Latest / The Bright Side of Longevity (Hosted by Dr. Roger Landry, MD, MPH) / E117: Healthspan by Design (The New Era of Preventive Medicine)

Transcript

E117: Healthspan by Design (The New Era of Preventive Medicine) · The Bright Side of Longevity (Hosted by Dr. Roger Landry, MD, MPH)

0:13
Speaker 1: Welcome to the bright Side of Longevity. Join host doctor
0:17
Roger Landry, along with co host Danielle Payee and guests
0:21
as they discuss the bright side of getting older through
0:23
healthy longevity. Guided by research, this lighthearted and educational show
0:29
will leave you with practical ways to brighten your life's journey.
0:52
William Bann is the co founder of high medi, a
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Korean government licensed medical tourism platform that connects international patients
1:00
with vetted hospitals and health screening centers in South Korea.
1:05
A Korean American entrepreneur from Los Angeles, he co founded
1:09
Haimeti after experiencing his first comprehensive health checkup in Soul.
1:14
Having worked with thousands of patients from around the world,
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William has developed unique insight into how consumer expectations around
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healthcare are evolving. His work focuses on making comprehensive, preventive
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health screenings, advanced diagnostics, and coordinating medical care more accessible
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for people seeking to optimize their long term health and longevity.
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William is passionate about shifting healthcare from treating illness to
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preventing disease before it begins. Today's topic is health span
1:46
by Design, the new era of preventive medicine.
2:13
Speaker 2: Well, hello, everybody, welcome to the bright side of longevity.
2:16
I'm doctor Roger Landry.
2:17
Speaker 3: Here.
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Speaker 2: I am here with my colleague, my esteemed colleague who
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keeps us on track.
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Speaker 3: Danielle.
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Speaker 2: Danielle, how are you?
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Speaker 1: I am doing great despite the heat wave. It was
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one hundred and twelve was the real feel in Florida.
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Speaker 4: Oh my gosh. Oh, I don't want to complain about
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the heat, but now it can't.
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Speaker 2: Bye, my goodness. Well, as many as you know, I'm
2:43
a preventive medicine physician, and when I made that decision
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decades ago, my physician peers looked at me. They were,
2:49
as a minimum, mystified. And I knew what I wanted,
2:54
and so I pursued that and I have loved the field.
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But today's guest, I think, is giving me hope that
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the whole idea of preventive medicine and staying healthy versus
3:09
responding to disease is evolving and becoming more mainstream, and
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that for me is music to my ears. So William
3:19
Band is with us today.
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Speaker 3: William welcome.
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Speaker 2: We're so happy to have you.
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Speaker 4: No, it's a pleasure to be here.
3:25
Speaker 2: You have done much in your career. I'm always in
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awe of entrepreneurs you know, you know, I'm brave, some
3:35
say stupid relative to doing crazy things, but relative to entrepreneurship,
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I was always timid. So again I have great respect
3:44
for what you've done, and you've been very successful at it.
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So again I'm glad you're here with us today. So
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you have a great story. And certainly you were on
3:57
a path to becoming a physician before you join startup.
4:00
And I might say if you were a mainline physician,
4:04
you made the right decision.
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Speaker 3: And going another blake.
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Speaker 2: If you had become a preventive me as a physician,
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who knows. So anyway, you were on the path of
4:12
being a physician and you joined a startup the world
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of startups in the world, including Airbnb, which I use
4:19
all the time. And then one health checkup in Seoul
4:24
changed everything for you. So can you take us back
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to that day and what happened? What did it make
4:29
you realize about American health care and your own health?
4:32
Speaker 4: And so yeah, no, so it pretty much that morning
4:41
completely flipped how I think about healthcare in general. Right.
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So I was born and raised in la and so
4:52
the kind of growing up it was. And also I'm
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you know, my parents immigrated from South Korea, and so
5:00
it's kind of more the Eastern culture of unless you're
5:05
really sick, you don't go to the hospital unless you're
5:08
really really sick, right, And so healthcare in general just
5:16
became to me of here's a system that helps treat
5:20
you once you become sick, right, and the check up,
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And I think that's largely how the US healthcare system works, right.
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And there's a lot of reasons why we can get
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into that, but you know, just froun a very personal standpoint,
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It's I grew up that way. I think a lot
5:39
of Americans, you know, still believe it or feel it
5:43
that way. And then in Korea, the check up went
5:46
in one morning, it was about three hours, got a
5:50
full blood work. It was actually the first time I
5:52
actually got a full blood work. Right. The got a
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bunch of advanced testing done so like a chess CT,
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did a brain MRI, did an endoscopy, I did a colonoscopy,
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body composition tests right like on and on, and got
6:14
my results pretty much the same day. A doctor walked
6:17
me through all the reports. I got all my images.
6:20
You know, burned on a CD and I was literally
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just like mind blown, right, so and so and you
6:33
know this all of this roughly costs at that time,
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it was just a little over two hundred bucks two
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and so to me, that really changed what I thought
6:49
healthcare like is right. And I never knew that this
6:55
could be, you know, preventative health. I didn't really know
7:01
about it think about it right until I really did this.
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And then that kind of took me down this total
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rabbit hole of my immediate thought because you know, I
7:11
was with a bunch of other startups before, so kind
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of you know, my brain is constantly working in kind
7:15
of entrepreneurial mode. Is Oh my gosh, I need to
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create this in the States. That was my first instinct.
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This was over ten years ago. When I got my
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first checkup. I immediately came back to the States. I
