Neko: why are 100,000 people queuing up to have this health check?
It’s the sci-fi body scan that everyone’s desperate to try but is it worth the £300 fee – and the wait? Here’s our honest review
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Am I having a health check or am I actually an extra on mind-bending sci-fi drama Severance, I wonder, as I stride down the minimalist pale blue corridors of Neko’s high-tech Marylebone clinic. Happily, no one tries to implant a chip into my brain during my hour-long consultation here (well, I don’t think they do), so let’s go with the former.
Neko’s minimalist central London clinic (left) gives Severance vibes (right). (Image: Instagram @mradamscott via Apple TV+)
The Neko Body Scan is the preventative health check that everyone’s talking about – not least the whopping 100,000 people currently on its waiting list. Two Neko clinics, with on-site blood testing labs, high tech machines and with doctors and nurses in attendance, opened in London last year (the other is in Spitalfields) and another has just arrived in Manchester, which should help ease that mammoth queue.
Founded by Swedes Daniel Ek – who invented Spotify so knows a thing or two about game-changing businesses – and engineer Hjalmar Nilsonne, who worked in renewable energy, Neko involves a mole-mapping full body scan, blood tests and biomarker checks such as grip strength, BMI and an ECG (electrocardiogram heart monitor).
This is all to help with the early detection of some of the major illnesses, including skin cancer, cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. You spend about 20 minutes being scanned and tested by a nurse and GP, your results are immediately explained by the doctor during a 20-minute consultation and you leave with a prediction of your future health markers, based on your current readings.
It is extraordinarily fast and slick but is it worth your money and time spent on that waitlist? And how much health data is too much health data? I slipped on the Neko cream robe and futuristic Nike-designed slippers (pale blue, to match the walls), to find out.
Scan style: Kerry in her gown and Nike-designed slippers
How does Neko work?
You start with the full body scan, which, in just a few seconds, maps every single mole on your body, with 70 sensors collecting 50 million data points. Wearing only your pants, you stand in the machine, which, as you can see from the picture, is like the transporter from Star Trek. It’s not unpleasant – I close my eyes and warm light washes over me.
Beam me up: the Neko scanning machine
Next up is the blood test to check cholesterol and blood sugars and fats, after which the nurse puts the sample into a pneumatic tube system where it is sucked it up to the laboratory above, where it will be processed in minutes. Exciting!
Laser focus: Kerry’s circulation is measured by light beams
She then tests my grip strength – I squeeze a handheld dynamometer tool, and checks my eye pressure with a gizmo that blows air onto my eyeballs. I also have my height and weight measured.
Lying on the bed, I have my blood pressure taken, and then sensors attached to my chest for an ECG. Then a green laser makes a very cool lightshow on my wrist while it measures my circulation. Finally a GP arrives to manually check my heart rate and do a second mole check of my entire body, with a dermascope, a magnifying tool with a torch at the end.
My Neko results
By the time I’ve changed back into my clothes, the doctor is waiting in another room, where I sit on the sofa and view my report on a big screen. Alongside all my data is a 3D almost-naked avatar of my body, taken from the scan, which is somewhat distracting. (Are my boobs really that droopy?!)
He runs me through my results: all is generally well – and I preen as he says my cholesterol data is the best he’s seen for some time. Yes!
There is, however, one mole on my ear, out of the 559 logged on my body, that the doctor is unsure about. Photos are sent to a dermatologist – this step is included in the £299 fee – for a second opinion, and within 24 hours I receive an email to say no further action is needed. If it hadn’t been, Neko would have referred me for further help.
Your data is presented within 15 minutes of the scan and tests – including slightly unsettling photos of every single one of your moles
The AI-powered future health prediction tool is especially interesting. Using your data, graphs show things like your estimated blood sugar and blood pressure readings at the ages of 60, 70 and 80, assuming your maintain the same lifestyle choices. My results are reassuring – my predicted trajectories don’t go anywhere close to a high risk of diabetes or cardiovascular diseases throughout my life . But if they weren’t, the doctor would advise me to make changes to nip any problems in the bud.
In Neko’s first year of operation (it launched in Stockholm in 2023), 14 per cent of clients required medical treatment, with one per cent receiving potentially life-saving help for things like skin cancer and severe cardiovascular disease. Prevention is obviously infinitely preferable to cure (and, let’s face it, our NHS isn’t going to get less overwhelmed) so they’re doing valuable work here. If, of course, you can afford it.
How much does the Neko health check cost?
It’s £299, which goes does down to £249 if you book in for another one while you’re there. They advise people to attend annually so you can track long-term trends in your health.
How does Neko compare to other health checks?
As you’d expect, it’s far more comprehensive than the basic, free NHS Health Check, which should be offered to adults aged 40-74 every five years, and covers blood pressure, cholesterol and BMI.
Anna Miller, a registered nurse since 1996 and coach, is impressed by Neko’s offer: “For midlife women in particular, the checks around cholesterol, blood sugar, liver and kidney function are highly relevant, given how risks for cardiovascular disease and metabolic conditions increase with age.”
What’s not included
It’s less detailed than the full-body MOTs you might have with private health insurance or that’d cost you anything from £1000. The Ezra MRI scan – which is currently all of over Instagram as it’s been gifted to celebrities such as Holly Willoughby – starts from £1495, and checks for 500 conditions, including many cancers.
The blood tests don’t include hormone checks, though; something that’s obviously of strong interest to (peri) menopausal women. My Neko doctor said it’s something that many clients have asked about so it’s a consideration for the future.
Nor does it include vitamin and mineral checks, for common deficiencies such as iron and vitamin D (read our piece on why now is the best time to check your vitamin D levels).
Finally, as Miller points out: “Body composition analysis (which checks your fat to muscle ratio) would be more helpful than BMI, which is outdated and not very reflective of health. Bone density checks would also be valuable given the increased risk of osteoporosis in midlife women.”
It’s a good point – and since my Neko check, I’ve also had a Dexa bone scan (they cost around £200) for this very reason.
How long do you have to wait for a Neko appointment?
Neko are weirdly vague about this and can’t give “an exact timeline”. A colleague signed up a week ago and has yet to be offered an appointment but presumably waiting times will reduce now the Manchester clinic is open. You can, they say, get earlier access by nabbing a referral code from an existing Neko client so it’s worth asking around your friends.
Our verdict – is it worth it?
I would, without hesitation, pay £300 for the mole check alone, especially as a second, expert opinion on any iffy ones is included in that price. That’s on a par with many standalone mole clinics – and of course you don’t get all the other health tests included there. (Read more in our report on mole check services.)
Miller points out that Neko and similar scans and checks can risk sending the ‘worried well’ to their already overburdened GPs “with results that are only marginally out of range but still cause worry”. Conversely, it could lull you into a false sense of security: “A clean set of results doesn’t mean you’re ‘bulletproof’.”
That’s something to bear in mind but, on balance, I’m hugely impressed. When you’re used to waiting weeks to get an NHS GP appointment then months for any follow-up treatment, Neko is mind-blowingly efficient. An astonishing 80 per cent of customers book the next year’s appointment before they leave the clinic – I can see why.
