Press release · 10 Sept 2026
Neko Data Story: Year Three
neko health
Real-world findings from over 80,000 Neko Health members in Sweden and the UK during 2025–2026.
Foreword
Healthcare systems across the UK and Europe are facing an unsustainable economic strain driven by the rising burden of disease.
Chronic illnesses – such as cardiovascular conditions and type 2 diabetes – account for 80% to 90% of all healthcare expenditure.1 2 Up to 80% of cardiovascular disease and 90% of type 2 diabetes are preventable, and yet are projected to cost the global economy $47 trillion by 2030.3 4
People are interested in taking a proactive view of their health rather than waiting to react to illness. Neko exists to address this gap and to provide consumers with an entirely different healthcare experience. By tracking our bodies and being provided with the right information, people can understand what is happening inside their bodies now, so they can act and reverse potential illness and protect their future health. Preventive health checks are often assumed to be for the “worried well”. The real-world data from our first three years shows otherwise. Giving people earlier sight of their own health gives them the opportunity to act on it, and the measurable improvement is concentrated among the members who need it most.
This Year Three Data Report suggests that when risk is identified early, many members act on it, with measurable improvement year after year.
1 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Health and Economic Costs of Chronic Conditions. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 2 World Economic Forum & Harvard School of Public Health (2011). The Global Economic Burden of Non-Communicable Diseases. Geneva: World Economic Forum. 3 World Heart Federation. Cardiovascular Disease Prevention. Geneva: WHF. See also Yusuf, S., et al. (2004). “Effect of potentially modifiable risk factors associated with myocardial infarction in 52 countries (the INTERHEART study).” The Lancet, 364(9438), 937–952. 4 Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Simple Steps to Preventing Diabetes. Boston: Harvard University. See also Hu, F. B., et al. (2001). “Diet, lifestyle, and the risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus in women.” New England Journal of Medicine, 345(11), 790–797.
Key findings
Across more than 80,000 members in the UK and Sweden, Neko Year Three Data reveals a consistent pattern: early insight into health conditions previously unknown to the member and the ability to act on it to positively change the course of their health.
This report summarizes two types of analyses: how members’ health changes between scans, and how Neko detects disease early, often before symptoms appear.
Health improvements
Members come back healthier
We focused on seven cardiometabolic biomarkers in Neko’s 2025 and 2026 analyses because these capture important, modifiable aspects of cardiovascular and metabolic health. These include: systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, non-HDL cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, HbA1c, weight, and grip strength as objective measures of physical function. In addition, there is clear guideline-backed evidence that they are actionable and matter for long-term health.
For the 9,138 members with two or more Neko scans, all seven tracked cardiometabolic biomarkers improved between the first and second scan.
*We adjusted HDL and HbA1C readings to account for a manufacturer change in the laboratory reference system.
Returning members’ hearts are aging more slowly than their calendar age.
To contextualize the improvements, Neko relies on a clinically validated “heart age” – the age at which a person with a healthy cardiovascular profile would have the same risk of heart attack or stroke. The calculation is based on QRISK3, a widely used cardiovascular risk model across the NHS in the UK. At a population level, Neko members' hearts aged about a quarter more slowly than the calendar: while a year passed between scans, heart age rose by approximately nine months.
Members with known conditions improved most, but gains were seen across healthy returners as well.
Members with prior chronic conditions
18% of returning members (1,654 people) reported a prior diagnosis of high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or diabetes at their first scan, or said they were already taking medication for one of these. This group improved more: across the seven biomarkers, their improvement averaged about 2.5 times that of members with no known conditions.
Because members with a known cardiometabolic condition improved more, we tested whether they were driving the overall result. They were not. Among returning members with no prior diagnosis and no relevant medication at their first scan, all seven biomarkers still improved between scans. In other words, the improvements seen across returning members were not limited to those with prior conditions; they were also present in members who arrived without a known cardiometabolic condition.
* Change between a member's first and second scan. HbA1c is corrected with the all-member fortnightly adjustment, no readings excluded; other markers unchanged. Groups are defined from the intake questionnaire at the first scan, never from a scan-1 biomarker value, so no group is selected on the readings being compared. Rows are not mutually exclusive: 1,271 members reported one of these conditions.
