Physician Assistant Program

People who succeed as physician assistants enjoy direct patient contact, have a passion for medicine, and embrace challenges. Physician assistants practice medicine with physician supervision in many settings and in many medical and surgical disciplines.

In the Fall of 2010, our program was the proud recipient of three HRSA grants totaling 3.2 million dollars in funding. These grants support program expansion, student scholarships and high fidelity simulation equipment.

As a new program, the SUNY Upstate Physician Assistant Program has been granted provisional accreditation by the Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant (ARC-PA). This is the first step towards continuing accreditation, and is granted to a new program that has demonstrated its readiness, in accordance with the Physician Assistant Standards. Graduates from a program with provisional accreditation are fully eligible to take the national certification exam.

Program accreditation is a requirement for the Physician Assistant National Certification Exam (PANCE) as well as for physician assistant practice in the United States. Students enrolled in a provisionally accredited program are eligible to take the PANCE.