Challenger Selected by Canada to Train Military Personnel

Memphis, Tennessee, 04/06 - Challenger Corporation announced today that it has been selected by the Department of National Defense of Canada to provide training programs for its physician assistants (PAs). The terms of the agreement were confidential, but it is "a positive contribution to our revenue growth as well as to the number of PA institutional clients using our tools," according to Becca Metzger, Director of Business Development for Challenger. The program will cover PAs serving in the Canadian military worldwide.

According to Metzger, "The agreement provides both online and offline versions of the Med-Challenger FMPA software to assist PAs in remaining up-to-date in all general medicine topics required of them. Canada does not currently offer an official certification process for PAs; the government is considering a system in line with the standards set by the American Association of Physician Assistants sometime later this year. The initial agreement with Challenger bridges this gap by providing a standard educational model in conjunction with an effective tool for monitoring PA education in Canada."

The Canadian military will be Challenger's fifth institutional customer for PA training. The company also serves thousands of retail PA customers in the United States with educational software for certification and recertification, as well as comprehensive review and maintenance of skills. In the United States, there are 70,000 practicing PAs and 135 formal PA training programs.

Challenger owns the world's largest collection of approved electronic CME media, comprising over 3,700 approved hours of credit. Thousands of physicians and PAs rely upon Challenger materials to prepare for specialty board exams, recertification, maintenance of certification, and lifelong learning. Challenger products are approved for physician CME credit through joint sponsorships with 11 medical schools and specialty societies. Challenger currently has over 40 institutional residencies and PA training clients that utilize Challenger's learning materials to educate, train, and validate the clinicians of tomorrow.

According to Metzger, "We have been in negotiations to provide this content to the government of Canada for the last two years. We are extremely excited by the swell of interest in our courses from PAs and PA training programs. The development of additional PA learning materials and the creation of a dedicated Challenger Program for Physician Assistant Training (CP-PAT)^TM are driving this appeal. Our relationship with the government of Canada exemplifies a creative way in which even a very large organization can utilize Challenger's gold-standard educational materials."

Media Contact:

Becca A. Metzger
Director, Business Development
Challenger Corporation
5050 Poplar Avenue, Ste. 430
Memphis, Tennessee 38157
Tel: (901) 762-8431
E-mail: becca.metzger@chall.com