Your health is in your hands. Yes on your smart phones. No waiting for hours in front of the doctors room or getting appointment from the receptionists. It is direct and the fees is also low when compared to other hospitals. It is all hitech and more than the hitech. No cheating and no looting in the name of tests and scans. Its open and in no time.
Forward’s San Francisco doctor’s office features a glass case full of Fitbits and connected blood pressure cuffs, iPads, and an inconspicuous body sensor.
Sensors and technology are baked into care, and Forward has doctors and nurses who are round the clock .
Founded by former Googler and AI pioneer Adrian Aoun, Forward is designed to be a primary care facility, including services for women’s health. It has four doctors in-house and will refer patients who need further care to an outside network.
The company has the Silicon Valley ethos of using software to solve problems. Early Uber product lead Ilya Abyzov is Forward’s cofounder, and its first doctor, Aaliya Yaqub, helped build Facebook’s onsite clinic.
Membership costs $149 per month.
The firm equates its pricey services to that of a monthly gym membership, where you get unlimited visits.
“Imagine a doctor’s office that looks and feels more like an Apple Store than doctor’s office, where everything works with each other. “You get a doctor’s office that learns and gets better over time.”
On your first visit, you get a baseline screening. The three part on-boarding process includes standard information like blood pressure and weight, but Forward factors in blood and a genetic testing, too. Blood tests take about 12 minutes and happen onsite. A DNA spit test screens for increased cancer risk based on your genetic structure.
The first physical test takes about 45 seconds – You step on the body sensor in the lobby, placed two fingers into pulse sensors and watched a screen serve up my personal information, right down to my pulse oximetry.
The screening continues in a private room, where you change into workout clothes instead of traditional paper gowns, and light sensors above your veins make it easier to draw blood.
Your personal data gets fed directly onto a large touchscreen on the wall and a doctor walks you through things like fitness, blood, sleep, mental health and cancer risk. Sensor-equipped stethoscopes even visualize your heartbeat.
Doctors are assisted, in part, by an artificially intelligent system that collects and analyzes data. For instance, if two patients received the same diagnosis, but different medications and different results, the software would learn that and suggest the more successful solution next time.
Your care doesn’t stop when you leave the office. An app lets you chat with doctors and get meal plan suggestions. It also integrates with your activity and health trackers so doctors can assign sensors to track specific issues, like blood pressure or glaucoma.
Health spending in the U.S. continues to grow, and healthcare costs account for almost 18% of the country’s GDP. Preventative care can save money and time.
Concierge medicine is not a new idea — One Medical, for instance, is a popular boutique doctor’s office that costs $149 per year, and data-driven healthcare is a growing trend. IBM’s Watson is working with clinics around the world to optimize diagnoses, and health insurance startup Oscar recently opened a brick-and-mortar space in Brooklyn.
Joshua Kushner, cofounder of Oscar (and an in-law to president-elect Donald Trump), is also an investor in Forward. Forward did not disclose how much it has raised.The startup also provides care to people who can’t afford the $149 fee.
