Dr. Jeremy Adler ’19 DMSc

Dr. Jeremy Adler ’19 DMSc, one of the first physician assistants in the country to specialize in pain management, is making a difference, not only for his patients at Pacific Pain Management Consultants but for PAs across California and the U.S.

As part of the California Academy of PAs leadership team, he helped introduce a bill to the California State Legislature in 2019 that concerned “optimal team practice.”

According to the American Academy of PAs, the concept “occurs when PAs, physicians, and other medical professionals work together to provide quality care without burdensome administrative constraints.”

The bill became law in January of 2020 and while CAPA’s goals weren’t fully met, there were positive changes for California’s PAs. “It definitely advances our profession in many ways, but doesn’t achieve optimal team practice,” Adler said in 2020.

“We’re required to have a supervising physician, but it removes many of the day-to-day administrative things, like cosigners on charts and chart review. It removes protocol-based practice and the need for a formulary of drugs. It moves the oversight of PAs to the standard of care. … It allows physicians and PAs to decide how best to practice together.”

Adler, who has worked in the field of pain management for more than 20 years, is partner and chief operating officer for Pacific Pain Management, which has offices in Oceanside and Encinitas, California. He is a lecturer and a published author, and had served in numerous health care leadership roles.

He founded the San Diego Society of PAs, and was its president for 10 years. From 2014-15, he was president of the California Academy of PAs. Adler was the inaugural president of the National Society of Pain Care Providers, vice president of the Pain Medicine special Interest Group at the American Academy of Pain Medicine Foundation, and he holds national leadership positions in the American Academy of PAs.