High blood pressure · reported a history of high blood pressure, or reported taking blood-pressure medication. High cholesterol · reported familial hypercholesterolaemia, or reported taking cholesterol medication. The questionnaire does not ask about raised cholesterol in general, so members with high cholesterol who are untreated and do not have the familial form are not captured here. Diabetes · reported diabetes of any type, or reported taking anti-diabetic medication.
Early detection
Around 4% of members had a significant condition that needed medical treatment.
Beneath these improving trends sits a smaller group of findings that show why early visibility matters most. In 2025, 4% of Swedish members aged 25 to 84 were identified with a significant condition requiring medical treatment, including non-melanoma skin cancers and chronic metabolic and cardiovascular disease.
A further 2% were found to have early signs that if left unaddressed could become more serious or chronic, such as precancerous skin changes, prediabetes, insulin resistance, or elevated blood pressure. These conditions could be managed through lifestyle change and monitoring, before becoming a diagnosis at all.
Neko detects life-threatening disease in a small but consistent share of members who feel healthy.
Neko detects more serious illness too. Where we have shared outcome data, we have seen around 1% of members aged 28 to 77 had a severe and potentially life-threatening condition detected through their Neko Scan despite being asymptomatic. These were people who felt healthy and had no suspicion of the problem until they came to Neko, where important findings were identified and addressed including invasive melanoma, severe arrhythmias, significant valve disease, and aortic aneurysms.
This rate has remained stable even as scan volumes more than tripled, at 1.0% in 2023, 1.2% in 2024, and 1.0% in 2025 – suggesting a consistent, underlying prevalence of serious but silent disease in an ostensibly healthy population. In such cases where this is rare but serious, Neko sought to ensure that they received the necessary intervention. This is part of our commitment to members to help them get the care that they need beyond the scan.
For each of these individuals, early insight into their own health data gave them the chance to act while they still could. That’s proactive healthcare working exactly as intended: giving them the information before they need it and the chance to act on it while they still could.
About Neko Health
Neko Health is a health technology company offering a preventative, full-body health assessment: the Neko Health Scan.
The company was founded by Daniel Ek and Hjalmar Nilsonne and opened its first clinic in Stockholm in 2023.
Neko designs much of its own scanning hardware, software, and clinical protocols in-house. It now operates clinics in Sweden and the UK, with US expansion underway.
What the scan includes:
The Neko Health Scan is a 60-minute, radiation-free assessment. It combines:
- An external assessment. Using 2D cameras, thermal imaging, and depth sensors, used to assess the skin and body surface.
- Internal measurements. Including blood pressure, body composition (visceral fat and body fat percentage), an ECG, and cardiac function and arterial assessments.
- A blood draw. With clinically selected biomarkers processed on-site and reviewed by a clinician before you leave.
- Additional biometric measurements. Including grip strength and intraocular (eye) pressure.
- Advanced body composition assessment. Advanced body composition to measure visceral fat, body fat percentage, and waist-to-height ratio - bringing vital metabolic insights that BMI misses out of specialist clinics and into the standard scan.
- Wearables data integration via the Neko app. Allowing members to connect devices to share a full year of sleep, activity, and heart rate data with their clinician for more personalized guidance.
Every scan ends with a face-to-face consultation with a clinician, who reviews the results with the member, can perform additional checks such as listening to heart sounds or examining moles under magnification, and provides personalized guidance. Neko positions the scan as complementary to, not a replacement for, primary or specialist care.
Additional analyses and insights
Health improvements
Above, we report cardiometabolic health improvements in approximately 9,000 returning members. Here, we provide additional analyses on members’ self-reported behavioral and medication changes, health trajectories after three scans, as well as member testimonials obtained during qualitative interviews.
Members report behavioral changes between scans.
Twenty-six percent of members who reported being smokers at their first scan said they quit by their next. This resulted in their heart age decreasing by an average of 30.7 months between scans, while it rose by 9.7 months, on average, among those who kept smoking. Quitters' average heart age moved from 4.4 years above their calendar age to just 0.8 years above it, and their QRISK3 score fell by 22.4% in relative terms, against a 2.5% rise among those who continued to smoke.
