A Series on Consumer Health — Part 1: What it is and why it matters.

From the perspective of Irfan Alam, Founder & CEO of Frontrow Health, a startup whose mission is to unleash consumer health in America.

Context: Over the past year, I’ve spoken to hundreds of consumers, health brands, and medical providers about their perspectives on the state of consumer health in America. This is the first piece in a series of reflections on those conversations, along with my own personal experiences.

A few weeks ago, my uncle tragically passed away from a sudden heart attack. He was South Asian, in his mid-40s, diabetic, and had a family history of heart disease. Despite these clear risk factors, his 3 children, now in middle and high school, were far too young to lose their father.

Driving his youngest son, Zain, to the funeral was a harrowing experience. When I parked the car, he refused to get out, asking me, “What could I have done to prevent this? What did I do wrong?”

His questions continue to ring in my ears.

The truth is, he did nothing wrong, and neither did his father. We did. As a a healthcare industry, we failed his father.

The risk factors were clear, yet, we still let him fall through the cracks.

His prescription medication to manage his diabetes was working just as expected. And his quadruple bypass was performed with perfection. Because this is what our healthcare system excels at.

But what it doesn’t excel at is everything in between.

How well was he managing his cholesterol? Was he tracking it closely enough? Was he getting all the nutrients he needed in his diet? What about exercise?

How often did he visit his PCP? Was there enough time during visits to answer his questions about his weight? How long did he have to wait to visit with a specialist? Was he ever able to?

These are the questions that matter the most, and where our system critically failed him. Sure, my uncle could have been more proactive, but our traditional healthcare system wasn’t designed to encourage that.

The truth is, he met with a PCP a few times, but slowly lost momentum, and it took too long to find a next available appointment with a specialist in his network, so he skipped it; as a result, he wasn’t clear on what nutrients to include in his diet to support his heart health and wasn’t encouraged to visit labs to regularly monitor his cholesterol, as is recommended by the American Heart Association for patients at risk, like he was.

The hospital was paid millions by his insurance company when he was there for 3 weeks in a coma, finally undergoing lab work, active monitoring, surgical intervention, physician visits, and more, so what incentive did the health system have to reach out and help him before he showed up unconcious?

None. But what if it did? What if after the first appointment with his PCP, not only did his PCP prescribe him Metformin to pick up at a local pharmacy, but what if they were rewarded to connect him with a home cholesterol test delivered to his door every three months along with a supply of Fiber supplements to help him meet the National Academy of Medicine’s recommended daily intake (RDI) of Fiber to support cardiovascular health. Then before getting into his car parked at the pharmacy, he downloaded an IOS app recommended by his PCP that connected him with a community of peers managing similar conditions, and he signed up with a special discount from his provider for a one month free trial to an online fitness & exercise program?

What is consumer health? It’s what’s in italics. Why does it matter? Because everything in italics is what didn’t happen for my uncle, and if it did, maybe Zain would still have a father to drive him to his first day of 8th grade this Fall.

Today, healthcare gets the Metformin part right. And my mission through Frontrow Health is to unleash consumer health so that we can get the italics part right too — so that one day this becomes table-stakes for any American.

For my family, and yours.