They are called Zoï, Lucis or Viome and promise to keep you healthy. How ? By reviewing, excluding declared pathologies, the secrets of your body, your biological markers, your microbiome, your lifestyle habits, sometimes even your genetics. The goal: to provide an ultra-detailed overview of your state of health, identify personalized risks, predict what could pose a problem tomorrow and know what to monitor now. A medicine of the future, which prevents rather than treats, in parallel – and often on the fringes – of traditional care pathways.
The time (and money) to “invest” in your health
This approach does not fall within the framework of organized screenings reimbursed by Social Security. But from a personal will… and the means that go with it.
To access these assessments, you have to put your hand in your wallet: between 200 and sometimes more than 3,000 euros depending on the depth of the tests and the support offered. A clearly two-tier medicine, reserved for those who can afford it.
But for fans, the message is well rehearsed: it is not an expense, but an investment. Invest in your longevity, your quality of life, regain power over your health, no longer endure a system deemed saturated… Online, the testimonies speak of a trigger, of awareness.
Luxury preventative medicine that reveals the flaws in the system
For Dr. Gérald Kierzek, emergency physician and Medical Director of True Medical, this rise in
“luxury preventative medicine” is not a coincidence.
“It above all reflects the perceived limits of the traditional route”he explains. Opportunistic prevention, lack of medical time, sometimes minimalist assessments, poorly explained results… The patient who is doing well often has the feeling of not existing in the healthcare system.
These private platforms precisely fill this void: they sell time (at least in appearance), readability and a global vision of health. But this does not make classical medicine obsolete.
What Zoï, Lucis & company really offer
Concretely, these structures rely on a very integrated approach.
- Zoï, for example, offers a 360° check-up in an ultra-premium setting, with imaging, hundreds of biomarkers, annual monitoring and dedicated application, all in a center with almost confidential positioning.
- Lucis relies on regular check-ups, “data-driven” prevention, with digital dashboards and medical interpretation even before symptoms appear.
Internationally, these offers are part of the trend of longevity medicine or the concierge medicine
: high-end experience, privileged access, advanced diagnostics, excluding insurance and collective logic.
What the traditional care pathway no longer manages to offer
On the other hand, organized prevention remains focused on a few major pillars: vaccines, cancer screenings and cardiovascular risk factors. Essential, effective and scientifically validated levers… but which leave little room for fine individualization.
“Healthy patients often encounter minimal assessments and a lack of time to explain, contextualize and support lifestyle changes”insists Gérald Kierzek.
Result: a poor or even absent impression of prevention, especially for the middle classes.
Real benefits… but also real limits
These new offers are not without interest. They make it possible to aggregate multiple examinations into a single short sequence, to offer a clear restitution, a personalized action plan and monitoring over time. So many things that the classic system struggles to offer.
But they also pose several problems.
- Their high cost accentuates the risk of two-tier medicine;
- In people at low risk, the multiplication of examinations can lead to overdiagnosis, generate anxiety and unnecessary investigations;
- Above all, these parallel pathways can fragment care and complicate the integration of results into the usual care file.
Online experience sharing also highlights a very light follow-up: beyond the “experience”, professional feedback and follow-up are reduced to a notification on the app, or a 1 minute 30 minute video review.
Is the attending physician still enough?
On a strictly medical level, the answer is clear: yes.
Basic prevention – vaccines, recommended screenings, monitoring of risk factors, health and diet advice – remains the most relevant and cost-effective lever for the general population.
“But it is no longer enough if we are looking for an exhaustive and ultra-personalized vision of our health, nor if we expect comfort, availability, time for discussion and proactive monitoring that community medicine, under pressure, cannot always offer” regrets Dr. Kierzek.
The warning signal of broken public prevention
For our expert, these platforms are above all a signal. That of a growing demand for structured prevention, understandable data, monitoring over time. Expectations that the solidarity system could partly integrate: targeted check-ups, digital tools, medical time dedicated to prevention, etc.
“The challenge is not to copy luxury preventive medicine, but to take its advantages, while maintaining an approach based on risk, equity and the efficiency of public resources” judges Dr. Kierzek.
An immense challenge, at a time when the health system lacks resources, vision and time.
In the meantime, prevention is progressing… but especially for those who can pay for it.