Who was the rural practitioner who trained his own office assistant Buddy Treadwell, forming an early PA relationship?

• A. Eugene Stead
• B. Johnson
• C. Charles L. Hudson
• D. Buddy Treadwell

Answer: (B)

In the early development of the physician assistant role, a rural practitioner trained an in-house assistant to help with patient care, creating one of the first doctor–assistant relationships. The practitioner named Johnson is the one described as training his own office assistant Buddy Treadwell, illustrating this informal, in-practice origin of the PA concept. This story shows how the idea began with real-world mentorship in rural settings, long before formal PA education programs like the one Eugene Stead established at Duke.