An epidemiologic study of amputees in the East Harlem community.

Dr. Wood is associate professor of community medicine, Mrs. Volante is community nursing consultant and instructor in community medicine, and Mr. Berenson is a fourth year medical student, Mount Sinai School of Medicine of the City University of New York, The New York Community Trust provided funds for the study. Tearsheet requests to Courtney B. Wood, M.D., Mount Sinai School of Medicine, City University of New York, 19 E. 98th St., New York City 10029. the extent that mass screening or any like programs fulfill these criteria, they perform a valuable health service within a community; that is, they have the potential of leading to reductions in morbidity, mortality, or disability. The problem often is, however, that existing programs for one reason or another are weak, especially in reaching the desired population and in the area of followup care. The question arises as to whether there is any way of using the valuable experience of traditional public health methodology to reach the community with an approach that would be more responsive to its health needs and more effective in meeting these needs. To that end we proposed and executed a pilot study that was based on the resolve of the department of community medicine, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, "to identify and solve health problems in the community." We decided to select a disease that was easily identifiable by the general population and for which there was a relatively simple and highly visible solution. The approach was to be one of search and service, with a view to developing a network of indigenous epidemiologic intelligence within a given community; namely, East Harlem. Amputation of an extremity was selected as the most recognizable disease entity for which followup services are accessible, available, and effective. In this study an amputee is defined as a person lacking part or all of one or more extremities.