Yale, the Ivy League  University, has announced to launch the first online Physician Associate (PA) program in the United States of America. This online program will be offered by the Yale School of Medicines and it would be a combination of online program and clinical clerkships.

Though the approval from the Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant (ARC-PA) and other state licensing agencies is pending, if authorized, then it would be a big move to support the primary care situations across the country.

James Van Rhee, Program Director is hopeful about the program, “The blended program would provide the same didactic and clinical training that on-campus students receive, with key improvements such as immersive, interactive course videos that all of our students — both those in the traditional program and in the new blended program — can review as often as they want.”

The cost for the online program would be USD 35,653 for each of the first two years. The program shall include 12 students initially. The curriculum designed shall provide hands-on clinical experience at certain field sites selected by the Yale School of Medicine faculty and chosen keeping in mind the locational benefits and career goals of the student. The program includes collaborative, live classes with an option for face-to-face interaction, and high quality and interactive courseware developed by Yale Faculty. The program also provides an opportunity for “intense immersion” in which online students shall come to the campus at the beginning and the end of their first year to acquire hard-core clinical skills such as stitching a wound. This online program shall also recruit students three times in a year to provide education and training whenever they are ready.

The launch of the program coincides the labour market trend as the PA profession is on a growth trajectory with an increase of 219 percent in last 10 years. It is speculated that the profession would grow at an average of 38% percent between 2012 and 2022. There is a large scale demand for skilled and efficient healthcare practitioners catering the aging population and the set of people joining under the newly inducted Affordable Care Act. There would be an additional 33,300 new job opportunities for the PAs. Furthermore, the career website Glassdoor has ranked PAs as number 1 in its list of “25 Best Jobs in America for 2015”.

The program shall be launched in association with 2U Incorporated, a leading educational technology company. Its cloud-based software-as-a-service platform provides infrastructure support in the online education program. 2U has already provided more than 20,000 placements in nursing, social work and other fields. The online PA program, according to 2U, is a top-tier online option for potential Physician Associates. If this program secures accreditation from the Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant (ARC-PA) and other state licensing agencies, then Yale will join the bandwagon. Already, Georgetown University and George Washington University are offering an online master’s degree in Nursing and an online master’s degree in Public Health.

The Yale School of Medicine launched its PA program in 1971.

For detailed information go through Yale university’s Physician Associate Program.