Message from the President & Chairman
To our Fellows, Colleagues, and Supporters:
We are truly pleased to share with you The New York Academy of Medicine’s 2014 Annual Report, featuring the Academy’s key achievements from the past year to improve the health of people in cities in our three major areas of work: our intramural research, evaluation, policy, and program work in urban health; our Fellows program; and our Library and its Center for the History of Medicine and Public Health.
As part of our renewed commitment to innovative research to improve health, we welcomed a new Senior Vice President for Research, David Siscovick, MD, MPH, who will lead the Academy in establishing large-scale, multi-institution, prevention-oriented research collaborations for good health. We’re pleased to report continued progress in our city- and state-level health policy initiatives and partnerships including our Age-friendly NYC initiative, which received funding in 2014 to launch 10 new Age-friendly Neighborhoods as well as reconvene the public-private Age-friendly NYC Commission with new members. Within our work on prevention, especially in the areas of obesity and non-communicable diseases, we received foundation funding to work with 57 counties to advance the NYS Prevention Agenda. We were also named a partner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and United Hospital Fund in the New York State Department of Health’s Population Health Improvement Program (PHIP) for NYC.
Our prestigious Fellows program, the foundation on which the Academy was built in 1847, includes over 2,000 individuals elected by their peers from across the health professions. This year, we are pleased to report a continuing diversification of membership, an expanded programming schedule with more than 40 events, and new efforts to address emerging health issues including long-term care.
The Academy is home to one of the most significant library collections in the world dedicated to the preservation of the history of medicine and public health. This year, the library continued to draw new audiences to the Academy through its public programming, including lectures and two daylong festivals celebrating the important links beteween medicine, the humanities and the arts. The library was also designated as the New York hub of the new National Consortium for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine.
This year we also welcomed our new Executive Vice President, Anthony Shih, MD, MPH, who is working across the entire organization to promote alignment with and performance on our strategic agenda. Other additions to the Academy team included a new Library Curator, Anne Garner, and Gina Ravosa, Director of Marketing and Communications.
The staff and Trustees of the Academy look forward to building on this important work in 2015 and beyond. With your support, the Academy continues to grow and innovate to meet the most critical health challenges facing New York City, and to serve as a leader and advisor to cities around the nation and the world.
Jo Ivey Boufford, MD
President
President
George Thibault, MD
Chairman, Board of Trustees
Chairman, Board of Trustees
Urban Health
The focus of the Academy’s urban health work is to improve the health of people in cities through research, evaluation, program development and implementation, and policy. With four out of five Americans and the majority of the world’s population living in cities, it’s more important now than ever to develop neighborhoods and communities that enable people in cities to live healthy lives. To improve health in cities, we need to look closely at the broad determinants of health, including education, economic development, transportation, housing, and urban planning, among others. The Academy is leading the effort to identify and address the unique risks to health in cities—as well as working across sectors on the many opportunities to foster health.
Fellows
Our prestigious Fellows program, the foundation on which the Academy was built in 1847, includes over 2,000 individuals elected by their peers from across the health professions. The Fellows program brings together these thought leaders at the Academy—from across institutions and across disciplines—to seek solutions to the current health and health care challenges of the day, and to take leadership on policies and practices to benefit patients and the public. Fellows participate in 20 discipline-specific and interdisciplinary Sections, Special Interest Groups, and Working Groups. The Fellows Office hosts more than 40 events per year and awards more than $350,000 in endowed grants and fellowships to medical students and seasoned investigators.Library
The Academy is home to one of the most significant library collections in the world dedicated to the preservation of the history of medicine and public health. Holding more than 550,000 volumes, many of which are rare or one-of-a-kind books, the Library serves over 5,000 patrons annually with research and reference services, as well as more than 500 participants in classes, workshops, and tours. As the home of the Academy’s public programming in humanities and the arts through its Center for the History of Medicine and Public Health, the Library delivers monthly lectures and a growing roster of events including an annual festival of medical history and the arts, held for the second time in 2014. The Library’s Grey Literature Report is a bimonthly publication alerting 2,250 subscribers to new grey literature publications in health services research and selected public health topics. The Library’s membership program, Friends of the Rare Book Room, is a growing group of individuals dedicated to the preservation of the history of medicine and public health in addition to supporting the Academy’s expanding public programming.
The New York Academy of Medicine advances the health of people in cities.
The New York Academy of Medicine advances solutions that promote the health and well-being of people in cities worldwide.
Established in 1847, The New York Academy of Medicine continues to address the health challenges facing New York City and the world’s rapidly growing urban populations. We accomplish this through our Institute for Urban Health, home of interdisciplinary research, evaluation, policy and program initiatives; our world class historical medical library and its public programming in history, the humanities and the arts; and our Fellows program, a network of more than 2,000 experts elected by their peers from across the professions affecting health. Our current priorities are healthy aging, disease prevention, and eliminating health disparities.