BayCare, American Heart Association and Higi Extend Libraries With Heart Initiative Across Tampa Bay

In a major step toward addressing healthcare accessibility and heart health education, BayCare, along with its partners American Heart Association (AHA) and Higi, introduced the first phase of a new Libraries With Heart initiative in mid-November. This initial rollout, featuring four automated health kiosks, is part of a wider plan to deploy 14 machines across Pinellas, Pasco, and Hillsborough counties by mid-2024 and help improve the health of Tampa Bay’s residents. 

On Tuesday, Nov. 21, a ribbon-cutting event and health fair were held at Barbara S. Ponce Public Library of Pinellas Park and attended by members of the community, first responders, interested patrons and representatives of BayCare and AHA. The Higi Smart Health Station installment is the latest effort in the new collaboration between BayCare Health System and the American Heart Association of Tampa Bay.

Currently, a total of 220 Higi stations are active across nine West Central Florida counties that feed data to the BayCare Wellness Program if a user opts in for the option. 

“At BayCare, we are driven by the belief that everyone deserves access to high-quality care,” said Lisa Bell, BayCare’s director of community benefit. “The Higi platform provides a simple yet powerful tool to better enable community access to care, helping our neighbors in underserved communities better understand their own health as well as the resources available to them for support – both to address their immediate and long term care needs through BayCare, as well as the social and environmental factors that happen outside the four walls of a hospital, including access to food, shelter and transportation, which we can support through our partnership with All4HealthFL.”

Hypertension, or high blood pressure, is the leading cause of heart disease and stroke and can be linked to more than half a million deaths in the United States each year.

Gail Sherman, a Pinellas Park resident and regular library patron, attended the event to try out the new Higi machine.

“I’m very interested in staying healthy, and this is a way to monitor my health in between going to the doctor,” said Sherman. “It’s great to have this here because even though I have a blood pressure machine at home, I don’t do the self-checks as often as I should, and my machine collects dust.”   

When asked about her experience on the Higi machine, Sherman noted its simplicity and effectiveness.

“Setting up an account, it’s very user friendly and simple to use. Every time I come to the library, which is quite often, I’ll jump on it and check my blood pressure more often,” added Sherman.