Dr. Eugene Stead of Duke University is often credited as the founder of the physician assistant profession in modern times, with the introduction and accreditation of his training course at the same university in 1965.
Dr. Stead was always quick to point out that the idea was not uniquely his. In fact, since the 1930s it had become increasingly a practice, especially within the rural family health care surgeries of the southern United States, for “computer” personnel to be trained by the physician in additional duties such as physician assistants. , in addition to simply getting patients to the appropriate rooms. inside the center. Social conditions at the time dictated that surgeries have separate entrances for black and white patients. Stead learned of a Dr. Amos Johnson who ran a family practice quite close to Atlanta in Garland, North Carolina.
Dr. Johnson had a large rural family health practice that he ran with his wife. Due to the large number of patients he had to see, his wife did much of the administrative work for the surgery. The building was designed to allow one front door for white patients and one side door for black patients. A central consulting room was flanked by seven more rooms, each equipped with a bed, where stretcher bearers, untrained and therefore not considered medical assistants, brought patients to see Dr. Johnson. Once he had completed his round, Dr. Johnson would call all the patients together for a communal consultation. Here each patient was given his prognosis and instructions. During this consultation, the local pharmacist was listening in on the phone for prescriptions, so that when each patient arrived at the pharmacy, his medication was ready and waiting for her.
One of Dr. Johnson’s main concerns was that he did not have time to keep up with medical advances or to visit conferences and universities to further his desire for family medicine to receive greater recognition and better, more focused training. In 1940, he hired a high school graduate named Henry Treadwell to help care for the children while his parents were in consultation and to perform other organizational duties.
Treadwell had an open and inquisitive mind, and he soon learned, under the tutelage of Dr. Johnson and his wife, to perform many of the tasks associated with both the clinic and the patients.
Treadwell was able to make an early diagnosis, take and process blood tests, perform sutures, and direct the practice. He became a lifelong friend of the Johnson family and the prototype of the modern medical assistant. He was awarded an honorary certificate as a Physician Assistant in the 1960s, in recognition of his work. In addition to his day job at the health center set up by Dr. Johnson and his wife, Treadwell even became involved in training medical students sent by the university to study with Dr. Johnson.
