Live Chair Health partners with Higi to enhance screenings efforts and augment their ability to connect members of the Black community with health resources and care
Higi’s Stations and technology enhance Live Chair Health’s existing efforts to change the trajectory of chronic disease in African American communities through identification and early intervention
Chicago, IL – May 11, 2021 – Higi, a consumer health engagement company partnering with leading retail and healthcare organizations to provide access to care via an omnichannel platform that includes a connected network of Smart Health Stations, today announced their partnership with Live Chair Health. The technology platform, whose booking service for barbershops evolved into a game changing healthcare company on a mission to foster life-saving conversations about cardiovascular health is adding Higi to their suite of tools to enable barbers to empower their customers to understand and take action to improve their health.
For the two organizations, each working in their own ways to address health inequities, the partnership was a natural fit. Live Chair Health brings their established network of barbers, true influencers in their community with the ability to drive real change for a population who express high levels of distrust with traditional healthcare system, which tends to lead to poorer health[1]. Higi provides the technology to amplify their work, automating blood pressure screenings and education while adding additional risk assessments and care programs, increasing health engagement overall and further identifying opportunities for preventive care.
The statistics are well known, yet spotlight inequities in healthcare access and delivery that haven’t been adequately addressed. According to the CDC, African Americans 45-64 are 50% more likely to have high blood pressure than their white counterparts.[2] This prevalence means this population is at an increased risk for heart disease and stroke, and in fact, Black Americans 18-49 are twice as likely to die from heart diseases than whites[1].
“The conversations we’ve helped start between hair professionals and clients through Live Chair Health are vital to the change we need to see in the health outcomes of Black Americans” says Andrew Suggs, founder and CEO at Live Chair Health. “Our partnership with Higi gives us the ability to offer additional support to our barbers, empowering them to do even more for their clients. Not only does the Higi Station ease the burden of providing a clinical service, but it offers built in educational tools and sets us up to create value for regional healthcare partners who can affect real, lasting change in consumer routines and lifestyles, alongside Higi and Live Chair Health.”
Customers of the Pikasso Kutz Salon in Windsor Mills, MD are the first to benefit from this new partnership. Through Higi, customers can screen for hypertension risk, as well as risk for obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart attack and stroke. Both Live Chair Health and Higi provide access to education and information about hypertension and other chronic disease, and through Live Chair Health’s on-station program, customers can access medical providers that are sensitive the unique health disparities found in minority populations. The two organizations will continue to work together to identify partnerships that enable healthcare organizations to foster relationships with communities of color and provide the resources and support needed to improve outcomes and increase access to preventive care.
“Our mission at Higi is straightforward - to meet people where they are to make healthcare more accessible” shares Jeff Bennett, CEO at Higi. “To us, this means finding the places in the community where consumers feel comfortable and confident. Often, and importantly, that is a retailer, where trust is established and where care often takes place. Our partnership with Live Chair embodies our mission by identifying a new meeting place – the barbershop - that enables communities of color to comfortably and confidently engage in conversation about their personal health and access the right resources to take action.”
##
About Higi
Higi is a consumer health engagement company making it easier for all people to measure, track and act on their health data by bridging physical and digital touch points of the healthcare ecosystem. In service of health systems, health plans, retailers and consumer healthcare brands, Higi’s omni-channel platform meets consumers in their communities, at home and on the go. Our partners connect with the consumers they care for through our nationwide network of 10,000 FDA-cleared, free-to-use self-screening Smart Health Stations, home health devices, digital and mobile tools. The Higi platform addresses the needs of healthcare consumers across the care continuum through education designed to improve health literacy, disease specific assessments to inform risk stratification and drive digital navigation, and connected care offerings to avoid unscheduled care and improve outcomes. With the ability to move this data into healthcare’s workflows, Higi delivers digital health engagement at scale, creating actionable connections to the healthcare organizations that provide care and support. To date, more than 61 million people have used a Higi Station to conduct over 372 million biometric tests.
About Live Chair Health
Live Chair Health builds networks of clinical and non-clinical resources as well as in-person and digital services to address minority health disparities. Combining high-touch encouragement from trusted hair professionals (barbers/stylists) and high-tech digital solutions, Live Chair Health is able to leverage the influence of hair care professionals to initiate client discussions about chronic health issues that disproportionately affect minority communities. Once onboarded to the Live Chair Health program, clients are encouraged through rewards and incentives given for healthy habits that can ultimately result in long-term positive health outcomes.
[1] https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/newsletter-article/2021/jan/medical-mistrust-among-black-americans
[2] https://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/aahealth/index.html