Key Takeaways:

• Neko, Prenuvo, and BeSound are making preventive healthcare feel desirable—even cool.
• Each has a different focus: high-tech physical, whole-body MRI, or automated 3D breast ultrasound.
• High-end design, app-based reporting, and celebrity visitors recast medical testing as an attractive consumer experience.

When you descend the staircase to Neko Health’s first US location, on Lafayette Street in SoHo, you might wonder if you’ve time-traveled into the future.

That is, if you can get in. 

Since opening its first stateside clinic, the Swedish company has accumulated a waitlist of more than 50,000 people. Neko first debuted in Stockholm in 2023.

At Neko, where a health scan costs $499, members begin by changing into a now Instagram-famous yellow robe and accompanying foam slides. By far the most futuristic part of the experience is the company’s skin scanner, during which members stand nude while cameras capture 6,000 images of their skin. The resulting map allows clinicians to document each visible mole, track changes from year to year, and identify any markings that warrant a closer look. Members, a word Neko uses intentionally, can also keep tabs on this information via the company’s app.

The entire appointment takes approximately an hour but manages to assess body composition, grip strength, cardiovascular health, and more than 50 blood biomarkers, among other measurements. Thanks to Neko’s on-site laboratory, blood results are ready within minutes. Once the testing is complete, a clinician discusses the findings with each member and helps arrange any necessary follow-up care.

Neko is part of a new class of consumer-health businesses attempting to...