Forward CEO and former Google exec Adrian Aoun says the healthcare industry needs to better prioritize preventative care

Adrian Ao un Forward CEO

Adrian Aoun, the founder and CEO of healthcare startup Forward, recently spoke at Business Insider's IGNITION 2018 conference in New York.
Aoun talked about the importance of not only providing reactive care, but prioritizing preventative care.
Forward plans to "build the first billion-person healthcare system" on top of its platform by turning healthcare into "a product."

Adrian Aoun, the founder and CEO of healthcare startup Forward, spoke about the importance of preventative care at the annual IGNITION conference, hosted by Business Insider, in New York on Dec. 3.

Aoun, a former Google executive, started Forward just two years ago, and has since opened futuristic-looking doctors offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York City. Memberships work like that of a gym: you pay a monthly fee, starting at $150, and doctors work alongside patients to monitor health risks with advanced AI technology.

If you'd like to watch his presentation, it starts at 2:23:14 here.

Here are some of the key takeaways:

“Have you ever lost someone close to you? Did you think ‘I wish I could have done more?’ Turns out you could, if you listened to the clues.”

"Health problems are all around us, happening to everyone. There’s always a surprise. So how are we getting blindsided by these? How could we miss this? The clues on how to solve these problems are everywhere," Aoun said. "I want a healthcare system that is preventative, not reactive. One that listens to the clues instead of waiting for the catastrophes."

At the conference, Aoun used his brother's recent heart attack as an example as to why reactive healthcare can be problematic.

“Our cardiovascular ultrasound, that our doctors can take to your carotid artery and your heart so you can literally see how your valves are opening and closing live right in front of you," he said. "The first time my brother had this done was in the ER when he was literally having a heart attack. If we had just listened to these clues a decade prior, we could have had a real chance to prevent it."

"The sound of your heart is it speaking to us. There is data in your everyday."

Forward begins by "looking for clues in the past" of each patient, Aoun explained. It does that by digitizing old medical records and using advanced AI technology to get a better picture of each patient.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider