Dr. Richard Awdeh is a visionary healthcare leader and innovator, serving as the CEO and Co-Founder of CheckedUp, a physician-founded digital health company focused on patient education and engagement. With a passion for advancing patient care, Dr. Awdeh has pioneered the use of technology to transform the healthcare experience for both patients and providers. In 2010, Dr. Awdeh founded Cirle, a medical technology company that developed a groundbreaking 3D surgical navigation system for cataract surgery. Prior to his entrepreneurial ventures, he was a highly regarded Cornea-Refractive Surgeon and Professor at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute. Dr. Awdeh has held pivotal leadership roles across the healthcare sector, including Chairman of the FDA Dermatologic and Ophthalmic Drugs Advisory Committee and Co-Chair of the Point of Care Marketing Association, where he was instrumental in shaping the future of the Point of Care channel. As CEO of CheckedUp, he has fostered a culture of innovation and excellence, earning the MM+M Pinnacle Award in recognition of his transformative leadership.

Dr. Awdeh also serves on the Board of Directors of the Ad Council, harnessing the power of communication to drive meaningful social change, and on the Media Ratings Council, where he plays a key role in establishing industry standards and best practices for advertising. Dr. Awdeh is unwavering in his commitment to mentorship and patient advocacy, dedicating significant effort to shaping the next generation of healthcare leaders. As a lecturer on Healthcare Innovation at the Yale School of Management, he imparts his expertise to future pioneers in the field, while also serving on the Board of Yale University’s Center for Biomedical Innovation and Technology. Additionally, Dr. Awdeh plays a critical role on the Board of CheckedUpCares.org, an organization focused on enhancing health literacy and empowering communities with the knowledge they need to make informed healthcare decisions. Dr. Awdeh’s career is defined by a relentless focus on advancing healthcare and empowering the next generation of innovators who will drive its transformation. With a dedication to pushing the boundaries of healthcare technology, he continues to lead groundbreaking efforts that create lasting, impactful change in the industry.

What inspired you to launch CheckedUp?

As an ophthalmologist, I spent years in clinical practice and saw firsthand how much patients struggled to understand their conditions and the treatments being discussed. Too often, they were overwhelmed, misinformed, or simply didn’t know the right questions to ask. That experience highlighted a massive education gap that traditional healthcare wasn’t addressing. I founded CheckedUp to bridge that divide by leveraging digital tools to deliver visual, accessible, and medically accurate content right at the point of care. My goal was to empower both patients and physicians with shared, meaningful education that leads to better decision-making and stronger relationships.

CheckedUp is known for leveraging digital platforms to improve patient engagement. How do you see technology reshaping the doctor-patient relationship over the next 5–10 years?

Technology is rapidly evolving the patient experience from how people access care to how they understand and participate in their treatment decisions. Over the next 5 to 10 years, I see an even stronger shift toward personalized, data-driven education and engagement. AI will play a key role, not as a replacement for doctors, but as a way to streamline care and deliver tailored insights to patients. The doctor-patient relationship will become more collaborative, with technology enabling richer conversations and more confident, informed patients.

CheckedUp has expanded significantly in recent years. What were some of the biggest challenges you faced during this growth, and how did you navigate them?

One major challenge was recognizing when our original commercial strategy no longer aligned with the needs of the market. Early on, we pursued what we thought was the right path – Strategy A. After persistent effort and reflection, we made the tough but necessary decision to pivot to Strategy B. That shift unlocked product-market fit and allowed us to scale rapidly. Scaling while maintaining our mission to stay patient-centered and medically accurate was also another challenge. We’ve managed that by hiring mission-aligned people and staying obsessively focused on the user experience.

As a founder and CEO, how do you balance the demands of innovation with the expectations of investors and healthcare partners?

It’s a constant balancing act. Innovation is critical, but so is execution and reliability, especially in healthcare. What’s helped is building deep trust with our stakeholders by being transparent and mission-driven. Our partners and investors understand that real innovation in healthcare takes time and discipline. We’ve been successful by focusing on outcomes: we show how our solutions improve patient engagement and support healthcare providers. That data speaks volumes and creates alignment between innovation and stakeholder expectations.

How does CheckedUp ensure its platform is truly patient-centered and accessible across diverse populations, especially those with limited digital literacy?

From day one, we’ve designed our tools to be speciality-specific, intuitive, and visual – because patient education only works if people can actually understand and use it. Our content is built to be educational without being simplistic, and we offer multi-language support where appropriate. And importantly, we deploy at the point of care, where patients are already with their providers, so it doesn’t depend on them having advanced tech skills or access at home.

What’s your approach to leadership, and how has it evolved as the company has matured?

In the beginning, I was deeply involved in every aspect of the business. As we grew, I learned to delegate more and focus on enabling others to lead. My leadership style is rooted in empathy, adaptability, and resilience, all qualities I developed as a physician and carried into this role. I listen carefully, encourage creative problem-solving, and try to foster a culture where people feel mission-connected and supported. As our team has matured, so has my leadership. I’m now more focused on vision, values, and scalability.

With so many companies now entering the digital health space, what sets CheckedUp apart, and how do you maintain a competitive edge?

What differentiates us is our focus on point of care, delivering trusted, evidence-based education exactly when and where health decisions are being made. We’re not trying to replace the physician; we’re amplifying their ability to educate and engage. Our platform combines medical accuracy with visual design, interactivity, and intelligent targeting. We’ve also built deep relationships with providers, making integration seamless. As the digital health space gets more crowded, authenticity and outcomes will define the winners and that’s where we’ve built our edge

What’s next for CheckedUp? Are there any upcoming innovations, markets, or partnerships you’re particularly excited about?

We’re incredibly excited about expanding our reach through multimedia content and programmatic engagement tools. We see growing demand from healthcare partners and life sciences brands to connect more meaningfully with both patients and providers, and we’re building the infrastructure to support that. We’re also exploring with the goal of improving access to trustworthy health information and making the patient journey more navigable and personalized.

CheckedUp made a bold entrance at the 2025 IAB NewFronts with the launch of two original TV shows and a new programmatic ad offering. What was the strategic thinking behind this dual-media debut, and how do these innovations align with your broader mission to reshape how healthcare content is delivered and consumed?

We saw a unique opportunity to bring empathy and storytelling into healthcare education. Traditional pharma advertising is under growing regulatory scrutiny, and patients increasingly want more than just product ads, they want real, relatable information. By launching original shows and expanding our programmatic capabilities, we’re building new, trustworthy channels to inform and inspire patients. It’s part of our broader mission to make healthcare content accessible.

Your new original shows—Inside This Life and The Pulse: Real Talk—blend medical expertise with emotional storytelling. How do you see this kind of content influencing patient behavior, and what role does storytelling play in building trust and engagement in healthcare settings?

Storytelling humanizes healthcare. When patients see others navigating similar challenges, it builds emotional connection and trust. Our shows highlight real journeys with real patients and real providers. I think this helps demystify the healthcare experience and makes it easier for people to relate. We’ve found that emotional storytelling doesn’t just engage people but it inspires action. Patients are more likely to ask questions, seek care, and follow through on treatment when they feel seen and understood. That’s the power of narrative in medicine.

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