Joining the Conversation

INTRODUCTION Given that this is the first installment of the Medical Director Dialogue feature under my editorship and the first in the new Journal of Physician Assistant Education (JPAE), I believe a few introductory comments are in order. So that the reader may have some context in which to place my remarks, I would like to say a little about myself. I am a family physician and assistant professor in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine (DFPM) at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. It is through that association that I have had the pleasure to serve as medical director of the Utah Physician Assistant Program (UPAP) for the last 3 years. Thirty percent of my professional time is spent on UPAP activities. I maintain an active clinical practice, which includes precepting family practice residents, PA students, and medical students, for 50 percent of my time. The remainder of my time is spent in assorted other academic activities. Although I have been medical director for only 3 years, my association with UPAP as lecturer and preceptor extends back to my graduation from residency 20 years ago. In fact, it was the opportunity to work with PAs that, in part, drew me to Utah for residency training in the first place. I would like to thank the current JPAE editor, Eugene Jones, for the opportunity to serve as editor for this feature, as well as my good friend Don Pedersen, founding editor and UPAP program director, for his unending provision to me of avenues through which to express my interest in PA education. An appropriate question by the reader at this point might be, “Why do we need a feature such as this in our journal?” The answer is that as JPAE serves as the “trade journal” for PA educators across the country, it is a valuable forum for the exchange of a wide variety of ideas that have the education of PA students as their common theme. As with other journals, it is unrealistic to expect that all of the articles in a given issue will be relevant to all faculty of all programs. However, it has been my experience that each issue contains one or several pieces that are relevant to our program and that stimulate conversation among our faculty at weekly meetings. It is time for medical directors as a group to contribute to those conversations, and this feature is a way for that to happen. There are a variety of issues that make their way to the list of “hot topics” at the annual meetings. I have often had my own faculty as well as those from other programs ask me, “What do you, as a medical director, think of such-and-such a topic.” The real question behind this, though, is often, “What do medical directors as a group think of this?” I have no problem answering the first version of the question, but can usually only guess at the answer to the second. I hope this feature can help do that. In addition, this should be an arena where medical directors could bring up hot topics of their own—issues that This feature is intended to provide a forum for the sharing of ideas on the role of medical directors in PA programs. Authors desiring to contribute to Medical Director Dialogue should forward submissions to: