Haircuts come with free blood pressure and glucose checks thanks to UMass Chan initiative

Medical student Michelle Chang and Michael Hirsh, MD, professor of surgery and pediatrics and assistant vice provost for wellness and health promotion at UMass Chan Medical School, have teamed up to relaunch the Barbershop Health Network, hosting community conversations, conducting blood pressure screenings and spreading knowledge about the latest vaccines in Worcester-area barbershops.

The premise of the Barbershop Health Network is simple: Make health care accessible by offering free blood pressure and glucose screenings to Worcester residents who might not regularly visit their doctors, but routinely frequent their barbershops. 

Originally established in 2008, the Barbershop Health Network revived the barbershop screenings last year after Chang won a Remillard Family Community Service Fund grant. 

“I’ve been here since the beginning, so seeing the Barbershop Health Network come back is great,” said Dr. Hirsh. “It’s a way of seeing the challenges people have when they haven’t visited their doctor in a while or don’t have insurance. We’re blessed to have students like Michelle with energy, vision and sincere hope to eliminate a lot of the wrongs and disparities that exist in the system.”

Chang, whose family immigrated from China and Taiwan, became interested in medicine after witnessing her family’s health care struggles. 

“It’s clear that people care about their health,” said Chang. “There are factors such as time and access, language barriers, cultural barriers, systemic racism, and unfavorable past experiences at hospitals for someone to overcome just to get their blood pressure and glucose checked.”

“Health care needs to start within the community because people care about people,” continued Chang. “We can’t only take care of people who end up in hospitals—as providers, our mission is to keep people out of the hospitals. That’s what motivates me to engage in community service.”

Earlier this year, Chang and Hirsh teamed up with Prince Virtuez, owner of Palace Elite Barber Spa. 

“Barbering is a community thing,” said Virtuez. “As a child, I went from foster care to foster care, so I’m a community person. We build with the community.”

Virtuez said he’s looking forward to watching the Barbershop Health Network expand, encouraging other barbershops to join. 

“Health goes with barbering and beauty—it has to do with taking care of yourself or maintaining your quality of life,” said Virtuez. “You can’t just take care of the outside. We’ve got to take care of the inside as well.” 

“We’ve seen people with really high blood pressures and high blood sugars who didn’t know it,” said Chang. “Asymptomatic people think they’re fine, but they’re not. Hypertension and diabetes are silent killers because of a decades-long effect of not controlling measures that can cause devastating complications, which are completely preventable.”

Chang and Hirsh hope to expand capacity to include screenings for lung function, depression and anxiety. They are seeking to maximize their outreach by including beauty and nail salons.