{"id":634885,"date":"2026-09-24T20:12:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T20:12:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/634885\/"},"modified":"2026-09-24T20:12:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T20:12:17","slug":"a-499-checkup-gave-me-a-peek-at-the-future-of-ai-powered-health-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/634885\/","title":{"rendered":"A $499 checkup gave me a peek at the future of AI-powered health care"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Earlier this week, I got an AI-powered physical exam that frankly wowed me, from a scan that mapped my skin and body composition to heart, blood, and metabolic health tests. A physician walked me through the results a few minutes later while standing in front of my 3D image in a room more reminiscent of \u201c2001: A Space Odyssey\u201d than my doctor\u2019s office. Neko Health<\/a>, a Swedish health care and technology company founded by Spotify\u2019s Daniel Ek and CEO Hjalmar Nilsonne, opened its first U.S. clinic in Manhattan yesterday, offering this package for $499. It was the kind of health care experience I\u2019ve always wanted and rarely received: fast, simple, and proactive. \u201cWe want to create this almost magical consumer experience around health care,\u201d Nilsonne told me. \u201cWe want to democratize high-quality preventive health care and make it available to millions or hundreds of millions of people.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a lot of discussion about health right now: the health of the planet, the health of our economies, and, of course, the health of our own bodies. We are living longer at a time when health care is getting more expensive, jobs are becoming less secure and much of the developed world is bracing for a \u2018silver tsunami\u2019 as aging populations impact everything from tax revenue to consumer behavior. The Trump administration announced plans this week to remove 760,000 Affordable Care Act enrollees from public health care exchanges as part of a crackdown on fraud<\/a>. The problems are profound, but I\u2019m also struck by the promise of what\u2019s happening right now, via AI and beyond:<\/p>\n

The desire to disrupt. There are now thousands of AI-powered health care startups and plenty of disruption within the system, too. AI is saving at least 132 hours<\/a> annually for half of the health care professionals surveyed in the 2026 Philips Future Health Index. They report seeing more patients and making fewer mistakes. But the most critical disruption for many Americans is cost. I spoke with Mark Cuban at the Digital Health New York Summit last week about how he\u2019s disrupting pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) with Cost Plus Drugs. Launched in early 2022, the direct-to-patient pharmacy business has expanded to manufacturing, where, Cuban says, volume has increased enough to lower the price of 190 medications. He said the company is making money, thanks in part to demand generated by TrumpRx, but that\u2019s not the goal. \u201cMy mission is just to fuck up health care,\u201d he said. \u201cTrying to optimize a broken system doesn\u2019t really change anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

The desire to live better. Bryan Johnson might want to live forever<\/a>\u2014and this 55-year-old single mother is aging at a slower pace<\/a>\u2014but most of us just want to be healthier in the time that we\u2019re here. Is America getting healthier? When it comes to obesity<\/a> and death from cancer<\/a>, yes. When it comes to managing stress and the ability to afford health care, no. So it matters that companies like Walmart<\/a> are trying to put more emphasis on nutrition and initiatives like its Health Ambassador<\/a> pilot to make health care more accessible. Most important, though, is our growing understanding of the systemic nature of health. I spoke this week with Frederick Lowery, who became CEO of Henry Schein<\/a> in March. As leader of the world\u2019s largest distributor of dental equipment, supplies, and services, he\u2019s eager to explore the links between oral health and a range of chronic ailments.<\/p>\n

The desire to engage. Large U.S. employers expect a median 9.2% increase in health care costs next year, according to the nonprofit Business Group on Health. About half expect to push those costs<\/a> onto workers, a record number of whom are already disengaged<\/a>. But Whole Foods CEO Jason Buechel, who also oversees all of Amazon<\/a> grocery, has a different approach. He came in earlier this week to talk about how the company is investing in organic foods and in workers through higher pay, apprenticeship programs, and cheap health care. There\u2019s been a lot of attention to the decision to raise the hourly pay of 100,000 workers to $21 an hour<\/a>. But Buechel hopes the introduction of low-cost health care and apprenticeship programs could turn what is typically a high-turnover job into a compelling career. I suspect one reason Amazon can do that is that it\u2019s also creating AI-powered health care offerings for consumers. While health care spending is expected to hit $6 trillion this year, the opportunities to create cheaper and better solutions may grow faster.<\/p>\n

Contact CEO Daily via Diane Brady at diane.brady@fortune.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Top leadership news<\/p>\n

Travis Kalanick\u2019s return to Silicon Valley<\/p>\n

Nearly a decade after Uber forced him out, Travis Kalanick is back<\/a> with Atoms, a robotics and food-delivery startup with $1.7 billion in backing. His return comes as some investors and younger founders have embraced a more founder-driven view of Silicon Valley.<\/p>\n

Meta gets an early lead in AI glasses<\/p>\n

Meta has sold smart glasses at a growing clip, with partner EssilorLuxottica reporting 7 million pairs sold in 2025, giving the company an early lead<\/a> in a race to build post-smartphone AI hardware. The glasses\u2019 appeal and Meta\u2019s advantage come with a major caveat: cameras and AI features that see and hear the world around users have sharpened privacy concerns.<\/p>\n

Why a diesel-export ban could backfire<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump has backed<\/a> calls for a temporary ban on diesel exports as U.S. diesel prices hit a record $6.52 a gallon. Oil-industry analysts say the move could initially curb prices in some places but ultimately force refineries to cut output, raise gasoline and jet fuel prices, and worsen a global diesel shortage.<\/p>\n

The markets<\/p>\n

S&P 500 futures are down 0.60% this morning. The last session closed down 0.75%. The STOXX Europe 600 was down 0.54% in early trading. The U.K.\u2019s FTSE 100 was down 0.06% in early trading. Japan\u2019s Nikkei 225 was up 0.76%. South Korea\u2019s markets are closed today. China\u2019s CSI 300 was down 1.73%. Hong Kong\u2019s Hang Seng was down 0.29%. India\u2019s NIFTY 50 was down 1.46%. Bitcoin is down at $83k.<\/p>\n

Around the watercooler<\/p>\n

Employer health costs are set to jump the most since 2003\u2014and even health care workers are struggling to afford care<\/a> by Tatiana Sataua<\/p>\n

Multimillionaire author Bill Perkins says parents should give kids their inheritance in their 20s when it can transform their lives\u2014not when they die<\/a> by Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez<\/p>\n

Gen Z can\u2019t afford healthy groceries\u2014so many college students are skipping meals altogether or eating less to pay the bills<\/a> by Mia Osmonbekov<\/p>\n

Trump calls AI oversight a \u2018globalist scheme\u2019 as Amodei and Altman head to the UN to ask for it<\/a> by Eva Roytburg<\/p>\n

D.C.\u2019s affordability headache has a silver bullet, new study shows: Tackling $40 trillion national debt would boost household income by $36,000<\/a> by Eleanor Pringle<\/p>\n

CEO Daily is curated and edited by Joseph Abrams, Jason Ma, Claire Zillman, and Lee Clifford.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Good morning. Earlier this week, I got an AI-powered physical exam that frankly wowed me, from a scan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":634886,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[136188,103,397,396,61,60],"class_list":["post-634885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-ceo-daily","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=634885"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634885\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/634886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=634885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=634885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=634885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}