A New Look: A Renewed Commitment

Inaugural post from Jo Ivey Boufford, Academy President

Ask a New Yorker what they love about this city and you’ll get as many different responses as the number of people you ask. But I am certain some of the themes will be around our iconic skyline, the pace of the city, its art and culture and of course, its diversity. It’s not an easy city, but we love that about it too: make it here, and you’ll make it anywhere.

For over 160 years, The New York Academy of Medicine has been an integral part of the fabric of this great city, pioneering progress in improving the health conditions of the city so the people who live here lead healthier, longer, and more active lives.

Over the last year, we spent a lot of time listening and exploring ways to better communicate what we do—both visually and verbally. The decision to leave behind our historic Hippocrates logo didn’t come lightly. But after a year of study, it couldn’t be more clear that is precisely what we needed to do to move forward with an urban health platform. 

We’re pleased to unveil today our new cityscape logo design—a contemporary, new, and distinct look in the urban health arena consistent with the unique work we do to advance solutions that promote the health and well-being of people in cities. Beyond our logo, you’ll see a new tagline and new language and new images on our website—which also launches today. All of these reaffirm our dedication to urban health, addressing the broader determinants of health, and the importance of interdisciplinary approaches to care.

At a time when urbanization is an increasing global phenomenon, with more than half the world’s population already living in cities, our focus on advancing solutions that improve the health and well-being of people in urban environments couldn’t be more important. 

Today we renew our commitment to improving health in cities and in addition to unveiling our new look, we also are pleased to announce a number of new activities, as well as our revised organizational structure that simplifies how we talk about our work including:

• The founding of the Academy’s Institute for Urban Health, which will serve as the organizational home of our interdisciplinary research, evaluation, policy and program initiatives. The Institute, along with the Library and Fellows, provides three pillars for how our work is organized and focused. Read more.
• The announcement of the Library’s 2016 programming, including topics on activism, social justice, and health. Look for more announcements soon on public programming exploring the intersection of medicine, health, and history on these important topics.
• The launch of our Fellows Ambassadors program to the media as an extension of our Academy spokespersons roster.
• The launch of new methods for communicating the results of our work. First, our new Urban Health Matters blog is a first-of-its-kind platform for the voices of the Academy’s professional staff, Fellows, and organizational partners who are making a difference in urban health. Second, a new original research series entitled “City Voices: New Yorkers on Health” offers deeper understanding of the voices of community members and in-depth analysis by our Institute for Urban Health researchers and policy experts as part of an unprecedented large-scale New York City Community Needs Assessment. The first two reports—including a comprehensive overview report plus a unique look at what it means to be Transgender in the city—are available on our site today.

We hope you’ll spend some time on our new site, subscribe to this blog to stay updated on the latest news and opinion from the Academy, our Fellows and the Library, and that you’ll engage with us on social media.  

As we launch our new look, and renew our commitment to urban health, our new tagline “Healthy Cities. Better Lives.” sets the stage for the next 160 years of Academy work in New York and in cities around the world.