MIT Solve

Solution Overview

Solution Name:

Hair and Hab

One-line solution summary:

Health promotion and wellness through barbershops/hair salons by physical therapists among BIPOC thru telehealth

Pitch your solution.

Problem: People of color have reduced healthcare utilization and access, don't trust physicians, lack of time due to hourly wages, immigration issues, chronic medical conditions, and lack of physical activity and don't know how to exercise.

Solution: Our solution is reach out to hair salons and barbershops by physical therapists in the United States in underserved, healthcare deserts areas where to promote health and wellness, early diagnosis, screening, dosing accurate exercise prescription for the disease management with use of tele health and connecting with racial/ethnic concordance physicians to improve outcomes.This solution can be scaled and tailored globally by educating barbers /hair stylists to start a conversation about health of their clients for early diagnosis and prevention. This solution can be scaled to every barbershops/ hair salon in the every town, county, cities and states.

What specific problem are you solving?

According to ADA "Salons are a social support center offering a safe place to seek guidance on personal issues such as health decisions."Barbers and hair stylists are uniquely positioned in the society and are valuable source for health messaging. Barbershops and hair salons are the best places for social interaction among the communities. The barbershops and hair salons have been historically been a safe, nonjudgmental space for men and women to talk about anything—sports, politics, religion, health and barbers and hair stylists are most trusted persons who do hair and can be trusted to help you with the problem. Research have shown that hispanics, non hispanic blacks and south asians have significantly higher prevalence of physical inactivity.People of color are twice more likely to have chronic diseases such as diabetes, cancer, CVD, Asthma, compared to white people. Physical activity and diet reduce risk of developing or worsening of chronic conditions such as diabetes, CVD, stroke, dementia, many types of cancer, Anxiety and depression. Physical therapists can play a key role in promoting health and wellness by encouraging active living, providing early screening of disease and prescribing targeted activity interventions to improve fitness and participation, and helping individuals overcome personal and environmental barriers to an active lifestyle.

What is your solution?

As established healthcare professionals, physical therapists are well positioned to be clinically competent in patient education to effect long-term lifestyle behavior change, to improve health and physical therapy outcomes.We envision to promote health and wellness, safe exercise prescription for people with arthritis, chronic pain management, assess balance, coordination, annual checks, fall risk assessment and strategies to improve physical activity among people by having brief advice and discussion, face-to-face/one-on-one and group sessions, skills training, visual modes and presentations, handouts of brochures and diaries, use of motivational prompts, individual goal setting and planning, and exploration with patients and clients of barriers and problem solving strategies among people of color at barbershops and hair salons. In these times we envision to use tele health platforms by using simple laptop and educated barbers of checking vital signs of their customers, BMI calculation based on race and ethnicity recommendations and facilitate proper referral to the physicians who see patients of same race and ethnicity. As recent study showed that patients prefer physicians who prefer same race and ethnicity. We are envisioning that physical therapists would promote health and wellness/ nutrition education, vital signs assessments as needed and proper referral to the physicians via tele health set up in the barber shops/hair salons.

Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?

This solution is to work with populations who are less active to design and implement culturally relevant solutions to reduce disparities in physical activity and geared towards African Americans, Hispanics and south asians improving their physical activity as too many adults are inactive and physical activity varies among different race and ethnicity. In adequate physical inactivity causes premature death, and over time, physical activity reduces your risk of obesity, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and many cancers and other financial burden on the healthcare costs. Several benefits have been documented with increase in physical activity. Its' interesting to find out that inadequate physical activity will be impacting the military readiness of the country where 1 out of 4 young adults are too heavy to serve in the military. The Centers of Disease control reports that 22 states and Pureto Rico had 30% higher physical inactive population among hispanic adult population. 23 states and Pureto Rico has 30% or higher physical inactive population among non hispanic black adults.On the other hand there is no data available on south asians and physical inactivity at this time. We intend to use tele health promoting physical activity in barbershops and hair salon and facilitate proper referral to the physicians who are race/ethnicity concordance. If these patients are not able to visit healthcare physicians we intend to bring services to them at their most trusted place and people who they trust. Studies have shown that older African Americans do not use rehabilitation services at the same rates as white people. On the hand no studies have been reported so far on use of rehabilitation services among hispanics. South Asians despite being professionals, skilled workers, females were found to be inactive in their leisure times.

Which dimension of the Challenge does your solution most closely address?

Actively minimize human and algorithmic biases, particularly in healthcare, education, and workplace settings.

Explain how the problem you are addressing, the solution you have designed, and the population you are serving align with the Challenge.

We are apply our solution towards reducing human and algorithm biases in healthcare as it is perceived that certain groups are being physically inactive and this solution would enable them to be more active through active coaching and referral system to physicians who are culturally competent.

In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?

Waxahachie, Texas, USA

What is your solution’s stage of development?

Concept: An idea being explored for its feasibility to build a product, service, or business model based on that idea.

Explain why you selected this stage of development for your solution.

Several studies have been reported in the recent years about African American men, barbershop interventions and health-outcomes. We would like to include people of color, barbershops, hair stylists, and physical therapists who specialize in prescribing physical activity and can facilitate proper referral to physicians with ethnic concordance. Our solution intends to include African Americans, Hispanics and south asians promoting physical activity and proper referral program using tele health platform at safe location.

Who is the Team Lead for your solution?

Dr. Hari Vennelakanti, PT, DPT.