Dive Brief:
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Forward, the medical office startup founded by former Google employee Adrian Aoun, expanded beyond its San Francisco base and opened its first office in Los Angeles on Wednesday.
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The company, which received investment funding from the likes of Peter Thiel's Founders Fund and Marc Benioff and is made up of former employers from tech giants like Facebook, opened a small office in Westfield Century City mall.
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Dr. Robert Pearl in Forbes recently highlighted Forward, CareMore and Health City as "three trailblazing companies hoping to guide the way" to new directions in the industry. "CareMore, Forward and Health City represent three possible approaches to healthcare disruption, but it’s far too early to declare a hero among them," Pearl wrote.
Dive Insight:
Forward takes a page out of concierge care with basic screening, blood tests, wellness services, wearable monitoring, as well as access to an artificial intelligence system. Forward costs $149 a month instead of insurance and/or a co-pay. The startup is an example of a healthcare organization looking to fill a niche as the healthcare industry moves from hospitals to an outpatient/preventative care model. It also presents a different payment model that doesn't include fee-for-service.
Forward’s progress is being watched closely by the industry, especially because of the people behind the company. In a new blog post announcing the company’s expansion, Aoun wrote about how healthcare has affected his family.
“In my family, heart disease is taking us out one by one and I’m determined to stop it. In your family maybe it’s cancer, obesity or something else. That’s what we’re doing here. We’re taking every piece of data we can get our hands on and giving it to our world-class doctors so that they can help our members take control of their health instead of passively hoping for the best,” he wrote.
“We’ve got a long way to go and a lot left to build, but it’s now a reality. I’m excited to add Los Angeles to the family, to bring this back to where it started for me,” Aoun wrote.