Forward
Forward wants to revolutionize healthcare.
The latest: The membership-based primary care company raised $100M in new funding to scale its autonomous CarePods, tech-enabled booths analyzing critical health data.
- Memberships start at $99 per month, granting access to CarePods for on-demand biometric body scans, disease detection, blood testing, and more.
- Leveraging test results and AI, clinicians prescribe personalized health plans tracked via Forward’s app.
CarePods will roll out nationally through 2024, with the first already open in Sacramento. Down the line, the company sees its self-service CarePods becoming ubiquitous in offices, malls, and gyms nationwide.
Why it matters: Like wearables, whole-body imaging promises to usher in a more personalized and preventative approach to healthcare. Early detection could save countless lives and trillions of dollars, catching leading killers like heart disease, cancer, and stroke before complications arise.
And, making scans affordable for the masses, Forward’s competitive price point could encourage adoption beyond biohackers.
New regime. As provider shortages, regulatory hurdles, and mismatched incentives stifle the current system—leading to increased spending and decreased lifespans—startups are swooping in with vertically integrated DTC solutions.
Ezra and Prenuvo have made waves, and sparked debate, with preventative full-body MRIs for cancer screening. More futuristic, Neko and Q Bio turn scan data into digital patient models, tracking health and predicting disease over time.
Punchline: Forward’s latest innovation marks a breakthrough in data democratization and unlocks potential for preventative medicine. But, accessibility is just one part of the equation; success is translating test results into better health outcomes.
