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In the United States, Physician Assistants (PAs) are non-physician clinicians licensed to practice medicine with a physician's supervision. Physician Assistants have a master’s degree in medicine from an accredited university. They have the option depending on the state in which they practice of being board certified or not. This supervision, in most cases, need not be direct or on site and many PAs practice in remote or underserved areas in satellite clinics. All states, as well as the District of Columbia (D.C.), Guam, the United States Virgin Islands, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands have laws and/or regulations authorizing physician assistants to practice medicine.

PAs can prescribe medications in 49 of the 50 states (excluding Indiana as of 2007) as well as D.C. and Guam. In most states, they carry a DEA number that gives them authority to prescribe controlled medications like narcotics. PAs in surgical practices also serve as first assistants in surgery. PAs provide medical services that are reimbursed under Medicare and third party insurances. Their scope of practice and autonomy are only limited by their precepting physicians' comfort level and a PA's clinical experience, allowing PAs to work in any area of medicine, surgery, or research. Where there is a physician, there can be a PA.

Physician assistants held about 65,000 jobs in 2005. The number of jobs is greater than the number of practicing PAs because some hold two or more jobs. For example, some PAs work with a supervising physician, but also work in another practice, clinic, or hospital. According to the American Academy of Physician Assistants, there were about 63,609 certified PAs in clinical practice as of January 2007. Even though a few legacy programs confer an associates degree or just a certificate of completion, most programs now confer a masters degree, requiring a bachelors degree on entry; many more are seeking accreditation at the master's level.

Physician assistants (or physician associates) practice medicine, perform medical histories and examinations, order treatments, diagnose acute and chronic illnesses, prescribe medication, interpret diagnostic tests, perform invasive and noninvasive procedures, refer patients to specialists when appropriate and first assist in surgery. The education of a physician assistant is a generalist approach, modeled after the medical school curriculum. PAs may practice in general medicine or any medical or surgical specialty. Due to their broad based medical education, PA's can change specialties and have the ability to work throughout their career in different medical/surgical specialties.

The Physician Assistant profession has its beginnings in the highly trained Hospital corpsmen of the Vietnam War era. Dr. Eugene Stead of the Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina put together the first class of PAs in 1965, to expand the availability of medical care in the face of a shortage of primary care physicians. For his first class, he selected former Navy corpsmen, who had received considerable medical training during their military service and during the war in Vietnam but who had no comparable civilian employment or equivalent. He based the curriculum of the PA program in part on his knowledge of the fast-track training of medical doctors during World War II. In 1968, Alderson-Broaddus College in Philippi, West Virginia established the first four-year (baccalaureate-granting) physician assistant program. The Duke University Medical Center Archives has established the Physician Assistant History Center, dedicated to the study, preservation, and presentation of the history of the Physician Assistant profession.