Barbershops to serve as health clinics too?

The Center for Minority Health created the Take a Health Professional to the People Day which took place yesterday in Pittsburgh, PA where health professionals visited various barbershops to perform screenings, from blood pressure checks, blood sugar checks, cancer screening, to digital rectal exams. Last year 700 people were screened. Private insurers were onsite to sign up people for private insurance. READ MORE...

Here are some startling statistics from a Reuters article:"HIV is the leading cause of death among African-Americans 25 to 44, for example, and rates of death from cardiovascular disease are 30 percent higher in black adults than white adults, according to the American Medical Student Association. Diabetes is 70 percent more prevalent in blacks than whites, and prostate cancer hits African-American men 66 percent more frequently than Caucasian men, with twice the death rate."

Another trend in our state of Massachusetts, which has already been under way in some other states, is the embedding of nurse practitioner operated medical clinics.

Here, CVS pharmacies have been approved to run walk-in medical clinics and soon we will have the Minute Clinic. Expect to see this see or something similar to it in a neighborhood near you. The nurse practitioners diagnose and treat urgent care medical problems and write prescriptions.