US company launches the world’s first AI doctor’s office

San Francisco, California-based Forward has recently launched CarePods — a self-contained, AI-powered doctor's office that aims to "unlock the future of care on every street corner."

Designed to put users in the driver's seat of their health, CarePods combine advanced diagnostics, personalized health plans, and a premium in-person experience. They are meant to be deployed in malls, gyms, and offices — allowing users to get their blood drawn, throat swabbed and blood pressure reading without a doctor or nurse.

How does it work?

As soon as you step in, CarePods become your personalized gateway to a broad range of Health Apps, designed to "treat the issues of today and prevent the issues of tomorrow." You can enjoy on-demand access to Forward CarePods, which include disease detection, biometric body scans, blood testing, and so much more.

Built by a team of world-class doctors from top universities like Harvard, Johns Hopkins, and Columbia - Forward uses proprietary AI to turn clinical expertise and the latest medical research into diagnostic tools and robust care plans it calls Health Apps. You can engage with Health Apps in Forward CarePods and the Forward mobile app.

Health Apps help you address a wide range of disease areas — including diabetes, hypertension, and depression & anxiety. Forward plans to increase coverage of Health Apps over time, such as Prenatal Care, Advanced Cancer Screening, and Polygenic Risk Analysis.

Data from your CarePod visit is securely transmitted to Forward's platform — enabling continuous progress monitoring, identifying disease risks, and providing in-depth evaluations using sensors, laboratory tests, and vital sign measurements. You can access all your health data 24/7 in the Forward mobile app.

Memberships start at $99 per month.

Why does it matter?

Access and availability of healthcare is a big problem in many places around the world. Forward wants to solve this with its tech-enabled solution, with the goal of having CarePods deployed in as many places as possible.

CarePods are launching across the US, starting in the San Francisco Bay Area, New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia — and Forward plans to more than double its footprint in 2024.

In the US, healthcare spending has exploded to 20% of GDP, yet life expectancy has decreased over the past 25 years. Globally, the healthcare situation is even more dire, with less than a quarter of the world's population having access to sufficient care. Forward hopes its CarePods will change this.

What's next?

Having launched a few units, the company now needs money to mass-produce CarePods. To that end, Forward has raised $100M in growth capital to manufacture and deploy Forward CarePods.

The funding was provided by VC funds such as Khosla Ventures, Founders Fund, Samsung Next, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, and Softbank — as well as "AI luminaries" like Eric Schmidt (former CEO and Chairman of Google), John Giannandrea (SVP of Artificial Intelligence at Apple), Demis Hassabis (cofounder of DeepMind), and Mustafa Suleyman (cofounder of DeepMind and Inflection AI).

Forward is also advised by Medical leaders, including Regina Benjamin (18th Surgeon General of the United States) and Bob Wachter (Chair of the Department of Medicine at UCSF).