I went for a full body MOT and the results came as a shock
42 minutes ago
BBC and Neko Health
I don’t mind having my photo taken – triple checked and filtered for Instagram – but 70 cameras pointing at me while I’m down to my knickers is a bit daunting
A robotic voice tells me to stay still and close my eyes as I stand in a huge curved scanner while classical music plays in the background
With a flash of light, 2,000 photographs are taken of my body, in the hope of capturing every mark, freckle and mole to analyse for different skin cancers
This full-body scan is happening at a sci-fi-style clinic in Manchester city centre, with me wearing a dressing gown and hexagon-shaped rubber slippers. The millions of data points collected will create a 3D avatar of my body using AI
Over the past two years, the market for health MOTs has boomed, with people willing to pay hundreds, or even thousands, for them, and companies such as Prenuvo, Ezra and Neko Health raising millions in venture capital
While Prenuvo and Ezra offer a whole-body MRI scan, I’ve opted for Neko Health, which doesn’t delve quite as deeply, and comes with a more modest £299 price tag. There are currently 100,000 people on its waiting list
I will be screened for a range of different conditions, including skin cancer, cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, eye conditions like glaucoma, as well as kidney and blood disorders
I don’t have any symptoms, but what if they do find something? More on that later
The body scan industry sees itself as a new frontier in healthcare, preventing disease before it has a chance to fully appear. But there is scepticism about how beneficial these scans really are for otherwise healthy patients
My socials are inundated with videos of enthusiastic clients filming themselves in scan machines, getting their bloods taken and testing their grip strength
Hjalmar Nilsonne, one of the founders of Neko Health, wants to see this preventative treatment available for every individual, not just those who can afford to pay for it
“While medicine has progressed so much over the past century, primary care is still very basic. Why wait until we see symptoms?” Nilsonne says. “The data is super clear – prevention is preferable to cure.”
However, GPs and doctors in the wider NHS are more sceptical, with NHS England warning that the popularity of these scans is leading to more “over-diagnosis, unnecessary investigations and avoidable anxiety”
As well as having a scan myself, I’ve spoken to two women who had very different experiences
‘My cancerous skin marks were missed’
Annabel
Annabel Mason-Thompson went for a Neko Health scan in September last year, knowing she had a suspicious-looking mark on her back – but it wasn’t flagged by the technology
“I felt a bit let down if I’m honest,” the 50-year-old says. “Their AI scanner failed to pick up any of my four cancerous lesions
“It was only when I went into the doctor’s room after the scan and I pointed out my red mark did they take a look at it.”
Further examination confirmed the mark was suspicious, so Neko Health contacted Annabel to say she would need treatment and wrote a letter to her private dermatologist to say the “lesion requires evaluation with a view to possible excision”
Her dermatologist found three more cancerous marks which needed urgent treatment
“Luckily,” she says, “they were all slow-growing basal cell carcinomas. I had to have two cut out and two taken off
Neko Health says “member safety and clinical excellence are at the heart of everything” it does. The company said its clinical team did identify a “lesion of concern” and it was reviewed by two of its dermatologists before a referral was made for potential treatment
“We know that no one system is foolproof,” Nilsonne says, “which is why we have multiple lenses – it is crucial that the technology and human expertise work together.”
His company’s latest data shows that of the 4,362 scans carried out on clients who visited Neko Health’s Stockholm headquarters last year, 1.2% discovered life-threatening conditions such as melanoma and leukaemia. A further 4% spotted significant health conditions that required further treatment, and 1.2% flagged conditions that could be reversed such as pre-diabetic blood sugar levels
While the figures are not representative of the population and only account for those who can afford to pay for this kind of preventive healthcare, Nilsonne says this is an indicator of how medicine should look in the future
But GPs disagree. Prof Victoria Tzortziou Brown, president of the Royal College of GPs (RCGP), says they haven’t seen “convincing evidence” private broad screening tests “improve health outcomes”
She says the results from these private scans can also place an additional strain on the NHS as clients come back for further tests and potential treatment, even “where the findings prove to be clinically insignificant”
‘It saved my life’
Mehvish
Mehvish says nothing could have prepared her for what she was told after her full body scan. She left Birmingham’s Neko Health clinic with a life-changing diagnosis
“I expected to feel relief,” the 33-year-old says. “Instead, I was told that I had a rare form of diabetes.”
After her long-term blood sugar levels came back very high, she had another blood test which confirmed she had suspected diabetes
She was referred back to her GP, who sent her for an urgent hospital appointment the same day, and was diagnosed with Latent Autoimmune Diabetes in Adults (LADA), a type of diabetes which bridges both type 1 and type 2
Like type 1, it is an autoimmune condition that attacks the body’s pancreatic cells, but it also shares traits with type 2 because it can progress slowly and, depending on the stage of the condition, it can initially be managed with diet and exercise
“I didn’t have any of the symptoms,” Mehvish says, “It was difficult to get my head round it – how could I have this condition and not know about it?”
But she says the early, unexpected intervention “saved my life”
Now she injects insulin twice a day, monitors what she eats, and despite missing the spontaneity of her old life, is learning to adapt to her new one
“I feel so much better, more clarity, less brain fog and I feel so much more balanced.”
After my own scan, I’m feeling slightly out of balance. I’ve been told I have 3,311 skin markings – compared to the average Neko Health client’s 845. Three need extra review by the company’s dermatologist in Sweden
“But I don’t have any big moles or markings,” I say during the post-scan consultation with a doctor. It’s my freckles, I’m told, and having freckles puts me at higher risk of skin cancer
NEKO
Having felt confident I would get a clean bill of health – especially when it comes to my skin – I was a bit unnerved to discover that I’d need to have extra tests
As well as the three suspicious-looking moles that needed further attention, I also discovered I have an unusual heart rate. The trace from the electrocardiogram (ECG) highlighted an extra wave, known as a bifid P wave, which was referred to Neko Health’s in-house cardiologist for review. Thankfully, it came back all clear
A few days later, I received a follow-up text to say there were no abnormal skin changes that required treatment
I am one of thousands of clients who has had something flagged as a potential issue, then later found no further treatment was required. Some doctors say this causes unnecessary anxiety and that patients should only rely on national screening programmes through the NHS
Dr Stephen Harden, president of the Royal Society of Radiologists, points to the technology used in the NHS, which targets “specific areas” like the breasts, bowel or cervix, and which he says may be more reliable than a whole-body scan
But former health minister Steve Brine says precautionary scans like the one I had “fit the direction of travel of how people are approaching their health”
“Change is afoot across the NHS – prevention is a huge policy area,” Brine says. “We want to identify people’s problems before they become patients, so these scans could well become a part of our future healthcare and primary care needs to adapt.”
As for me? I was told my heart age was four years younger than my actual age, and on the whole, I was in tip-top health. But I’ve also learned a valuable lesson – that I could be more at risk of skin cancer because of my freckles
So, thanks to my time in the scanner, I am now far more enthusiastic about lathering sunscreen all over my body – rather than only on my face
More weekend picks by Ruth Clegg
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High on snus in school: The hidden nicotine pouches shredding teens’ gums
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