialty fields. I certainly see us continuing to do that.

We completely recognize that the demographic has shifted. Our statistics now show that 35.7% of PAs identify themselves as practicing in primary care. So, that means almost 65% are in a specialized field. That’s a reality that we look at and we shape our services accordingly.

But considering how things are moving nationwide, relative to a reformed health care system, we very much feel the need, the pressure, and the obligation to do everything we can to grow those primary care numbers.

CR: What opportunities do you see for PAs to partner with NPs?

Leinweber: We are doing some partnering now in the form of joint CME programs that we’ve conducted in the past couple of years with the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners and various doctor specialty groups. For instance, there was a boot camp last August with the Society for Hospital Medicine. We will collaboratively put on programs that are designed to serve the CME needs of PAs and NPs primarily, although physicians can participate as well. Those have been tremendously successful. We certainly want to continue to do that.

On the legislative front, I think there is value in PAs and NPs working collaboratively wherever we can at the federal level. Wherever we have common messages that support our various legislative goals, we’re certainly open to that. I think when you start to look at the state level and where health care is delivered, on the front lines, things become a little more challenging because we don’t answer to the same regulatory body at that level.

But our philosophy is, the country has an enormous need in terms of individuals requiring care from qualified, competent providers. We need many more PAs, we need more NPs; there are very important and distinct roles that we play. And wherever we can work together to bring the wherewithal of our respective professions to improve health care and health care delivery, I think we need to be open to that and look for those opportunities.

CR: NPs have been touted for significantly raising their public profile, while many PAs feel their profession has lagged behind in this area. How is AAPA approaching the public perception and marketing of the profession?

Leinweber: First of all, I think it’s accurate to say that the NPs have been ahead of us from a policymaker and a public recognition/perception point of view. But I think we’ve made some significant strides over the past couple of years with the PA profession.

We have been very targeted in our approach. We made a conscious decision that it was critical to elevate the presence and the positioning of the profession first and foremost among policymakers and thought leaders who have the authority to impact how the profession is practiced. So, much of our work has focused on building understanding and awareness among members of Congress, among the administration, among state leaders, elected and appointed officials.

We have undertaken a variety of initiatives that we have not done before: briefings, roundtables, advertising that we’re doing in targeted publications, such as Congressional Daily, Politico, Roll Call. Some of these ads have really made a difference in terms of the role that we were invited to play in shaping health care reform. We were very much at the table. We were invited to the White House continually and invited to meetings with Congressional leaders throughout the drafting of health care reform legislation. So I think we’ve made some real strides there.

We’re not ignoring the public. But in an organization with limited resources, it’s been our feeling and our belief that the best service we can provide to our members and the best return we can put on their investment, in terms of their membership dues, is to make certain that policies are put in place that allow PAs to really practice to the full degree that they’re equipped to practice and to remove any barriers we can that prevent that.

We are beginning to make some inroads, from a public perception standpoint. Increasingly, as debate and understanding around health care reform begins to trickle across the country, we hear from and are engaging more and more folks from the mainstream media, such as MSNBC, Newsweek, the Wall Street Journal, and others.

They’re seeing, from a legislative point of view, multiple references to this profession called “physician assistants,” and they want to talk to us. They want to know about the profession so they can inform consumers on how to access and utilize PAs.

So I’m really proud of the work we’ve accomplished there. We have a long way to go—and really that work will never stop. But I think we have been on target in terms of how we have focused our resources, and we need to continue that very strongly in the future.

CR: What other messages do you have for PAs and their NP colleagues?

Leinweber: From a professional point of view, I can’t imagine a more well-positioned, exciting, and thriving profession at this point in history than the physician assistant profession. We are really poised to play the leadership role that some may argue we have played for decades quietly, but I think [now] much more visibly and with much more recognition. I just think there’s a level of relevance and consideration about the profession that hasn’t existed before. That’s very exciting, and it bodes very well for the future of the profession.

Relative to our work with our NP colleagues, there is an enormous amount of work needed by NPs and PAs across the country and across the health care spectrum. PAs and NPs work extremely well together and often seamlessly on the clinical level, and my hope would be to leverage every opportunity we can at the national level to make sure patients have access to the best quality of care, to the best providers, when they need it.

Since joining the American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA) in February 2008 as Executive Vice President and CEO, Bill Leinweber has brought positive energy and a new focus to the organization. Despite his busy schedule, Leinweber recently found time to speak with Clinician Reviews about AAPA’s goals and priorities, the impact of health care reform on the direction of the profession, and efforts to raise PAs’ public profile.

