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February of the year 2000. What a year! It was in February 1999 that we moved to our new home at 201 East 65th
Street. For us it feels like a very long rite of passage and we still haven't got to the other side. But who said growing up was easy? As our First Lady (and possible Senator-to-be) put it, "It Takes a Village…" Indeed it does. And so, with this fledgling issue, we invite everyone—patients, docs, medical and administrative staff to celebrate the launching of
The Yaffe/Ruden Chronicles, a monthly diary of life in a doctor's office in turn-of-the-century New York. That sounds so grand. It gets
even grander. This is to be nothing less than a record of the doings of one small, but significant sector of our city's cultural life, the private doctor's office in The Age of Managed Care.
"Very nice" you say. But what exactly is so cultured
about running to the toilet every five minutes and reaching for your cell phone to call the doctor? Or spitting up ochre-colored messes with suspicious flecks in them? And is it really that high brow to plot how to con your local pharmacist into delivering the drugs that your doc promised would knock you into oblivion? Not quite the stuff of Homer's
Iliad or Shakespearean tragedy somehow. No. But that's because we intend to be guided by the anthropological notion of culture. Not its narrower meaning as the domain of certain kinds of
experiences accessible only to the privileged few. Health and sickness, and having ideas about health and sickness are universal. We'd like this newsletter/journal to become an ongoing conversation about those ideas, a
conversation that borrows freely from many different languages—science, medicine, sociology, anthropology, literature and theater (to name just a few). We'd like to show that our own little microcosm of the world here
at East 65th
Street is as rich and diverse and interesting as any culture anywhere. And, finally, we hope to use this forum to develop our own particular model of professionalism. In our view, it isn't some inhuman, unattainable ideal of perfection, but is more the honest attempt to grow and learn from our mistakes, to pay attention to criticism, and to respect suggestions from any source as long as they reflect a sincere desire to improve what have to offer through our services.
"All very proper and high-minded. Still not sure what you're talking about." What is this trying to be anyway? Something for everyone, all things to all people? A medical newsletter, gossip column,
soapbox, complaint court, political tract? Do we need one more thing to read in a country where we're literally drowning under the weight of more information coming at us from every corner than we'll be able to absorb
in ten lifetimes? Are we aspiring to some sort of pseudo-scientific respectability under the pretence of writing a humble little everyman's Pilgrims Progress?
Maybe yes and maybe no to one or all of the above. This is an experiment, a voyage of self-discovery. Its only justification is that of the ethnographer's, which is, that in uncovering the ways of life of a
"strange" community or tribe, he or she learns as much about himself or herself, as about "the other". The main difference is that we want to be our own ethnographers and we want everyone who comes through the doors of
this office to participate in the decision of how this particular slice of everyday life is represented. After all, we all help to create it. These are changing times in America. In the medical
establishment, the introduction of Managed Care
has had an impact on everything from quality of care and expectation of services, to doctor-patient relationships and acceptable etiquette on the part of all those who participate in jointly constructing this complex and odd tangle of social interactions. Change is inevitable. We believe that by trying to make visible what is invisible, by trial and error, by inviting you, the patients, to help us not only as partners in your own healthcare but also in how it is delivered, we can make change less painful. Give us your opinions, ideas, suggestions for topics you'd like to see explored in greater depth. Help us understand your concerns, your perceptions of how other factors in your life impinge upon your ability to control either your mental or physical health, your recovery from illness. What you share with us can often help someone else in a similar situation. We want you along for the ride.
We also think this is going to be a lot of fun! |
