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Emergency Medicine Physician Assistant (EMPA) Postgraduate Training Programs: Program Characteristics and Training Curricula

Dear Editor: The Society of Emergency Medicine Physician Assistants (SEMPA) read with great interest the article titled “Emergency Medicine Physician Assistant (EMPA) Postgraduate Training Programs: Program Characteristics and Curricula” by Kraus et al.1 We appreciate the authors conducting research describing EMPA postgraduate training program characteristics and agree that more research is needed in this field. As the largest national organization representing EMPAs, we would like to expand on a few points regarding these programs and overall EMPA practice. Kraus at al. write that based on their research, there is an opportunity for the development of a standardized curriculum for postgraduate training programs. SEMPA also recognized this opportunity and our Postgraduate Education Committee, which is comprised of EMPA postgraduate program directors from across the country, in 2015 developed and released EMPA postgraduate training program standards.2 The standards are designed to serve as a guideline for new and existing programs in an effort to standardize EMPA postgraduate education. The authors also mention that emergency physicians (EPs) have certification and re-certification exams, lifelong learning through maintenance of certification activities and that EMPAs do not have continuing education requirements. Like EPs, EMPAs have certification and re-certification requirements. We are required to pass the Physician Assistant National Certifying Examination (PANCE) offered by the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants (NCCPA). To maintain certification, physician assistants (PAs) are required to earn 100 credits of continuing medical education (CME) every two years and pass a re-certification exam every 10 years.3 SEMPA also recommends that EMPAs complete at least 50% of their CME in emergency medicine (EM).4 In the paper, there is a statement about how there is the Society of Emergency Medicine Physician Assistants (SEMPA), Irving, Texas