Barbers & Clinicians Unite to Address Urgent Need for Diabetes Screening in Black and Brown Communities
NEW YORK (4/6/2023) – DKBmed LLC is working with the University of Texas Southwestern Health Center to produce a quality improvement program targeted towards Dallas-based barbers and clinicians serving communities with large Black and Hispanic populations. Entitled Fade Out T2D: Barber and Clinician Outreach, this multipronged initiative is a companion to Fade Out HIV – a quality improvement program that fostered partnerships between barbers and clinicians and sought to screen Black adult men for HIV in the Los Angeles area. To date, Fade Out HIV has educated more than 385 barbers and 297 clinicians and delivered 308 HIV tests.
Although the prevalence of T2D is rising nationwide, the metabolic disorder disproportionately affects members of racial minority groups residing in the United States. Data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Minority Health indicate that the rate of diabetes among Black men and women is 60% higher than that of non-Hispanic White people. Additionally, Hispanic and non-Hispanic Black individuals with diabetes are more likely to remain undiagnosed and untreated than non-Hispanic White individuals. These disparities in outcomes result, in part, from various systemic inequalities classifiable in the social determinants of health framework. Because of poor treatment, Black communities also tend to distrust health systems and access care less frequently than members of other racial groups.
“I’m excited to be part of this program because I believe we can address these disparities by joining the Black and Hispanic communities at the barbershop and giving them the knowledge they need, where they need it,” notes Maria Esparza, MD, Assistant Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center and Fade Out Diabetes Program Director.
Fade Out T2D: Barber and Clinician Outreach endeavors to close these longstanding gaps in diabetes care with several interventions that hinge on the relationship that barbers have with their clients. For years, barbershops have been widely recognized as effective venues for delivering healthcare interventions. Barbers often view themselves as informal counselors and naturally cultivate trusting relationships with their clients; this affinity for their customers makes them ideal partners for education and facilitators of healthcare access. Previous initiatives in hypertension, diabetes, and HIV implemented in barbershops for Black men in urban areas of the United States were successful, with increased screening and linkage to care. The Fade Out Diabetes program comprises four, linked elements:
- Clinician Education – a webcast that quantifies the impact of diabetes on Black and Hispanic communities, reinforces the importance of diabetes screening, reviews prevention strategies, discusses modifications to ADA treatment recommendations, and provides information about optimizing care for patients with T2D and a comorbid condition.
- Clinician Education – a webcast that quantifies the impact of diabetes on Black and Hispanic communities, reinforces the importance of diabetes screening, reviews prevention strategies, discusses modifications to ADA treatment recommendations, and provides information about optimizing care for patients with T2D and a comorbid condition.
- Community Intervention – screening days will be coordinated with the delivery of barber education at 3 barbershops in the Dallas metropolitan area. Medical professionals at the University of Texas Southwestern will offer on-site HbA1c testing services to all interested barbershop clients. "The barbershop is a safe place in the Black and Brown communities to talk about current events, relationships, sex, and health care,” said Tyrik Jackson, barber influencer and owner of Premier Barber Institute. “We’re building a comprehensive educational program that encourages barbers to talk to their clients in the Black and Brown communities about the urgent need for diabetes prevention, testing, and treatment."
- Client-Clinician Referral Network – DKBmed and the University of Texas Southwestern will develop a client-clinician referral network after the conclusion of the clinician and barber education modules, which will grant barbers a convenient, accessible database with which they can refer clients. Barbers will be provided with diabetes educational material to share with their clients. After a referral by on-site testers or their barbers, clients will be encouraged to visit a community clinician and will receive a coupon for a free haircut from the recommending barber after seeing the clinician for diabetes care.
Disclosure of Support
Fade Out T2D: Barber and Clinician Outreach is supported by educational grants from Lilly and Novo Nordisk.
About the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
UT Southwestern, based in Dallas, Texas, is a premier academic medical center that seeks to promote “a healthy society that enables the achievement of full human potential.” The institution’s faculty of more than 2,800 includes 6 Nobel Prize recipients and other distinguished members who are responsible for groundbreaking medical advances and the translation of science-driven research into cutting-edge treatments. Collectively, the physicians at UT Southwestern provide medical care across approximately 80 specialties to more than 105,000 hospitalized patients, nearly 370,000 emergency room cases, and approximately 3 million outpatients annually. To learn more about UT Southwestern Medical Center, visit their website at: https://www.utsouthwestern.edu/
About DKBmed
DKBmed is an integrated continuing medical education company operated by an experienced team of medical education experts. DKBmed provides health care professionals with effective medical education that closes identified knowledge and practice gaps to improve patient health.Working with accredited providers and other partners, DKBmed develops innovative educational programs and quality improvement (QI) initiatives, bringing new learning methodologies to the CME landscape. DKBmed has become a leader in QI in the independent medical education space with QI projects in Pain Management, HIV, Depression, Influenza, and Diabetic Eye Disease. DKBmed was also an early adopter of case scenarios with real patients and live actors, TED/DKBmed Talks, 3D animation, webcasts, podcasts, and smart phone applications for clinicians and patients. These forward-thinking approaches enable health care professionals to learn and access educational programs in a manner that is most convenient and appropriate for them.
DKBmed’s programs are accessible through the company’s website (www.dkbmed.com). They reach more than 150,000 health care professionals in primary care and in a variety of specialties and disease states including: HIV, COVID-19, cystic fibrosis, diabetes, influenza, dermatology, retinal disease, rheumatoid arthritis, COPD, asthma, multiple sclerosis, pain management, depression and viral hepatitis (HBV, HCV) and oncology.