The New Body Economy Part 3: The Private Scan Boom

So MRI, as you know, Sandy, it's a great tool when it's used for the right question.

It helps diagnose tumors, neurological disease, musculoskeletal problems, liver disease, pelvic disease, lots and lots more.

But screening healthy asymptomatic people is really different from investigating symptoms.

Yes, I'm thinking it might be akin to prospecting because the test is now searching a huge landscape with no specific question in mind.

That's actually a great word for it.

Yeah, I like that.

And of course, bodies are full of variation.

We all have cysts, nodules, little benign lesions, we have scars.

Honestly, little tumors come up and down.

We have degenerative changes, all sorts of little shadows and stuff.

Many are harmless, some are a little unclear, and only a few of them actually matter.

Exactly, and the problem is that uncertain middle.

Yeah, it's the problem of can you unsee something, right? So the private scan really ends with a simple, nothing to see, everything's perfect.

So you might find a small liver lesion.

That's probably benign.

A little kidney cyst, spinal disc changes, as a lot of studies have shown that those changes don't actually correlate to much.

thyroid nodules, lung opacity, and in every case, follow-up recommended.

Here's something you'll like, Sandy.

In one major review, when researchers followed up findings that initially looked potentially serious, only about one in five actually turned out to be serious.

So the scan may be excellent at finding something, but much less good at telling you whether that something matters.

And importantly, each finding can trigger more scans, more blood tests, referrals, biopsies.

We start to worry, and of course, the cost.

You're absolutely right.

The scan itself might be safe, but the follow-on testing and the psychological burden may not be risk-free, Ross.

No, and there's a lot of examples of this.

So MRI, as you know, Sandy, it's a great tool when it's used for the right question.

It helps diagnose tumors, neurological disease, musculoskeletal problems, liver disease, pelvic disease, lots and lots more.

But screening healthy asymptomatic people is really different from investigating symptoms.

Yes, I'm thinking it might be akin to prospecting because the test is now searching a huge landscape with no specific question in mind.

That's actually a great word for it.

Yeah, I like that.

And of course, bodies are full of variation.

We all have cysts, nodules, little benign lesions, we have scars.

Honestly, little tumors come up and down.

We have degenerative changes, all sorts of little shadows and stuff.

Many are harmless, some are a little unclear, and only a few of them actually matter.

Exactly, and the problem is that uncertain middle.

Yeah, it's the problem of can you unsee something, right? So the private scan really ends with a simple, nothing to see, everything's perfect.

So you might find a small liver lesion.

That's probably benign.

A little kidney cyst, spinal disc changes, as a lot of studies have shown that those changes don't actually correlate to much.

thyroid nodules, lung opacity, and in every case, follow-up recommended.

Here's something you'll like, Sandy.

In one major review, when researchers followed up findings that initially looked potentially serious, only about one in five actually turned out to be serious.

So the scan may be excellent at finding something, but much less good at telling you whether that something matters.

And importantly, each finding can trigger more scans, more blood tests, referrals, biopsies.

We start to worry, and of course, the cost.

You're absolutely right.

The scan itself might be safe, but the follow-on testing and the psychological burden may not be risk-free, Ross.

No, and there's a lot of examples of this.