Taking hip-hop health education to Harlem’s Apollo

Our story on Friday about the dramatic ways in which “design thinking” is helping to transform healthcare underscored a critically important side of GE’s healthymagination strategy — that it’s not just technology that will solve problems, but new attitudes and behaviors. That same low-tech march to solutions can be seen in the work of Dr. Olajide Williams, a neurologist and Columbia University professor who is the founder and director of the Hip Hop Public Health Education Center at Harlem Hospital. His team produces a series of health awareness programs that use hip-hop music to teach pre-adolescents about issues such as eating healthy, warning signs of strokes, and preventing Type 2 diabetes. As you can see in the video below, the center — whose sponsors include GE, the New York City Council and the National Stroke Association — recently hosted hundreds of students from New York City public schools for a program called H.E.A.L.S. (Healthy Eating and Living in Schools) at the famed Apollo Theater in Harlem.

Dr. Williams tapped two of hip-hop’s originators, Doug E. Fresh and MC Easy A.D. to help the center establish credibility among kids who eat-and-breathe hip-hop — and to craft beats and rhymes that rise above the standard fare of children’s music. At the Apollo, children were taught a range of eating options, including the difference between healthy foods, or “Go foods” like apples, and unhealthy, or “Whoa foods” like donuts. They were even taught what a calorie is — a measurement of energy — and the consequences of having too much of a necessary thing. As Dr. Williams said: “Music is a powerful messenger, and this is a powerful message.”

Focus on healthy diets continue to gain traction in the U.S. as an estimated 17 percent of children and adolescents ages 2-19 are considered obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Additional research shows that some 80 percent of overweight children become obese adults. Dr. Williams hopes his Hip Hop H.E.A.L.S. program will help curb that trend.

Our sister website, healthymagination.com, recently published the video below, in which Dr. Williams explains the program’s approach and its focus on stroke awareness and prevention. As Carly Hutchinson, 46, director of communications and outreach for the Harlem Health Promotion Center, which provides health services and education in the community, says: “Stroke is at epidemic levels in Harlem… People in their 20’s are already showing early signs of hardening arteries and hyper-tension, [which are] leading factors.”

“When we teach children about these issues and what they can do, we’re also teaching their parents, siblings, and friends,” Dr. Williams says. “Music makes health education fun. And when it’s fun, kids retain information and know how to act.”

* Learn more details about the program on healthymagination.com
* Learn more about Dr. Williams
* Read more healthymagation stories on GE Reports
* Read “IDEO’s Tim Brown on ‘design thinking’ in healthcare” on GE Reports
* Learn more about how GE is helping to bridge the gap in healthcare access
* Listen to a perspective from Dr. Williams on working to overcome healtcare disparity