From the President
Miguel Medina, PA-C
President 2008/2010

Thank you for visiting our web site.  I hope that you will make it a habit to check the website periodically.  In our modern, high-tech society we strive to provide you with up-to-date and easily accessible information.

I am excited about my term as your new President. My term began July 1 and will end in June 30, 2010.  I graduated from the USC PA program in October 1977.  I have had a wonderful career; my first job out of school was in occupational medicine for 7 months.  I then moved on to Family Medicine for about 14 years.  For the past 17 years I have been an educator at the Western University Physician Assistant Program.  I have had the honor to train over 2,000 PAs during my time at Western. 

I have had the unique opportunity to see our young profession mature.  Compared to other health care professions you could say that PAs are now toddlers.  We have made it past infancy, not without our bumps and bruises.  I look forward with pride to see our continued growth.  We would not be here if it were not for our early leaders that had to foresight and courage to plot our course.  Many of our founding leaders are now preparing for retirement and we need new leadership.  Please step forward and help us to set the course for the future of our California PAs.  Our profession continues to grow and the future looks bright.  However, we must not be complacent. We must be active participants in molding our future. The first way to get involved is to make sure you are a competent provider and provide the best possible care to your patients.  Keep up with the current medical information.  Be proud of being a PA and make sure the patient knows that a PA provided their excellent care.  You have an awesome responsibility because in our young profession any mistakes you make ultimately reflect on all PAs in the State and across the nation.

The next step in your involvement is to continue to support CAPA financially by joining and continuing your CAPA membership as long as you live in California and work as a PA. In addition, we hope you will contribute to the CAPA Political Action Committee.  Please join us in our Annual Conference in Palm Springs and also at the CAPA at Napa Conference.  If you want to contribute more of your time, come to one of our board meetings, join one of our committees, and/or run for office.  I look forward to having open dialog with the PAs in California. Please e-mail me, say hi at our conferences and please let me know how we at CAPA can be of service to you.