Who started the first PA program at Duke?

• A. Dr. Charles Hudson
• B. Dr. Eugene Stead
• C. Dr. Richard Smith
• D. Ferrell

Answer: (B)

The main idea here is understanding who launched the first physician assistant program, a milestone in creating the PA profession. Dr. Eugene Stead, a physician at Duke, started the first formal PA program in 1965 to address physician shortages by training experienced military medics to work under physicians as assistants. He piloted a program at Duke that began with four Navy corpsmen, setting up the model that would grow into the broader PA field. The other names listed are not credited with starting Duke’s program, though they may have been involved in related efforts or the broader history of PAs.