Adolescent Medicine
The Adolescent Medicine Program at Columbia University Medical Center provides comprehensive, state-of-the-art care for adolescents and young adults. Our board-certified pediatricians address the unique medical and health-related issues that teens face and help to ensure our patients’ well-being during this exciting, and often tumultuous, period of growth and development in their lives. We offer complete medical care and psychosocial evaluations for teens and young adults, from sports physicals to vaccinations to discussions about school issues, aspirations, relationships, and sexuality.
Adolescent Medicine pediatricians are specially trained to address medical and health-related issues that teenagers face across the spectrum of experiences. By working in community, school-based and hospital settings, our providers have collectively developed a vast expertise in the field. In addition to providing direct clinical care, we have active training programs, conduct clinical and epidemiological research, and participate in programs that both invest in adolescents and advocate for them on a regional and national level.
Primary care for adolescent patients is provided both at our ColumbiaDoctors Midtown practice site and in partnership with the Ambulatory Care Network practice site which serves patients in the communities surrounding Columbia University Medical Center. The practices offer a variety of services for patients 11-25 years old, including comprehensive primary care, vaccinations, management of acute and chronic illnesses, evaluation for anxiety and depression, and adolescent reproductive health care, including contraception. We also offer Adolescent Medicine consultations for complex adolescent physical and psychosocial issues.
The Young Men’s Clinic provides services that focus specifically on the health care and related needs of young men aged 12-35 years old. Our care of young adolescent men—a population whose unique needs are often overlooked—has been featured nationally. Our Young Men’s Clinic provides a medical home for this often disenfranchised group, offering physical and reproductive health care in a “male friendly” environment.
The School-based Clinic Practices provide easy access to comprehensive and confidential clinical services for teenagers from 23 NYC public and intermediate high schools in northern Manhattan and the Bronx. Often serving as the student’s primary source of health care, we coordinate services with parents, family physicians and other community-based providers. We foster a positive environment at our schools through programs for LGBTQ youth, anti-bullying education, mental health first aid, suicide prevention, and teaching parents how to talk with their teens. In addition, staff have training in Integrative Health Services and offer patients acupressure/acupuncture for selected medical conditions, mindfulness meditation for stress management, self-hypnosis for anxiety, and aromatherapy.