|
In 1847, a group of leading physicians founded
The New York Academy of Medicine as a voice for the medical profession in
the metropolitan area. The Academy immediately became involved in reform
of both medical practice and public health. A major accomplishment of the
early Fellows was the establishment of the Metropolitan Board of Health --
the first modern municipal public health authority in the United States.
The Academy's three thousand Fellows
now include not only doctors - but nurses, health care administrators, and
professionals in all fields dedicated to maintaining and improving health.
The Academy moved into its current home in
1926. Building on momentum developed during the previous decades, the
Academy then developed into one of the country's most effective advocates
of public health reform, as well as a major center for popular health
education and for lectures and discussions of professional interest. A
1928 Academy report on maternal mortality was eventually responsible for a
drastic regional reduction in death at childbirth, which set a precedent
for the entire nation.
For more than a hundred years, the Academy
Library -- one of the three largest medical collections in the United
States -- has been open not only to all physicians, but to anyone wishing
to consult the professional medical literature. To this day, the Academy
Library is the only medical library in the metropolitan area open to the
general public.
The medical and health care scene has
changed greatly over the past century and a half, and The New York Academy
of Medicine has changed with it. The Academy has recently reinvented
itself into an organization largely devoted to addressing health problems
of the urban poor. Its program staff includes leading researchers in health
policy, urban
epidemiology, and /initiatives/ph.shtml>public health; and its team
of health educators
has provided health education classes at more than seven hundred public
schools, reaching over five hundred thousand pupils. The Academy Library
has entered the information age with services to Academy staff and
Fellows, corporate
clients, smaller medical libraries, and -- as always -- the general
public. At the same time, the Library takes seriously its role as the
repository of the accumulated culture of health care and biomedical
science, sponsoring research
fellowships, academic programs, and public lectures on medical history
and related fields.
For more than a century and a half, The New
York Academy of Medicine has been the leading non-governmental
organization in the region concerned with matters of health care and
health policy, consistently maintaining the highest standards of quality
and impartiality. It is fair to say that virtually no endeavor related to
health in New York City would have developed as it has, had The New York
Academy of Medicine not been here.
Understanding the factors that harm or
safeguard health in urban areas can lead to the development of appropriate
interventions and preventive measures that will make city-dwellers
healthier. Across a wide spectrum of topics, The New York Academy of
Medicine is investigating how the physical and social aspects of urban
living influence residents’ health, and the public health interventions
needed to improve urban health.
The Academy’s urban health agenda focuses
on pressing health issues including health disparities, access to care,
asthma, HIV/AIDS, geriatric social work, substance abuse, health policy,
urban disaster, mental health, health education training for public school
teachers, handgun safety and improving community partnerships' ability to
solve complex health problems. Research, education and advocacy are
conducted in more than a dozen initiatives
by over 100 advanced degree professionals, who routinely produce an
impressive array of publications
in respected peer-reviewed journals, including the Academy’s Journal
of Urban Health.
The Academy attracts renowned scholars,
analysts, physical and social scientists, medical practitioners and
community leaders from around the world in collaborations that often lead
to conferences and symposia on a wide range of health issues. Recent
conferences have explored the international obesity pandemic, the
nursing shortage crisis, and the need for improved pediatric palliative
care.
The Academy education
agenda also offers continuing medical education opportunities for
professionals and training
courses for the general public on accessing reliable health
information on the Internet. The Academy maintains one of the world's
largest privately owned medical libraries,
which contains over 800,000 volumes, 1,000 current journal subscriptions,
and more than 50,000 rare and important books, manuscripts, archives and
artifacts dating back to 1700 BC.
Founded in 1847, The New York Academy of
Medicine is dedicated to enhancing the health of the public through
research, education, policy analysis and advocacy, with a particular focus
on disadvantaged urban populations. The Academy is a 501(c)(3) non-profit
organization under the Internal Revenue Code.
|