YoIn the 2016 film Passengers, the crew of a spaceship bound for a distant planet was given access to a scanning camera known as an Autodoc that could instantly diagnose their medical problems and even predict the time of their death.
I remember this and countless other science fiction plots as I take off my robe and enter the glowing capsule of the Neko Body ScanLike Autodoc, it promises to perform a complete health check of me, inside and out, in a matter of minutes, and while it can’t estimate my time of death (yet), it can identify whether I’m at imminent or future risk of developing some of the major causes and drivers of chronic disease.
As fine as I may feel on the outside, the prospect of finding out if there is anything untoward lurking on my health horizon is too tempting to turn down. The pod doors close and a reassuring female voice orders me to close my eyes and stay still.
Neko is the brainchild of Spotify co-founder Daniel Ek, who hopes to achieve in healthcare what he accomplished in music: redesign the industry from the ground up, starting with the technologies that exist today, rather than the hodgepodge of approaches it has relied on for decades.
Neko co-founder and CEO Hjalmar Nilsonne said: “Given that 70% of healthcare costs are related to chronic diseases, which can largely be prevented or largely delayed with early interventions, it seems pretty obvious that the healthcare system everyone really wants is a preventative one that generates health, rather than being a dispenser of medicines for people who are already sick.
“The idea we had was very simple: we needed to create a new category of medical device that could collect medical information from people very cheaply and conveniently, and then be able to start tracking it over time.”
Costing £299, a Neko scanner incorporates high-resolution 2D and 3D photographs, thermal imaging and then detailed cardiovascular measurements to map how the heart is pumping and blood is moving through the arteries, veins and capillaries.
Patients’ grip strength and eye pressure are also measured, then a small blood sample is taken and sent through a vacuum tube to a lab upstairs for processing. Finally, these thousands of data points are processed by AI and handed over to an in-house GP, who performs the final health assessment and delivers it to the customer 15 minutes later.
In my case, the verdict was reassuring: My risk for cardiovascular disease and dozens of other relatively common ailments (including skin cancer, diabetes, immune system disorders, gout, early signs of glaucoma, and various skin conditions) is low. The only points of interest were a slightly elevated white blood cell count (possibly brought on by the cold that has since materialized) and average grip strength for my age — a reminder that I should get back to strength training after a summer of not doing so.
Other customers have received a more abrupt warning. According to data During Neko’s first year of operation in Stockholm, during which 2,707 people aged 22 to 75 were examined, 14% of patients required additional medical care or follow-up for conditions that the vast majority (90%) were unaware of. In 1% of cases, patients received potentially life-saving interventions for conditions such as aortic aneurysms and malignant melanomas.
“One gentleman had a cardiovascular abnormality that looked strange, so we scheduled him for an ultrasound with our sonographer, who confirmed it was a major abnormality,” Nilsonne said. “We sent the referral (to a cardiologist) and within two weeks, this gentleman was in for surgery. In the normal queue, he would have waited maybe six to nine months.”
Professor Louise Thomas, director of the Centre for Optimum Health Research at the University of Westminster, agreed that the potential for such scans was huge. “Early diagnosis of disease is very important and could potentially reduce the burden on the NHS,” she said.
“However, at this stage, it is difficult to assess their usefulness without having a full understanding of their methodology, the way they analyse the ‘scans’ and, importantly, the depth, breadth and diversity of the training data sets used to generate their AI models and algorithms.”
Professor Azeem Majeed, a GP and expert in primary care and public health at Imperial College London, said the Neko Body Scan was more technologically advanced and included additional tests, compared with the NHS Health Check programme, which screens people aged 40 to 74 for risks of common diseases.
However, Majeed said: “Coping with rapid advances in private medical assessments will be a challenge for the NHS and it is essential that these assessments add value to people’s health and do not create extra work (or anxiety for clients) without clear benefits.”
He added: “It is essential that Neko (and companies offering similar services) audit their results to see how much benefit they are bringing to customers.
“While Neko provides some initial information about test results, responsibility for ongoing care will largely fall within the NHS. This could potentially increase the workload on general practices and other parts of the NHS, particularly if patients present with findings that ultimately do not require further treatment.”
Nilsonne said Neko would only contact a patient’s GP once the company’s in-house experts, which include cardiologists, dermatologists and sonographers, had carried out further investigations. “If a referral is needed outside the Neko system to the NHS, the referral will include a level of detail that will make it immediately obvious how to prioritise that patient,” he said.