Researchers boost cancer screening rates visiting NYC barbershops

Hospitals have found success engaging patients within such community institutions as libraries and farmers markets, and now a team of outreach specialists have taken it a hair further by hanging out at barbershops.

A new study published in the American Journal of Public Health examined the effectiveness of performing patient navigation services in local barber shops, and found there to be an increase in the cancer screening rate studied.

Community health workers visited more than 100 barbershops in New York City between 2009 and 2013 to provide patient navigation to more than 700 black men. The idea was to get to know members of the community well enough that they believed the researchers who were urging them to get screened for colorectal cancer. Dr. Joseph Ravenell.