Clinician Reviews: When you joined AAPA, what was your assessment of the profession’s needs?

Leinweber: My observation and experience was, from a PA perspective, a very high level of enthusiasm and commitment by PAs about the profession, and a strong desire for the profession to take its rightful, prominent place in health care. I really sensed a hunger, in those who make up the profession, for recognition, of wanting to be perceived as truly a player in the delivery of health care and the policy that accompanies that delivery.

CR: Of the changes implemented at AAPA in the past two years, which for you is the most significant and/or satisfying?

Leinweber: What jumps to mind is shifting the real focus and the work of the Board of Directors of the Academy from that of an operational board to a strategic board. What are the truly big issues and major priorities that the board needs to focus their time and attention on and allocate the organization’s resources to address? As we become more strategically focused, you’ll see continuity in terms of the goals that we’re working to achieve and the resources we’re putting behind achieving those goals.

We have also worked hard to shift—and this continues; I don’t want to suggest it’s completed—from a very process-driven organization to one that really wants to look at outcomes. You need some level of process, but if you have a lot of process but not the outcomes that really move the ball forward, then you’re not serving your members.

That said, there will be things that individuals or groups of individuals in the profession believe should be a priority that aren’t. I want to be clear that even in moving to a strategic focus and direction, everybody doesn’t get everything they want addressed all the time. That’s a challenge.

CR: What are your immediate and ongoing priorities for AAPA?

Leinweber: Our policymakers just passed historic health care reform legislation. There are clearly, even within our profession, varying points of view across the political spectrum in support for or opposition to health care reform.

The Academy had no position per se on any bill in its entirety. What we focused on was to ensure that as any and all legislation began to take shape, PAs were prominently and appropriately identified as key to the success of any reform effort.

I believe we made huge headway there. PAs are called out by name in the legislation, in terms of being critical to the success of the expansion of primary care and in a number of other ways.

That has implications in terms of priorities. The country will now move from a legislative process to the implementation of many of the provisions in the reform legislation over the next several years. That will have bearing on some of our work and some of our priorities. What will this mean for us as a profession? What does it mean for us as an Academy, and how do we respond?

Certainly the number of PAs in primary care today is not what it once was. We feel an obligation to really be looking for strategies to help grow, to the fullest degree possible, interest and commitment to primary care—and to do that in a way that doesn’t detract from the important contributions PAs in specialties are making.

I look at this as, how do we grow the whole “pie” of PAs exponentially, so that we can contribute larger numbers to the critical need in primary care, in addition to having PAs filling needs in surgery, surgical subspecialties, internal medicine, etc?

We continue to move forward with the development of a research agenda for the profession. In that regard, we hosted a research summit in early March, which was very well attended. We’ll be putting out a proceedings paper from that summit soon, which will outline the steps we will take to formulate a research agenda for the profession.

Also, we’re undertaking a lot of work on the governance front of the Academy. Over the next year, we’ll be looking at the relationship AAPA has with its state chapters and with its specialty organizations. The way those relationships have been chartered and have worked hasn’t really changed in 30 or 40 years, and I think the world in that time has changed dramatically.

The profession has grown dramatically, and it’s time for us to sit down with representatives of our constituent organizations and make sure that we’re working in the best model that we can to have the fullest impact at the local and the national level.

CR: How will AAPA address the increased movement by PAs from primary to specialty care?

Leinweber: If you step back and look at primary health care in its totality, the reality is that the demand for PAs continues to outstrip the supply. When you look at health care reform and the strong focus on primary care, I don’t think we’re necessarily going to see any immediate lessening of demand for PAs in specialty areas at the expense of growth in the primary care arena. So our challenge will be to grow that pie in totality.

We worked to have incentives built into the health care reform legislation that would encourage PA programs to participate in grant programs and other efforts that would really reward them for growing the number of PAs who choose primary care as their specialty, and to incentivize students who choose that path by increasing opportunities through the National Health Service Corps and loan forgiveness programs. Those things matter.

When you look at the primary care challenges of the country, the challenges that MDs or DOs face in terms of trying to grow the cadre of individuals going into primary care aren’t all that different from what we face. It comes down to quality of life, the compensation that’s tied to that particular kind of medicine, opportunities for advancement, flexibility.

Those are all issues that we’re going to have to address. We’ve begun to do that, but we’re going to have to work with organized medicine to continue to push for a shift in how the country rewards and positions primary care.

CR: How will AAPA provide support to PAs in specialties, while maintaining its commitment to primary care?

