Bob McNellis, MPH, PA, Vice President, Science and Public Health, American Academy of Physician Assistants, made an insightful address to our recent Physician Assistant graduates.

He challenged them to change our expensive and wasteful “disease care” system to a more cost-effective, higher quality, accessible “health care” system.  He believes we don’t really have a health care system, but mostly a series of fragmented and uncoordinated subsystems.  As I watched the students’ faces react to the speech, I thought, “They can do this.  They are better prepared and more committed to improving health care delivery in this country than any politician I’ve ever met.”

I am struck that our five-year, world-class Physician Assistant BS/MS program is a wonderful example of Philadelphia University as “the professional university of the 21st century.”  Student awards included published research, acute patient relationship management, clinical excellence and collaborative medicine.  The new health care professionals wore their white coats and boldly discussed their medical specializations in fields as diverse as neurosurgery, primary care and emergency medicine.

Students come to Philadelphia University with a title in their head.  They leave prepared to take on that title, but also empowered to be leaders in their profession.