A Portrait of Arts Medicine as a Young Discipline

Abstract

In late 1992 and knowing of my interest in the arts, a colleague gave me a copy of the November 30 issue of Physicians Financial News, in which he had circled the title of an article by Sidney Stevens called “Spotting Trends, Savvy Doctors Carve Out Practice Niches.” The gist of the article was that so-called niche specialties, such as arts or travel medicine, should be considered useful marketing tools rather than true specialties or subspecialties....Although I am certain that I chuckled on reading this at the time, my attention was drawn more to Mr. Stevens’ mention of the (incorrectly named) “Physicians Arts Medicine Association headed by Dr. Richard Lederman at the Cleveland Clinic.” I wrote a short letter to Dr. Lederman asking for more information about the group, and within a matter of weeks I was a bona fide member of the Performing Arts Medicine Association (PAMA).