Members also reported becoming more active: a third said they were exercising more by their second scan. Among members who reported doing no exercise at their first scan, about half said they were doing some by their next scan. Those who reported exercising more also lost more weight on average, 0.77kg compared with 0.22kg among members who did not.
Note: Behavior is self-reported and unverified, so desirable changes may be over-reported, and the associations shown are not evidence of cause.
Medication was not the main driver of members’ health improvements.
Blood pressure and cholesterol medication played a relatively small role in the year-on-year health improvements observed in our data. Among members with high blood pressure at their first scan who were not already being treated (n = 809), 18% started blood pressure medication between scans.
Those who did not start medication still lowered their systolic pressure by an average of 9.6 mmHg (6.5%), with 59% back in the healthy range by their next scan. Among members with raised non-HDL cholesterol (n = 2,418), just 6% started cholesterol medication; those who did not still lowered their non-HDL by 10%, and four in ten brought it back into the healthy range.
Where members did report starting medication, the effects were larger, as expected. Members who started cholesterol medication lowered their non-HDL by 44% versus 10% among those who did not, with nine in ten returning to the healthy range. Members who started blood-pressure medication lowered their systolic pressure by 15.0 mmHg versus 9.6 mmHg among those who did not, with 68% returning to the healthy range compared with 59%.
Note: Neko does not prescribe; where a finding requires treatment, we refer members into care. For findings that are best actioned through interventions, Neko provides members with actionable, evidence-based advice, for example on nutrition and exercise. Medication is self-reported at each visit, so anyone who started treatment without reporting it would be incorrectly flagged as “untreated” in this analysis.
Neko’s heart age – a validated measure of risk
What is Neko’s heart age?
Neko converts members' cardiovascular risk profile – blood pressure, cholesterol, BMI, age, sex, smoking status, diabetes and family history – into a single “heart age”: the age at which someone with a typical, healthy risk profile would carry the same risk of a heart attack or stroke. The underlying model is QRISK3, the cardiovascular risk calculator used and validated across the UK.
Baseline heart age
At their first scan, the average member's heart age was 45.4 years against a calendar age of 45.9, and seven in ten members had a heart age at or below their actual age. Members with no diagnosed cardiometabolic condition and no relevant medication had a heart age of 1.0 years below their calendar age, 42.8 against 43.8. Members who had a prior condition had a heart age 2.4 years above theirs, 59.5 against 57.1, with only four in ten at or below it, and 27% five or more years older.
Heart age changes
Heart age changes between scans because two things are happening at once: members are getting older, and their risk factors may also be changing. If risk factors remain the same, heart age would be expected to rise in line with calendar age. When heart age rises by less than the time elapsed between measurements, it is because changes in risk factors such as blood pressure, cholesterol, BMI, smoking status, or diagnosis have partly offset the effect of getting older.
Most biomarkers continue to improve into Year 3.
1,754 members have now had three scans. For blood pressure, non-HDL cholesterol, and weight, improvements continued into the second year, leaving members healthier after two years than after one. Non-HDL cholesterol, for example, fell by about 4% in each year, ending 8% lower overall.
Grip strength showed no measurable change in the first year, then improved in the second, which is likely driven by a Neko-internal protocol change of how we measured grip strength. HDL cholesterol and HbA1c improved in the first year but partially reversed in the second; across the full two-year period, HbA1c was broadly unchanged.
* Non-HDL cholesterol falls at almost the same rate in each year. Grip strength does not move in the first year and then improves in the second.
Member stories: Early insight prompted lasting changes
As part of this Data Story, we interviewed several members in the UK and Sweden.
“It gave me the motivation to make small, manageable changes.”
Heading towards retirement, I wanted a proper baseline of my health. I had no major symptoms, so I knew it would be difficult to get this kind of check through the NHS.
My first Neko scan found that my blood pressure was at the high end of normal, and that I was pre-diabetic – something I had no idea about. It was disappointing to hear, but it gave me the motivation to make small, manageable changes: more walking, less salt and fewer carbohydrates, and regular blood pressure checks at home. By my second scan, my weight and HbA1c were moving in the right direction. Now that I’m retired, I’m doing more vigorous cardio and strength training, with the aim of reversing my pre-diabetes without medication. The scans give me a useful way to track progress and keep going. Without that first scan, I would have been none the wiser.
