FEATURE
CULTURING A NEW PROFESSION
Reflecting on 50 years of the Pathologists’ Assistant Training Program at Duke by SUSAN REEVES
and LAUREN MARCILLIAT
The year 2019 marked the 50th anniversary of the Pathologists’ Assistant (PA) profession. For Duke, the birthplace of the PA, this was an especially poignant and celebrated occasion. PA’s are highly trained professionals who work primarily in surgical pathology and autopsy labs and assist in the education of residents. They provide invaluable assistance to attending pathologists and are considered indispensable to the profession of pathology, but it hasn’t always been that way.
A controversial start The Pathologists’ Assistant profession was the brainchild of Duke Professor of Pathology and Chairman Thomas D. Kinney, MD, the R.J. Reynolds Professor of Medical Education. Dr. Kinney was inspired by fellow Duke physician Eugene A. Stead Jr, MD, Professor and Chairman of Department of Medicine who created the first Physician Assistant Training Program at Duke in 1965 to address a critical shortage of physicians. Like the Physician Assistant Training Program, the Pathologists’ Assistant Program (which began four years later
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PA Group in 1979. First row includes, Right to left: Pamela Mazzeo (Vollmer), Dr. Philip Pratt, Dr. Ken Broda (For ALL names and more photos see https://pathology.duke.edu/news/celebrating-50-years-pa-program)
