Barbers Help Cut Prostate Cancer
A new program inspired by the movie Barbershop is helping reduce the risk of prostate cancer for thousands of black men in America.
More than a 100 medical centers around the country educated hundreds of barbers about free prostate cancer screening programs so they could pass the information on to their customers. Some participating barbershops were also outfitted with multimedia workstations which provided video, podcast, and web-based information developed to educate men about the disease.
The initiative was spearheaded by Virgil Simons, a black textile industry executive, prostate cancer survivor, and cancer crusader who also founded a web site called The Prostate Net. The natural neighborhood setting depicted in the motion picture struck Simons as the ideal place to spread the word about prostate cancer screening. As he explains,
“I knew there had to be another form of outreach, particularly for those at high risk of that disease, minority men. So I set up a program where medical centers around the country educated barbers, and they provided information on screening and free care.”
Results from the program were presented at the September 2007 Innovative Minds in Prostate Cancer Today Meeting held in Atlanta, Georgia. The meeting was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense Prostate Cancer Research Program.
Source: HealthDay
Related Links: National Prostate Cancer Coalition; ustoo.org; Cancer Health Disparities Summit 2007; The Office of Minority Health
Related Video: Prostate Cancer Screening from the Minority Health and Research Center
Related Podcast: Prostate Cancer Expectant Management from Johns Hopkins Medicine
Spanish Link: Cáncer de próstata from MedlinePlus
Tags: healthcare disparities; prostate cancer prevention; Hyatt Regency; Charles Barkley; H Ballentine Carter MD; urology
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