Sanjay, London
Male, 61 years
Male, 61 years
Early detection
Our clearest signal of disease detection comes from Sweden, where 8,668 members were scanned in 2025. Of these, 1,736 were referred for further assessment, either to our own primary care clinic or to the member’s preferred healthcare provider. At the time of analysis, an outcome had been resolved and clinically coded for 65% of referrals. The remaining cases were either awaiting results, had opted out of follow-up, or were referred to external healthcare providers, where outcome data could not be obtained.
Risk rises sharply with age
The likelihood of an actionable finding (severe, significant, or reversible, combined) rose steadily and substantially with age across the 2025 Swedish cohort: from around 1 in 100 scans in members under 30, to more than 1 in 5 scans in members aged 70 and over.
Findings differ by sex
Men had a higher overall rate of actionable findings than women (around 78 per 1,000 men scanned, versus 60 per 1,000 women). This gap was driven mainly by “significant” findings such as hypertension and high cholesterol, which were substantially more common among men. Severe, life-threatening findings were found at broadly similar rates in men and women.
What the findings were
Among severe findings, melanoma (invasive or in situ) accounted for roughly two-thirds of cases; most of the remainder was cardiac and vascular conditions, including cardiomyopathy or heart failure, aortic or arterial disease, valve or congenital heart disease, and arrhythmia. Among significant findings, the most common were non-melanoma skin cancer, hypertension, and high cholesterol. Among reversible findings, the great majority were early, precancerous skin changes (actinic keratosis) and elevated blood pressure that had not progressed to diagnosable hypertension.
A note on these figures: they describe referrals, not distinct members — a small number of members may account for more than one referral, and there is no member identifier in the underlying data, so an exact per-member rate cannot be produced. Around a third of 2025 referrals had no outcome recorded at the time of this analysis, and these unresolved referrals skew towards older members, who are statistically more likely to have an actionable finding. An age-adjusted estimate in the underlying data puts the true number of actionable findings in 2025 at around 960, against 606 confirmed and coded so far — meaning the figures above are, if anything, more likely to understate than overstate the true detection rate. Diagnosis coding such as ICD-10 which is the WHO’s International Classification of Disease standard is not fully standardized across countries, so groupings should be read as indicative clinical categories.
Member stories: Early detection saved lives
“Undoubtedly, Neko saved my life.”
I was born with a bicuspid aortic valve – my heart valve had only two leaflets instead of the normal three, which meant it was slowly wearing out. I had no idea. Neko spotted the problem in my very first scan in 2023, and it turned out I needed heart surgery. My cardiac surgeon told me I had maybe six to eight months left before the valve stopped completely. Undoubtedly, Neko saved my life.
After that, everything changed and I became focused on my health. Now I exercise at least three times a week, I’ve lost ten kilos, and I track all my measurements. Every year I come back to Neko, and that scan is a real motivator – it pushes me to keep going, and it shows me that what I’m doing is really working. It’s proof that I’m on the right path. I would not be alive today if it weren’t for Neko.
Ingemar, Stockholm
Male, 66 years
Male, 66 years
“I had no symptoms at all.”
The only thing I’d noticed was wishing I could run a bit faster. My first scan picked up a heart murmur, and an ultrasound confirmed a leaking mitral valve, with one chamber of my heart enlarged from years of strain.
I had surgery at 52, and because it was caught early the valve could be repaired rather than replaced. My heart has since returned to its normal size.
At my second scan a year later, my blood pressure and cholesterol had improved too.
Henrik, Stockholm
Male, 53 years
Male, 53 years
About the data
Sources
This report draws on two sources: Neko Health's Year Three findings summary, covering detection rates, biomarker change, lifestyle change, and heart age across Neko's member base; and a detailed clinical coding analysis of referral outcomes among members scanned in Sweden during 2025.
