People Are Lining Up for Full-Body Scans. But Are They Necessary?
Neko Health, a Spotify founder’s preventative-health startup, opened its first U.S. clinic. Plus, chemicals in natural-fiber clothing and the real culprit for childhood anxiety.
I’ve been seeing a steady drip of people sharing photos and videos of themselves on social media in butter-yellow bathrobes standing on a cylindrical 360-degree body scanner. These posts are all from folks working in tech, media and venture capital who got a “sneak peek” to try out Neko Health’s body-scan technology at its sleek first U.S. clinic in New York City.
It had amassed a wait list of around 25,000 New Yorkers before the location was announced, a company spokesperson said. It opened its doors on Thursday. The Swedish brand is the brainchild of Spotify founder Daniel Ek and Hjalmar Nilsonne, Neko Health’s CEO.
It is the latest in a wave of preventative-health companies hitting the U.S. market, pitching patients on the notion that more information can give them more control over their health. For $499, which people can use HSA or FSA funds to help cover, the “radiation-free” visit includes a skin examination with visual and thermal cameras, a cardiovascular assessment, a body-composition analysis and on-site blood-testing. That takes about 30 minutes, then a clinician will meet with patients for another 30 minutes to discuss the results. It aims to help people assess risk of skin cancer, cardiovascular disease and metabolic conditions.
Neko Health opened its first clinic in Stockholm in 2023 before expanding to the U.K. It has another 350,000 on the wait list globally, according to a spokesperson. It recently received $700 million in fresh funding, backed by the likes of Mark Zuckerberg, tennis champion Maria Sharapova and musician Will.i.am.
The hype is reminiscent of the flood of social-media posts surrounding Prenuvo’s full-body MRI scans, which I wrote about in the fall of 2023. At the time, posts featuring celebrities and influencers clad in medical scrubs posing with Prenuvo MRI machines felt inescapable. They were offering discount codes to followers for the $2,500 scan. (That’s the cost for either a stand-alone scan or an annual membership which includes the MRI and blood panels.)
Prenuvo was in the spotlight last month after the actress Busy Philipps revealed that a scan found a lesion in her brain that was later diagnosed as a slow-growing tumor. That news came shortly after a reality star shared a similar finding of a brain lesion that was a malignant tumor. The company, which now has 24 clinics in the U.S., and four internationally, has been sharing their stories.
“The more people who think about their health early, the better,” said Prenuvo founder and CEO Andrew Lacy.
Some medical professionals have criticized preventive MRIs as unnecessary. But their potential for early detection, even before symptoms arise, shouldn’t be dismissed, said Dr. Zahi Fayad, director of the Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
“We still need to learn which people benefit most, how often to scan them and whether earlier detection changes their long-term outcomes,” he said.
While Neko’s focus on getting people engaged with their health is valuable, he said, some of the company’s data findings about health improvements in returning patients should be taken with a grain of salt. He noted that it wasn’t compared to a control group and it’s difficult to tell what contributed to changes. The company acknowledged the statistical limitations in its data report, noting that findings are not proof of cause.
He shared advice for patients interested in getting a scan: “First, tell me what you are hoping to learn. If there is a symptom or a strong family history, we should choose the test that addresses that concern.”
He added, “Neither service should replace recommended cancer screening or attention to blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes risk, exercise and smoking.”