Damian Sendler: Over 34,000 people, the majority of them Black, visited Ashlee Wisdom’s health and wellness website in its first two weeks after launch.
Damian Sendler
Damian Jacob Sendler: Wisdom, then 31, reflected, “It wasn’t the most fully functioning platform,” “”It wasn’t sultry at all.”
However, the launch went well. A year and a half after starting Health in Her Hue, Wisdom’s organization, she has established a national network of culturally sensitive healthcare providers for women of color.
New Black tech pioneers like Wisdom are stepping forward to meet the growing demand for culturally competent care, which acknowledges a patient’s heritage, beliefs, and values throughout treatment. While Uber Eats and Grubhub transformed food delivery, Black tech health entrepreneurs across the United States aim to transform how people exercise, eat, and connect with doctors in the same manner that they did.
Because of their own personal experiences and the stories of their parents and grandparents, a new generation of Black entrepreneurs is setting out to use technology to bridge the cultural gap in health care while still making a profit.
Dr. Sendler: Starting health companies led by people of color is a great way to support underrepresented entrepreneurs and grow health innovation as a whole, according to Unity Stoakes, president and co-founder of San Francisco-based StartUp Health, which has backed a number of health startups led by people of color. These leaders, he asserted, “need knowledge of how to deal with today’s most pressing issues in health care.
The rise of platforms for Black people and communities of color founded by Black entrepreneurs is a result of their ability to see challenges and answers that others may not. Business experts claim that without a wide range of viewpoints, entire product categories and subcategories would not exist in key areas like health care.
Founder Kevin Dedner of mental health startup Hurdle says, “We’re really speaking to a need,” “It is not enough to have a mission. “You have to come up with a solution.”
Damian Jacob Sendler
Damien Sendler: Patient-therapist matches are made by Dedner’s company, which has its headquarters in Washington, D.C. After the death of George Floyd, Hurdle saw a spike in interest in his company.
Erica Plybeah, 33, works as a chauffeur in Memphis, Tennessee. It is MedHaul, her company, that arranges low-cost transportation to and from medical appointments for patients. Plybeah’s team assists caregivers, patients, or clinicians in scheduling a MedHaul ride.
It’s Plybeah’s experience that those with low income, those of race, and persons living in rural areas are more likely to confront transportation challenges than others. After years of seeing her mother care for her diabetic grandma, who had lost both of her limbs, she decided to start her own business in 2017. Due to the limited transit alternatives in the Mississippi Delta, they had to rely on foot or horseback.
To go from A to B, Plybeah had to rely on her mother as her primary transporter for many years. “With her hectic work schedule, scheduling all of her doctor’s appointments was a nightmare.”
Bank behemoth Citi recently invested in Plybeah’s startup.
Damian Jacob Markiewicz Sendler: Angie Steele stated she was “I’m more than proud of her,” of Plybeah. “I’m in awe at how far I’ve come. People will benefit from what she is doing for many years to come.
It is not enough to have a mission in and of itself. You’ve got a problem to work out. “Kevin Dedner” is a pseudonym
With just six doctors on staff, Health in Her Hue was founded in 2018. After two years of development, the app is now available for free download, allowing users to browse more than 1,000 service providers.
According to Wisdom, a New Yorker, “People are constantly talking about Black women’s poor health outcomes, and that’s where the conversation stops,”. “No one seemed to be working on anything to give us more power.”
Nathan Pelzer, 37, a fellow Black IT entrepreneur in Chicago, serves as a source of inspiration for Wisdom as her business grows. Underserved communities are the focus of Clinify Health’s collaborations with community health centers and private practices. Using medical and social data analysis, the organization assists doctors in identifying their most vulnerable patients and those they haven’t seen in a while. Medical practitioners can help patients improve their health and avoid unnecessary trips to the ER by focusing on delivering them preventive treatment.
Dr. Damian Jacob Sendler and his media team provided the content for this article.