The Sweden 2025 referral-outcomes analysis
8,668 members were scanned in Sweden during 2025. Of these, 1,736 were referred for further assessment. Referral outcomes are based on ICD-10 codes, registered by the diagnosing healthcare provider. At the time of this analysis, an outcome had been resolved and coded for 65% of referrals; the remaining cases are either awaiting results, opted out of follow-up, or were referred to external healthcare providers where outcome data could not be obtained.
Population
Neko Health members are people who have chosen to pay for and book a Neko Health Scan. They are not a nationally representative sample of the Swedish or UK population, and general-population comparisons should be treated with care.
Statistical limitations
This is observational data, drawn from real-world members who chose whether and when to return for further scans, rather than a randomized controlled trial with a control group. Findings on biomarker change, lifestyle change, and heart age describe associations between scanning, engagement, and improvement – not proof that the scan itself causes the changes observed.
When testing for changes in biomarkers, we use standard thresholds for statistical significance. In large samples, small changes can be statistically significant, but the changes we document are large enough to be clinically significant as well, as shown in the heart age analyses. Of note, we are confident that these changes do not simply represent regression to the mean (noise): we see consistent improvements across biomarkers in the entire population, not just those with abnormal values, in whom we might expect some to normalize simply due to noise.
Interpreting the data: Notes for journalists
Serious-disease detection figures in this report are Sweden-only. Neko does not yet have an equivalent, fully coded outcomes pathway in other markets.
Referral and outcome figures describe referrals, not distinct members. A member may generate more than one referral, and there is no member-level identifier in the underlying data, so referral totals should not be read as member counts.
Around a third of the 2025 Swedish referrals were in the process of being carried out at the time of the data analysis for this report. The true detection rate could be higher than the figures reported here, not lower (because we classify those members as having no finding even though they may eventually have one).
Findings on biomarker change, lifestyle change, and heart age describe association, not proven cause. Neko does not have a control group or a randomized controlled trial.
“Heart age” is a relative measure, built on the QRISK3 model. An improving heart age relative to calendar age is not the same as a fall in absolute cardiovascular risk, which can still rise even as the relative gap narrows.
All member data referenced in this report is anonymized. Figures are drawn directly from Neko Health's data and rounded for readability; further detail is available from Neko on request.
Additional information
Dr Sunita Mishra, Chief Medical Officer
Dr Sunita Mishra is Chief Medical Officer at Neko Health, where she leads the company's clinical strategy, medical operations, and clinical studies, helping to advance its prevention-first model as it scales into new markets.
Sunita brings more than two decades of experience spanning clinical medicine, healthcare technology, product development and executive leadership. Prior to joining Neko Health, she served as Chief Medical Officer at Amazon Health and previously held leadership roles at Providence, where she worked on developing and scaling technology-enabled models of care.
A board-certified internist, Sunita combines frontline clinical expertise with experience building healthcare products and services at scale. She holds an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. At Neko Health, her focus is on embedding clinical rigor into the company's technology and creating a healthcare experience that enables earlier insight, greater engagement, and better health outcomes.
Dr Nikita Kanani MBE, Medical Director, Europe
(Prof) Dr Nikita Kanani MBE is an NHS GP and Senior Director, Medical Excellence (Medical Director, EMEA) at Neko Health. Dr Kanani was awarded an MBE in 2017 for services to primary care.
She was National Medical Director for Primary Care at NHS England, the first woman appointed to the role, where she led the national redesign of primary care through the £7.4bn GP contract. She was Senior Responsible Officer for primary care through the pandemic and deputy lead for the COVID-19 vaccination program, and went on to lead the clinical integration of NHS England,
Health Education England, and NHS Digital. Prior to this, she was Chief Executive of NHS Bexley CCG.
Now, Dr Kanani is advocating for a preventive approach to healthcare, which prioritizes early detection and proactive action, enabling people to access and live better quality lives. She is also the founding Non-Executive Director of NHS Online, a trustee at Doctors of the World and a Visiting Professor at the University of Sunderland School of Medicine.
As the daughter of a Ugandan refugee who settled into South East London in 1972 and opened his own pharmacy, Dr Kanani is passionate about supporting young people from under-represented backgrounds into science and medicine, and co-founded STEMMsisters with her sister to open doors for the next generation of women and girls.
For inquiries: press@nekohealth.com
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