Section 3701. Commissioner; powers and duties

The commissioner shall have
  the following powers and duties: 1. to promulgate  regulations  defining
  and  restricting  the  duties  which  may  be  assigned  to  physician's
  assistants and specialist's assistants by their  supervising  physician,
  the  degree  of supervision required and the manner in which such duties
  may be performed;
    2. to  promulgate  regulations  establishing  such  different  medical
  specialties  for  which specialist's assistants may be registered by the
  education department pursuant to section sixty-five hundred forty-one of
  the education law as will  most  effectively  increase  the  quality  of
  medical care available in this state provided, however, that no category
  of  specialist's  assistant shall be established: (a) for areas in which
  allied health professions are presently licensed under the education law
  or the public health law; or (b) relating to the practice of surgery  or
  practice  in the intensive care unit of any general hospital, as defined
  pursuant to article twenty-eight of this chapter.
    3. to conduct and support continuing studies respecting the nature and
  scope  of  the  duties  of  physician's  assistants   and   specialist's
  assistants in order to promote their effective functioning as members of
  the health care team;
    4.  to  determine  the  desirability  of  and  to  establish rules for
  requiring   continuing   education   of   physician's   assistants   and
  specialist's assistants;
    5.  to  furnish the education department with suggested criteria which
  may be used by the education department to  help  determine  whether  an
  applicant  for  registration  as a physician's assistant or specialist's
  assistant  possesses  equivalent  education  and   training,   such   as
  experience  as  a  nurse  or military corpsman, which may be accepted in
  lieu of all or part of an approved program;
    6. to adopt such other rules and regulations as may  be  necessary  or
  appropriate to carry out the purposes of this article.