Get back to basics in healthcare -- through barbershops

We spend more money per capita in the United States on healthcare as a percentage of GDP than any other industrialized nation in the world. Yet our clinical outcomes are no better than the average (and worse than many countries that spend far less than we do). Our system is far more complex than others, much more expensive, and often difficult to access. Many patients struggle to engage and partner with a healthcare provider and the logistics of attending a visit with a physician can be difficult for the working poor, those with families and others with multiple obligations and roles to play in the family.

This past week at the American College of Cardiology Annual Scientific Sessions, one of the most important clinical trials in decades was presented. The trial did not involve a new expensive drug or a new expensive test or surgery. It simply examined how outcomes improved when patients were engaged around a particular chronic disease on their own turf.

In the study, researchers from Cedars Sinai in Los Angeles found that if they counseled patients and actually had pharmacists take medicines to black males in their local barbershops, that they had a much more significant reduction in blood pressure as compared to those who did not receive the same service. Published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the trial involved more than 300 patients who were either entered into an intensive counseling and treatment program with pharmacists (conducted at the local barbershop). The other group (control) received lifestyle modification encouragement (such as seeing their doctor regularly) by the barbers on duty.

A huge difference was seen between the groups..