Kris Jenner Looks To Kick Chronic Diseases In The Butt With Proactive 'Prenuvo' MRI Scan!

The Kardashian and Jenner family have been key players in shaping all things health-related in popular culture for almost 20 years. On last night's episode of "The Kardashians," Kris Jenner opened up about her annual goal to make sure her health is in tip-top shape!

Enter Prenuvo, a company with several locations across the USA, specializing in whole-body MRI scans allowing patients the opportunity to have peace of mind courtesy of the scan's ability to detect hazardous health issues early.

The company was featured on last night's episode of the Hulu docu-series, with the duo touring the facility and Jenner getting a scan of her own!

Lacy sat down and graciously answered some questions for The Blast and provided some insight into Prenuvo, his inspiration for launching the groundbreaking company, and his hopes for the company's outreach!

Q: What inspired you to create a business using the technology used to create Prenuvo?

A: "The reality is that most of us have witnessed the devastating effects of cancer or chronic disease. For far too many of us, we can viscerally understand the pain of losing someone to cancer or suffering through advanced disease because it was caught too late due to a reactive healthcare system. And because “disease” in our healthcare system is synonymous with “scary, advanced, life-threatening stuff,” many suffer day-to-day through not having peace of mind about what might lurk under the skin.

This is what we hope to prevent. At an individual level, we aim to empower individuals by providing them with health clarity and identifying disease diagnoses early enough so that interventions can be much more tolerable and cheaper. At a system level, we want to drive a meaningful shift so the healthcare industry stops wasting trillions of dollars yearly on reactive treatments. 

Over a decade ago, we conducted our first scan in a clinical setting and since then, we have alerted 1 out of 20 patients to potentially life-saving diagnoses. As a CEO, the impact of these scans is tangible and deeply inspiring. Every day, I am motivated by stories of the incredible difference our scans have made. There is nothing quite like knowing that our contribution has helped save someone's life or hearing about the immense peace of mind and mental clarity people experience after undergoing our scans.

However, in the last 20 years, the technology we use at Prenuvo, MRI, has evolved significantly. With hardware and software customized to screen, we can now provide unprecedented insights into an individual’s baseline health from head to toe. In less than 60 minutes, our scan captures 2000 images in 28 areas in under an hour at diagnostic quality, with 1B+ data points acquired. This is a remarkable improvement compared to the conventional MRI process, which could take 4-5 hours. 

Our goal is to make a meaningful difference in healthcare by giving individuals access to advanced imaging technology that can empower them to take control of their well-being. We believe that early detection is the key to better patient outcomes." 

Q: What are some common misconceptions about using AI in the medical field? What do you think about social media's impact on AI, or more specifically AI in the medical field?

A: "One of the risks with AI, especially as it grows increasingly popular in the healthcare field, is the risk of inaccurate claims about what it can do and how it is used. AI holds great potential for both assisting physicians and improving patient care, but it’s also important to recognize that the development of AI technologies in the medical field requires significant time and research. This is why our AI research and medical teams are dedicated to studying its use intently and have published over 20 papers at top medical associations that have revealed breakthrough scientifically-based research. 

An example of this is our AI study on the brain, looking at the relationship between lifestyle factors and brain health. Our brains change as we age, and our research builds upon this by looking at the connection between lifestyle factors and brain volume. We explored linkages between smoking and brain atrophy and also investigated the correlation between physical activity and how it could offer a potential way to preserve brain volume and function as we age.

What’s exciting about this work we are doing in AI is that the more baseline longitudinal screening of patients we do, the more large data we can leverage to continue gaining newer and deeper insights that will lead to more personalized and better clinical outcomes.

Another common opinion that we hear in the imaging field is that AI will replace the work of radiologists entirely. For us at Prenuvo, we are excited about the implementation of AI that is complementary and assistive to a radiologist’s prodigious skill set. One such area is the future use of AI to help us understand the early signs of disease progression and quantify a person’s health trajectory. But these investments take time to develop and the work that we are doing in AI are still largely in the research and investigational stage."

Lacy also discussed the benefit of "early adopters" like the Kardashian and Jenner family bringing exposure to Prenuvo.

"We thank the Kardashians and our patients for sharing their proactive health journey. As CEO, I find myself introducing Prenuvo to many people. The most common reaction is, “Wow, I had no idea such a scan existed. That’s amazing.” Spreading the word is critical to growing awareness from early adopters like the Kardashians to the general population. We believe this will bring us one step closer to preventative imaging like Prenuvo becoming the standard of care at the center of a completely transformed healthcare system."