New prescription: Doctor offices that look like Apple store

SAN FRANCISCO -- After a relative suffered a heart attack a few years ago, Silicon Valley entrepreneur Adrian Aoun got an unsettling look at a health-care system he diagnosed as an inefficient and outdated mess.

Now he believes he has a remedy. It's called Forward, a health-management service that charges $149 per month -- about $1,800 a year -- to tend to all of its patients' primary-care needs.

And not just with attentive doctoring, either; Forward plans to use body scanners, sensors, giant touch-screen monitors, infrared devices and other high-tech gizmos that could make a doctor's appointment feel more like a trip to an Apple store.

"Doctors are super-smart, but they are set up for failure in so many ways," Aoun said. "We haven't built the tools that they need to operate in modern life. No one wants to go to the doctor's office today. We want to change that."

Forward still will refer patients to outside specialists when primary-care doctors can't deal with certain health problems; same goes for hospital admissions.

Adrian Aoun, founder and CEO of Forward, left, gives a demonstration of a vein illumination device that uses infrared light on an Associated Press reporter at a medical office in San Francisco.Jeff Chiu ~ Associated Press

And there are bound to be health-insurance headaches Forward isn't attempting to address.

That means Forward is unlikely to become a cure-all, especially because its membership fee isn't cheap, said Paul Ginsburg, a health-policy expert at the University of Southern California.

"Primary care is a very small part of the cost for what health insurance covers," Ginsburg said. "So, even after paying nearly $2,000 a year, you are still going to have to buy health insurance to cover everything else."

But Aoun is convinced his high-tech approach can begin to make things better.

Forward's patients can view all their medical information on a mobile app they can use to message a "care team" available around the clock.

Dr. Aaliya Yaqub points to a large monitor while giving a demonstration of medical checkup at a Forward medical office in San Francisco.Jeff Chiu ~ Associated Press

All blood and DNA tests are done at Forward's offices instead of being farmed out; the company said patients will be able to review the results in minutes instead of days later.

People with longer-term issues such as obesity, high blood pressure or skin problems will go home with sensors that can transmit data back to Forward. Its computers then will alert doctors if troubling trends surface, allowing them to be addressed before they become more serious.

Forward's attempt at a medical makeover began Tuesday with the opening of its first office in San Francisco. The converted clothing store spans 3,500 square feet, enough to accommodate six exam rooms and a team of doctors. The office should accommodate 12,000 patients in total before turning people away.

Additional Forward offices are planned in other major U.S. cities, although Aoun won't say where they will be or when they may open.

While Forward's concept of technology-driven preventative care may make sense, experts such as Ginsburg worry its emphasis on health-monitoring sensors could prompt doctors to run unnecessary tests that do little to improve patient health.

"The notion of scanning people who don't have a problem has been very solidly dismissed by the medical profession for a while," Ginsburg said.

Studies have shown the best way to remain healthy is to eat right, exercise and get plenty of sleep, said R. Adams Dudley, director of the Center for Healthcare Value at the University of California, San Francisco.

"Sensoring people all up isn't going to change any of that," Dudley said.