Shave and a Haircut – and Teleheath

What happens when a prime time TV show becomes a potential healthcare policy direction, plus a side helping of broadband adoption strategy? An episode of the NBC TV medical melodrama New Amsterdam inspired a five-city telehealth pilot project involving barbershops and hair salons. The show’s medical director had a brilliant idea to enlist barbershops in African-American neighborhoods to screen customers for hypertension (high blood pressure), which leads to an overwhelming majority of the 140,000 stroke-related deaths a year. Cleveland, Ohio, is one of the five cities. Urban Kutz barbershop was early to facilitate a manual hypertension screening program that started 12 years ago. Owner Waverley Willis reports, “90% or more customers discover the first time they’re screen they have high blood pressure. Several customers’ blood pressure was so high they went straight to the ER, and a good number were well on their way to a stroke or a heart attack.”

[Craig Settles assists cities and co-ops with business planning for broadband and telehealth]