Empowered Patient Podcast Whole-Body MRI Scans Provide Proactive Approach for Early Disease Detection with Wayne Picker Prenuvo
Wayne Picker, Head of Operations at Prenuvo, discusses the use of whole-body MRI as an early detection tool to change the paradigm of healthcare from reactive to proactive. Using an optimized MRI machine, these 3D scans allow clinicians and patients to identify early signs of disease and gain insights into actionable information that can influence lifestyle changes and future testing. Prenuvo is focused on reducing the cost of whole-body MRI scans and making them affordable and accessible to reduce late-stage diagnoses dramatically.
Wayne explains, "MRI is still quite a young tool. It's only been around for the last 40 years. Traditionally, MRI has always been a slow scan technique. And so, because of that, it's usually the last test people are ever getting done. Usually, imaging starts with an X-ray. If they can't find the solution from that, they'll often go for a CT scan or an ultrasound, and usually, MRIs are the last test that people get sent for."
"This is a real shame because MRI is the most sensitive and specific scan for lots of different health conditions. So, part of forming Prenuvo was looking to change that paradigm. We were looking to use MRI as the first test. And if we image the body sooner before somebody has symptoms, then health outcomes have to be better. The direction has been using MRI, a safe imaging test to scan head to toe, looking for as many different health conditions as possible."
"One was to screen for the most conditions possible. The next one was to do it in a time-savvy way, doing the scan in less than an hour. Then the third one was to make it as reproducible as possible. We could compare the scan from one year to the next so we could come in and follow the progression or the consistency of their health conditions year-on-year, as well as with our different clinics, making sure that those scans are reproducible."
#Prenuvo #ProactiveHealthcare #WholeBodyMRI #Healthtech