Longstanding UNMC-military partnership will continue

The Interservice Physician Assistant Program, a partnership between UNMC’s College of Allied Health Professions and the U.S. military to provide the uniformed services with competent, compassionate physician assistants, has been renewed for five more years, effective 2022 through 2027.

UNMC has been the sole holder of the IPAP contract since the program’s establishment in 1996.

This is UNMC’s sixth five-year renewal, meaning the partnership will soon mark 30 years. It represents UNMC’s longest-running continual federal contract. Because of the relationship and the outstanding service provided by UNMC, the recently finalized extension followed a sole-source renewal request.

IPAP graduates hold UNMC degrees and are officially and proudly counted as UNMC alumni. The med center has conferred nearly 5,800 degrees upon its military physician assistant graduates. In the early years, IPAP graduates were awarded a bachelor’s entry-level degree upon graduation. Now, participants receive both a bachelor’s degree after 16 months of didactic training and a master’s of physician assistant studies after 12 additional months of clinical rotations.

UNMC provides faculty and student support, administrative support and operational support to the program, which is a separately accredited program. Because the military is not a degree-granting institution, UNMC awards degrees annually to physician assistant program graduates from the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard and National Guard. Three cohorts of up to 80 go through the program annually, with the majority of participants from the army, which also sponsors the IPAP program at the U.S. Army Medical Center of Excellence at Joint Base San Antonio, Texas.

Prior to the establishment of the IPAP program, UNMC had an affiliation agreement with the air force to award degrees to their physician assistants. IPAP was created in 1996, when the army and air force physician assistant programs consolidated into a single interservice program.

UNMC also previously had a similar relationship with Canada’s armed forces that began in 2007. The final UNMC class of Canadian Armed Forces physician assistants is set to graduate in May 2022, because the program plans to transfer to Canadian institutions of higher learning.

"We are immensely proud to serve those who serve our country," said Kyle Meyer, PhD, dean of the UNMC College of Allied Health Professions. "The fact that every military educated physician assistant holds a degree from UNMC is an amazing honor and outcome."