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Reality TV star and entrepreneur Kim Kardashian took to her Instagram handle on Tuesday, August 8, to share her photo posing in front of a Prenuvo MRI machine while wearing scrubs. She called it a “life-saving” technology and mentioned how it helped save some of her friends’ lives.
For the unversed, Prenuvo is a startup company that claims about its MRI machine detecting over 500 abnormalities and diseases even before the symptoms arise. However, it is expensive and has thus been only popular among celebrities. In fact, a full body scan on its MRI machine can cost $2499.
As soon as Kim Kardashian uploaded the picture of her getting the expensive scan, she started getting relentlessly trolled by netizens. While some called her out for showing off her billionaire status, others made fun of her scrubs, saying she is a wannabe medical expert. So far, the SKIMS owner has not responded to the trolls.
Prenuvo scan can cost somewhere between $999 to $2499
A Prenuvo scan is also an MRI scan as it too creates three-dimensional images of the organs inside the body using magnetic resonance. However, unlike most MRI machines, it does not use radiation.
The company was founded by Andrew Lacy in 2018 and is headquartered in San Francisco. The startup delivers scans all across major North American cities. There are three kinds of scans, all of which come with a hefty price tag.
As per its official website, the torso scan costs $999 at takes 20 minutes, whereas the head and torso scan costs $1799 and takes 45 minutes. In contrast, a full body scan costs $2499 takes an hour. The company does not accept medical insurance for its state-of-the-art scans.
As per its founder Andrew Lacy’s statement to Insider, most MRI scans rely on anatomical imaging, which can only reveal organ structures and certain abnormalities. However, Prenuvo does something more innovative:
"Core to Prenuvo's imaging protocols is a heavy reliance on the combination of anatomical imaging together with newer functional imaging techniques, which increases the ability of MRI to accurately discriminate many conditions."
This means that Prenuvo can diagnose a wide range of conditions such as malignant tumors, cardiovascular disorders, and even autoimmune diseases, such as multiple sclerosis, quicker, earlier, and more effectively than other MRI machines. In fact, as per the company’s official Twitter account, it specializes in “proactive whole-body MRI screening for early cancer and disease detection.”
Dr. Matthew Davenport, Vice Chair of the American College of Radiology’s Quality and Safety Commission told Insider that getting such a scan was a “terrible idea” as it could encourage people to undergo unnecessary diagnostic exams.
Likewise, the American College of Preventive Medicine also told the news outlet that they do not recommend whole-body scans for asymptomatic people as there was no evidence of their effectiveness.
Kim Kardashian faces online ridicule for opting to flaunt Prenuvo scans
In Tuesday’s Instagram post, Kim Kardashian was seen posing with a Prenuvo MRI machine wearing grey scrubs, a ponytail, and slippers, and stating in her caption how she recently underwent its full body scan that costs $2500. Besides calling the scans “live-saving,” she also mentioned:
"The Prenuvo full-body scan has the ability to detect cancer and diseases such as aneurysms in its earliest stages before symptoms arise. It was like getting an MRI for an hour with no radiation."
She also added #NotAnAd at the end of the caption, hinting that the post wasn’t meant for promotion. However, that did not spare her from online trolls. As soon as her post became viral, the internet ridiculed her for flaunting her rich status and for opting for an unnecessary medical test. Here are some of the comments from under @PopCrave's tweet.
Here are also some comments from Kim's Instagram post trolling her.
The company too shared Kim’s post on its Instagram Story and praised her for “generous goodwill support.”
What’s interesting is that 42-year-old Kim is not the first person in her family to have undergone Prenuvo scans. In a July 2023 episode of the reality TV show The Kardashians, Kim’s mother Kris Jenner boasted of undergoing the same screening and getting an all-clear on her health.
The Kardashian family is known for promoting expensive healthcare practices which are otherwise unaffordable to the masses. The Prenuvo post came in the wake of Kim previously revealing on Monday’s Instagram Stories how she suffered a shoulder injury and could not attend the gym for a while.