Leinweber: There are 24 specialty organizations that have a charter agreement with AAPA and are represented in our House of Delegates. We work closely with our specialty organizations; we collaborate with them, increasingly, on continuing medical education (CME) programs that they provide to their members.

The AAPA will work with the Society of PAs in Pediatrics, for example, and work to bring the American Academy of Pediatrics to the table so that we can contribute to shaping the delivery of programs that are of value to PAs in particular specialty fields. I certainly see us continuing to do that.

We completely recognize that the demographic has shifted. Our statistics now show that 35.7% of PAs identify themselves as practicing in primary care. So, that means almost 65% are in a specialized field. That’s a reality that we look at and we shape our services accordingly.

But considering how things are moving nationwide, relative to a reformed health care system, we very much feel the need, the pressure, and the obligation to do everything we can to grow those primary care numbers.

CR: What opportunities do you see for PAs to partner with NPs?

Leinweber: We are doing some partnering now in the form of joint CME programs that we’ve conducted in the past couple of years with the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners and various doctor specialty groups. For instance, there was a boot camp last August with the Society for Hospital Medicine. We will collaboratively put on programs that are designed to serve the CME needs of PAs and NPs primarily, although physicians can participate as well. Those have been tremendously successful. We certainly want to continue to do that.

On the legislative front, I think there is value in PAs and NPs working collaboratively wherever we can at the federal level. Wherever we have common messages that support our various legislative goals, we’re certainly open to that. I think when you start to look at the state level and where health care is delivered, on the front lines, things become a little more challenging because we don’t answer to the same regulatory body at that level.

But our philosophy is, the country has an enormous need in terms of individuals requiring care from qualified, competent providers. We need many more PAs, we need more NPs; there are very important and distinct roles that we play. And wherever we can work together to bring the wherewithal of our respective professions to improve health care and health care delivery, I think we need to be open to that and look for those opportunities.

CR: NPs have been touted for significantly raising their public profile, while many PAs feel their profession has lagged behind in this area. How is AAPA approaching the public perception and marketing of the profession?

Leinweber: First of all, I think it’s accurate to say that the NPs have been ahead of us from a policymaker and a public recognition/perception point of view. But I think we’ve made some significant strides over the past couple of years with the PA profession.

We have been very targeted in our approach. We made a conscious decision that it was critical to elevate the presence and the positioning of the profession first and foremost among policymakers and thought leaders who have the authority to impact how the profession is practiced. So, much of our work has focused on building understanding and awareness among members of Congress, among the administration, among state leaders, elected and appointed officials.

We have undertaken a variety of initiatives that we have not done before: briefings, roundtables, advertising that we’re doing in targeted publications, such as Congressional Daily, Politico, Roll Call. Some of these ads have really made a difference in terms of the role that we were invited to play in shaping health care reform. We were very much at the table. We were invited to the White House continually and invited to meetings with Congressional leaders throughout the drafting of health care reform legislation. So I think we’ve made some real strides there.

We’re not ignoring the public. But in an organization with limited resources, it’s been our feeling and our belief that the best service we can provide to our members and the best return we can put on their investment, in terms of their membership dues, is to make certain that policies are put in place that allow PAs to really practice to the full degree that they’re equipped to practice and to remove any barriers we can that prevent that.

We are beginning to make some inroads, from a public perception standpoint. Increasingly, as debate and understanding around health care reform begins to trickle across the country, we hear from and are engaging more and more folks from the mainstream media, such as MSNBC, Newsweek, the Wall Street Journal, and others.

They’re seeing, from a legislative point of view, multiple references to this profession called “physician assistants,” and they want to talk to us. They want to know about the profession so they can inform consumers on how to access and utilize PAs.

So I’m really proud of the work we’ve accomplished there. We have a long way to go—and really that work will never stop. But I think we have been on target in terms of how we have focused our resources, and we need to continue that very strongly in the future.

CR: What other messages do you have for PAs and their NP colleagues?

Leinweber: From a professional point of view, I can’t imagine a more well-positioned, exciting, and thriving profession at this point in history than the physician assistant profession. We are really poised to play the leadership role that some may argue we have played for decades quietly, but I think [now] much more visibly and with much more recognition. I just think there’s a level of relevance and consideration about the profession that hasn’t existed before. That’s very exciting, and it bodes very well for the future of the profession.

Relative to our work with our NP colleagues, there is an enormous amount of work needed by NPs and PAs across the country and across the health care spectrum. PAs and NPs work extremely well together and often seamlessly on the clinical level, and my hope would be to leverage every opportunity we can at the national level to make sure patients have access to the best quality of care, to the best providers, when they need it.