Northern New York Medical Review Volume 2
Welcome to Volume 2 of the Northern New York Medical Review. While the rural geography of Northern New York separates residents, our small and connected populations mean that the consequences of COVID-19 have been near and local. As I write this introduction, COVID-19 continues its spread across Northern New York. By the end of November 2021, 44,092 of our neighbors have contracted the virus and 395 have died.
The pandemic has shown few signs of abating across the counties that make up Northern New York. In putting together this issue, we contacted North Country residents and asked them to share their stories of living and working during the pandemic. We have compiled features from physicians, first responders, and family. Dr. Tiff Bombard, an emergency department physician provides a haunting yet inspiring account of the emotional challenges faced by clinicians over the past year. Mark Deavers and Mellisa Brook, from Gouverneur Rescue write from front lines of North Country emergency medical services. Deavers and Brook persuasively detail a frustratingly fragmented and lumbering healthcare system unable to pivot and deploy strategic and ready expertise when needed. Deborah Chase-Lauther provides a remarkable, compassionate, and poignant retelling of her husband’s COVID-related stroke and recovery during the summer of 2020. We reached beyond the North County to Dr. Oliver Joseph, a pediatric psychiatrist, who reports on how the pandemic has changed pediatric mental health.
In addition to these accounts, we continue with our commitment to publishing original research about disease and healthcare in Northern New York. Shanna Bonanno and Mark Bray provide 3 linked reports on gastro-intestinal conditions in St. Lawrence County. Bonanno and Bray provide never-before reported data on incidence, severity, mortality, gender, and cost for 9 separate GI conditions. They then compare North Country rates with national trends. Their results are illuminating and important for showing where North Country populations are ahead of national trends and where we have work to do.
As always, we look forward to original research on or about Northern New York medicine and health and to comments and suggestions for how we can improve the journal. Please contact us at editors@nnymedicalreview.org.
Thank you to our contributors for making this an especially meaningful issue. Thanks to our reviewers for their advice and helpful suggestions to our writers. A special thank you to the clinicians across the North Country - in hospital and out of hospital - who have endured and prevailed over the past two years. Thanks for your exceptional work and your commitment to Northern New York.
