Jerry Bagel, MD, MS: How do the PA [physician assistant] and the MD work together? What you put in is what you get out. If you educate your physician assistant and they’re interested and want to learn they’re as good as, or if not better, than any physician. That’s really what it boils down to. It boils down to their intellect, their desire to learn, and if they’re willing to apply what they learn to help their patients in the best way. I don’t know any physicians who would treat psoriasis any better than Alexa as a PA. I don’t know, maybe as good, but not better. Therefore, I don’t think any patient by any means would suffer from a PA that was supervised, or taught by a dermatologist that enjoyed psoriasis. I don’t think there’s much more than that.

Alexa Hetzel, MS, PA-C: I grew up knowing biologics so I don’t know any different because I’ve always learned from you. By educating my peers and doing talks with other companies, I’ve found that that’s not the case and with 90% of the experiences that I have, my other PA colleagues do not have that same experience. I’m very fortunate to be able to treat these patients in the best way possible without leaving them Googling for us.

Jerry Bagel, MD, MS: I have taught PAs in advisory boards and I’ve taught physicians. It’s the same thing because those that are interested and want to treat that learn everything about it and know all of the bells and whistles of psoriasis, both the disease, psoriatic arthritis, comorbidities, and treatments are great. Then, you have others that are not that interested and they will do something else.

Transcript Edited for Clarity