By Dr. Killeen, published on January 9, 2026
Access to information does not mean automatic expertise. I want patients to have high quality care and I want experts leading their care.
I know this is going to be controversial, but I'm not a big fan of Prenuvo. I put them in the same category as places like HerScan. Here's why.
These companies often rely on fear-mongering to drive business. I don't like scaring people out of their money.
HerScan in particular tries to scare patients away from mammograms — which remain the gold standard for breast cancer screening. That kind of messaging is irresponsible and can harm patients who forgo evidence-based screening in favor of unproven alternatives.
These services create a relationship directly with you, cutting out your physician. When something abnormal is found, getting help from a doctor becomes complicated. Many of my patients have struggled to get appropriate follow-up care after a concerning result.
I'm a big advocate for proper screening — I just want you to have help when something is found. You deserve a physician advocate who can get you the right next steps.
This is a critical point. Different MRIs are designed to look at different things. What your physician orders depends on:
Prenuvo doesn't take any of this into account. They do a full-body MRI without contrast. Depending on your history and risk factors, this may not be the right screening test for you at all.
Patients walk away with a false sense of security — "I had a full-body MRI, I'm good!" — but it's not the best test for everything. You need the right test for the right thing.
There's significant discussion in the medical community about the quality of the reads patients get from these services. The radiologists interpreting these scans aren't necessarily experts in every area being imaged.
There's also a notable lawsuit against Prenuvo where a patient claims something was missed on their scan. While that's still plaintiff's attorney territory, the concern is legitimate.
One of the biggest problems I see is patients with real concerns going to these services instead of seeing their physician. These places aren't set up to evaluate symptomatic patients.
Example: I had a patient go to HerScan with a concern. They told her she had ruptured implants — but she had actually had a mastectomy with mesh around her implants. There was no rupture at all. They didn't know what they were looking at. They shouldn't be evaluating patients with concerns in the first place.
The same risk applies at Prenuvo. These services are marketed as screening for healthy people, but they become problematic when used by people who need real diagnostic workups.
I understand the frustrations with our healthcare system. Access is a real problem. People without insurance may feel this is the best they can do — that's a whole other conversation.
But in general: access to information does not equal expertise. I want patients to have high-quality care led by experts, so they get the best possible outcomes. I want you to have the right test, not just the test that a company sells you. And I want your doctor to help you when something is found.