Mon. Apr 29th, 2024

Just when you thought a DINO couldn’t dilute the doctor’s role in patient care even more here comes Forward with their CarePod.

Aoun, who cofounded San Francisco-based health tech startup Forward in 2016 and today announced a fresh $100 million in funding to bring 25 of these pods to malls across the country, compares his healthcare approach to what Elon Musk is building at Tesla. The goal, like Musk’s vision of self-driving cars, is to put medicine on autopilot. “Slowly but surely we’re just migrating every single thing from doctor and nurse to hardware and software,” Aoun said. “In fact, we don’t even believe a doctor’s office should exist.”

You got to love this guy. Forward has been blowing through money since they started. They started out with patients having their own doctor but that was soon diluted into them having their own team and you know what that means. Now they want you to have your own AI doctor or CarePod.

Rather than the more traditional primary care that Forward offers at these clinics, the CarePod is an attempt to fully automate a check-up: A patient approaches the metallic, square 8×8 foot box, which is eight feet by eight feet, and unlocks it with their phone. Once inside, they find a chair and a large screen, where a robotic voice walks them through a body scan or blood pressure reading or finger prick blood draws — all of which they do on their own.

That really sounds like a lot of nothing. It’s like eating cotton candy. It starts out looking big and enticing but ends up dissolving into nothing in your mouth. Who are they kidding with this? They just want to get rid of doctors to save money. Oh, by the way, they raised $100 million to offer its “first batch” of 25 CarePods. Unbelievable.

I think technology is great as an adjunct. But remember, even in Star Trek they never got rid of Dr. McCoy.

175620cookie-checkDINOs Are Adding AI To Reach The Lowest Common Denominator
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By Douglas Farrago, MD

Douglas Farrago MD is board certified in the specialty of Family Practice. He is the inventor of a product called the Knee Saver which is currently in the Baseball Hall of Fame. The Knee Saver and its knock-offs are worn by many major league baseball catchers. He is also the inventor of the CryoHelmet used by athletes for head injuries as well as migraine sufferers. From 2001 – 2011, Dr. Farrago was the editor and creator of the Placebo Journal which ran for 10 full years. Described as the Mad Magazine for doctors, he and the Placebo Journal were featured in the Washington Post, US News and World Report, the AP, and the NY Times. Douglas Farrago, MD received his Bachelor of Science from the University of Virginia in 1987, his Masters of Education degree in the area of Exercise Science from the University of Houston in 1990, and his Medical Degree from the University of Texas at Houston in 1994. His residency training occurred way up north at the Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, Maine. In his final year, he was elected Chief Resident by his peers. Dr. Farrago has practiced family medicine for twenty-three years, first in Auburn, Maine and now in Forest, Virginia. He founded Forest Direct Primary Care in 2014, which quickly filled in 18 months. Dr. Farrago still blogs every day on his website Authenticmedicine.com and lectures worldwide about the present crisis in our healthcare system and the effect it has on the doctor-patient relationship. Dr. Farrago’s has written three books on direct primary care: The Official Guide to Starting Your Own Direct Primary Care Practice, The Direct Primary Care Doctor’s Daily Motivational Journal and Slowing the Churn in Direct Primary Care (While Also Keeping Your Sanity) are all best sellers in this genre. He is a leading expert in direct primary care model and lectures medical students, residents, and doctors on how to start their own DPC practice. He retired from clinical medicine in October, 2020.

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