Neko Health full body scan is not an MRI imaging scan

In a previous post, I wrote about the company Prenuvo, a pioneer in the whole body MRI scan business. The medical rationale is straightforward especially with respect to cancer. Most cancers can be treated if they are detected early. The full body MRI attempts to detect all types of cancer all at once before they are large enough to cause symptoms.

To this end, Prenuvo has constructed a custom MRI machine for the whole body scan, which received clearance by the FDA in 2018. The entire procedure takes about one hour, and then the scan is read by a licensed radiologist employed by the company. According to literature on the website, the results are sent to customers in 5 to 10 business days. Prenuvo charges $2500 for the full body scan, and at a lower price point ($1800), one can receive a head and torso scan, and for $1000, a torso scan. 

Prenuvo has multiple competitors in the body scan market, and two of the more notable are Ezra which uses a similar whole body MRI technique and Neko Health which has adopted a totally different approach (NYTimes). The latter was co-founded by Daniel Ek, the CEO and founder of Spotify, the world’s largest music streaming service. Neko Health was started in Sweden in 2018 by Ek and Hjalmar Nilsonne who were frustrated with the healthcare industry's inefficiencies and wanted to prevent disease and prolong life through better diagnostic tools. The company offers full-body scans designed to detect the early onset of various diseases, including cardiovascular and metabolic conditions, as well as skin issues, but the "scan" is less high-tech imaging and more the amalgamation of various lower tech diagnostic modalities.

Neko Health differentiates itself with a lower-cost approach that does not involve MRIs or X-rays, instead using a combination of 70 sensors and various technologies to assess heart function, circulation, and skin conditions. These various technologies include numerous blood diagnostics, a full body skin scan, and possibly an echocardiogram of the heart.

According to the promotional blurb on their website: "Our unique non-invasive scan maps millions of health data points on your body - both inside and out - in just a few minutes:

• We check and record the moles on your body (full-body skin scan)
• Perform a comprehensive examination of your heart and arterial tree (echocardiogram)
• We provide instant blood results for your blood values, including hemoglobin, high-sensitivity CRP, cholesterol, LDL, long-term blood sugar (HbA1c), and many more.
• Additional tests include blood draws, grip strength, eye pressure, and blood pressure assessments."

Because there is no MRI, the overall procedure is markedly faster and cheaper, taking about 10 minutes and costing roughly $250. This is in comparison to the Prenuvo cost of $2500 and scan time of 1 hour. The skin scan part of the Neko Health assessment involves entering a high-tech scanning chamber that captures over 2,000 high-resolution images of the body in about 20 seconds (Figure 1). The goal is to identify potentially cancerous moles, but this scan is only skin deep. The remainder of the time is taken up by blood draws and other more low-tech medical exams (grip strength, blood pressure, etc.). 

In terms of efficacy, The New York Times article states that "in a recent sample of 2,707 patients, life-threatening issues were found in about 1 percent of the cases, according to the company. (About one-quarter of those were under age 50). And for 9 percent of that cohort, previously undiagnosed issues were found that were later determined." Ultimately these claims need to be verified by some sort of randomized clinical trial, and as a control, how many of these life-threatening conditions would have been found by proper adherence to standard medical screening.

In summary, the Neko Health full body scan is somewhat deceptively advertised. It is not a scan in the usual sense of MRI or x-ray imaging of the body. But by forgoing expensive imaging technology, the company is able to keep costs down (about 10% of the price of the Prenuvo MRI scan). More than anything, Neko has adopted a complementary approach to Prenuvo; the latter relies on MRI imaging for all of the diagnostic information, whereas Neko relies on nearly everything but an MRI scan. It may even be worthwhile to do both if one wanted the most comprehensive diagnostic experience.

Figure 1. The Neko Health skin scan which takes pictures of your skin over your whole body. According to the article, the "software maps suspect moles and other markings, and points in Mr. Warner’s “skin library” are displayed on a screen" (NYTimes).