Exclusive: Prenuvo expands full-body MRI protocol. What's new?

BETHESDA, MD — Beep. Beep. Beep. The whole-body MRI machines whir, in conversation with the skeleton staring back at me on the computer screen. On a gray March afternoon, a technician highlights specific parts of a patient's anatomy, each part generating unique pitches and rhythms. This individual's brain – their hippocampus, specifically – looks like a tree, arteries stretching out like branches. Once finished, this Prenuvo scan will give this patient and their health care providers 1.3 billion data points about their health. You read that right: 1.3 billion.

"We've really designed something to get the most information possible across lots of different organ systems and to be able to detect all sorts of things that you want to know about in advance," says Dr. Daniel Durand, Prenuvo's chief medical officer, sporting a smart watch on his wrist. The company says it finds possibly life-threatening conditions in 1 in 20 people.

And it's poised to now offer even more data. Prenuvo is launching a new bloodwork component to complement its full-body MRI offerings as part of a new membership package. It's not raising its prices, just adding laboratory assessments that evaluate biomarkers related to inflammation, cardiovascular risk, hormone balance and more.

Prenuvo reiterates it views itself as complementary to primary care and doesn't advocate anyone skipping routine doctor's appointments. "Today, we don't replace primary care," Durand says. "We don't replace these other tests, we add to them. But in the future, what we're trying to do is make it so that you get this holistically, in one setting, in a really pleasant way, because that's what's going to make people want to come back."

What Prenuvo's new membership tiers look like

If you're looking to get a Prenuvo scan, here's what to expect now.

• Core Membership. Cost: $1,199 annually. This includes a focused scan – a quicker, 30-minute MRI that examines your head to your mid-thigh – plus a blood panel assessment to get a general sense of where your health is.
• Comprehensive Membership. Cost: $2,499 annually. This includes a whole-body scan and more detailed lab panels, like metabolic, cardiovascular, hormonal and inflammatory biomarkers.
• Executive Membership: Cost: $3,999 annually but $4,499 in New York. This is the company's most in-depth option. You get a whole-body scan, brain health assessment, body composition analysis and an extra-detailed lab panel. It will offer insights on your reproductive hormones, metabolic markers, nutrient levels and systemic inflammation.

If you just want to get a scan and skip the bloodwork, that's an option too, though you'll be paying the same price.

We only widely screen for five cancers in the United States: breast, colorectal, prostate, cervical and lung cancer, the latter solely in high-risk patients. Such screenings prevent deaths, but in Durand's mind – and where Prenuvo comes into play – "It's not just enough to have science. You have to think through experience. You have to think through engagement." The future of screening technology isn't scanning organ by organ and dozens of appointments, but more of a one-stop shop.

Preventative medicine providers and radiologists will work together to give the patient an accurate, detailed picture of their health with results from both the MRIs and bloodwork. These consults will focus on "what are the really salient things that this person can do to improve their health," Durand says.

Prenuvo recommends annual scans for most patients, but some may be asked to come in sooner depending on conditions they watch for/will send them along for additional screenings. In patients younger than 40 without anything even remotely suspicious to monitor – a rarity – they may return every two years.

Who is Prenuvo's target market exactly? People who are healthy right now and want to know as much about their body as possible – think Oura ring users. Another market is the "worried well," or customers that skew older and seek out early detection for diseases. They may also flock to liquid biopsy tests like Galleri for multi-cancer early detection.

Patients may experience sticker shock at Prenuvo's pricing. But "uniquely in health care, we tell you what our test costs. So there aren't surprises," Durand says. Still, if the tests find something that requires additional diagnostics, you end up in the murkier-pricing health care system anyway. The average out-of-pocket health care cost is $1,632 per person in the U.S., not counting health insurance premiums, according to 2024 Kaiser Family Foundation figures. Insurance does not cover Prenuvo scans and therefore these tests come at an additional health care cost.

'We choose not to discard the information'

Research shows full-body MRIs often find something, but much less often find actual disease. One study in 2020 found that 95% of asymptomatic patients had some type of "abnormal" finding, but just 1.8% of these findings were indeed cancer. Research has varied on just how many incidental findings occur from these tests.

With 1.3 billion data points, Prenuvo is going to find things that aren't worth worrying about. It's a trade-off of getting a test that granular. If you take a CT scan of an elderly person, for example, there's a ton of information in there about aging blood vessels that gets discarded. Why worry about chronic disease when that's not something that's going to kill the patient, or the reason they came in?

"We choose not to discard the information," Durand says. "We think all that information really, really matters. I think radiology is going that direction."

It's important to note Prenuvo isn't the only full-body MRI company out there. Function and SimonMed are other options, and each touts benefits they feel sets them apart.

Prenuvo has a number of clinical studies and trials in motion. One called Hercules is looking at 100,000 people based out of Boston and is evaluating the clinical performance of these scans and whether doing the scan has positively or negatively impacted their health.

"I think that will create a higher evidentiary fact base for which we can have a conversation with insurers about coverage," says Andrew Lacy, founder and CEO of Prenuvo. He has friends who remain skeptical about getting the test done on themselves but many who appreciate it and plan to do annually.

"If we change consumers' expectations about health care, that eventually sort of bleeds upstream to doctors and to employers," he says, giving him hope for a future where these procedures are covered.

The history of medical screening in general, Durand says, bends toward looking for more earlier. That's true for the patient on the table in Bethesda, a returning Prenuvo client. "Best way to stay healthy," Durand quipped.

This story has been updated with new information.