New York Academy of Medicine

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The New York Academy of Medicine was founded in 1847 by a group of leading New York City metropolitan area physicians as a voice for the medical profession in medical practice and public health reform. The Academy quickly established the Metropolitan Board of Health, the first modern municipal public health authority in the United States.

The Academy moved to its current location in 1926: 1216 Fifth Avenue, near Central Park in Manhattan. In recent years the Academy has functioned as an effective advocate in public health reform, as well as a major center for health education. The Academy Library, on premises, is one of the three largest medical collections in the United States and is open to general public. It was founded on the libraries of medical texts that included the collections of the Medical Journal Association, New York Hospital Library and the medical books of the New York Public Library; its historical collection was founded by the purchase in 1928 of many historic medical texts, including many incunabula, from the collection formed by Dr. Edward Clark Streeter (1874-1947). Today's library is very extensive, including original writings by Sigmund Freud and a prototype of George Washington's dentures, constructed from actual teeth that were donated.

In 1939 the Academy prepared Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia's LaGuardia Commission report, that when released in 1944 infuriated Harry Anslinger and his campaign against marijuana.

Today, the Academy has over three-thousand Fellows, that include doctors, nurses, health care administrators, and professionals in all fields dedicated to maintaining and improving health. Its peer-reviewed, former quarterly, Journal of Urban Health is published six times a year since January 2006: it reports important clinical developments and policy issues.