A comparison of national skin disease burden with standardized examination content for dermatology physician assistants

Abstract

The dermatology physician assistant (PA) workforce is growing rapidly. The National Commission for Certification of PAs released a standardized written examination in the spring of 2023 to formally verify the competence of PAs dedicated to dermatology. How well this test prepares PAs to meet the needs of their future patients is not well known. We compared this examination’s content blueprint with existing data on the burden of skin disease in the United States to characterize whether examinees will be tested on skin diseases that significantly affect their presumed patient population. Our findings suggest reasonable concordance between written examination content and the actual burden of skin disease, with some potential areas for refinement.