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talked to all of my doctor friends and I told them, Hey,
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this is what I just did. Tell me why we
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can't do this in the States. And then they just
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started rattling off a whole bunch of reasons why, and
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a lot of them ended up being it's just, you know,
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it's too regulated and because of the regulations, it's just
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going to be way too expensive. There's no way you
7:50
can build a checkup center, right, like one facility where
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you can house all of these different advanced you know, devices,
7:58
house all the doctors, the labs, right Like, it's just
8:02
not it's not going to work, which is that's pretty
8:07
common when you're in the startup space, right, Like everything
8:10
is impossible until someone actually does.
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Speaker 3: It, right.
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Speaker 4: And so I wasn't too deterred by that, but you know,
8:18
I spent years trying to figure out how do we
8:20
make this happen in the in the States, And it
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was just I mean, navigating the healthcare kind of regulations
8:26
in the US is is is a nightmare, right Like
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don't want to wish that even on my you know,
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my biggest enemies, right and so but no, and then
8:37
so now it ended up just figuring, well, if Korea
8:41
kind of does this already just as their standard, right, like,
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what's the alternative? Right, Like what other businesses can we
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kind of spin up out of this? Now?
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Speaker 1: You know what? The timing of this interview is so interesting.
8:53
As a woman of a certain age, I'm turning fifty
8:56
four next month, and many of my female friends, things
9:00
change and we're having to go to five different doctors
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at different times, and everybody it's kind of like an
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elephant the elephant story with the three blind men. One
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gets the trunk, one gets the tail, one gets and
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they're all having a different diagnosis. And we always say,
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why isn't there one place to do everything, just scan
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everything and tell us what's going on, which is exactly
9:21
what you're talking about. And you've already you know, started
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alluding to the fact, like why don't we do this here?
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So for listeners who are as intrigued as I am,
9:30
maybe someone hasn't or they they've gotten a physical exam
9:34
and they think they're doing everything right. But what's different
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about this comprehensive checkup? And why does it matter more
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as we get older?
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Speaker 4: Maybe the you know, the biggest way to kind of
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compare and contrast, right, would be take the US annual
9:58
physical versus a and check up, which is kind of
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their version of an annual physical. Do you the annual
10:07
physical here in the States, it's it's essentially just to
10:11
check off the basics, right. It's like I said, I
10:16
it's still to this date in the States, like I've
10:18
never gotten blood work done, right, because it's probably because
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it's kind of my age group, right, like the you know,
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my my physical, my annual physical here is you know,
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they'll measure my blood pressure right, like check my breathing
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right like into my eyes, like get to my ears,
10:40
into my throat and then kind of and then it
10:44
just goes into a conversation with the doctor of are
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you feeling any symptoms? Right? And I think that's the
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key piece, right, It's they're trying to see if you
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and for me, I'm for the most part quite healthy.
11:00
So my physical just kind of ends there, whereas the
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Korean checkup it's without whether you feel symptoms or not.
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It's there's just standard packages and kind of depending on
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your age, it's like there's recommendations of hey, you know
11:17
plus thirty, it's like you should start adding this test,
11:20
plus forty, you should start adding you know, certain other
11:22
tests you know, whether you're exhibiting symptoms or not. Right,
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And so it kind of it's it's almost just the
11:32
design or the philosophy of the two different countries, right.
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It's in Korea is just your annual physical, which is
11:40
the checkup is predominantly just we have we've developed the
11:44
system where in one place, very convenient you can get
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a lot of the diagnostic testing done and very affordably right,
11:54
Whereas in the US, it's as long as you seem
11:57
healthy and the you know kind of the basic kind
12:00
of you know, readings are showing that you're still healthy. Right,
12:05
it's probably just like you know, on the surface level,
12:07
are you okay? Then cool, we'll see you next year.
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Speaker 2: Right, Absolutely, Yes, that's how it works. No, it's it's
12:17
a system we've been I personally and my colleagues have
12:22
been banging our head against. It's if you tried to
12:25
get all those tests here, First of all, insurance wouldn't
12:27
pay for it. They'd be private day and that would
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be prohibitive probably for many people. And so so for
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a listener who might be intrigued. And I'm sure there
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are many right now, I'm me among them. So if
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maybe if someone who hasn't had, you know, a look
12:48
under the hood, so to speak, in years. And I
12:52
think you've addressed some of this, But what does a
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screen trip to career practically involve? I mean, I think
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you've already told us some the cost you told us.
12:59
I wonder what it is today? Is language a problem.
13:03
You're an English safety I know, I've been I've been
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to Koreas safety is really not a problem. Uh And
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more importantly, how do the results get back to your
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primary care physician? I guess probably you would have to
13:16
take it yourself. But and and did that make a
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difference with your primary care physician if you did that?
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Speaker 4: Uh? So the whole process is a lot simpler than
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most people think. Why because it's again it's you're you're
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walking into let's say, like a ready made system, right
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and so uh production line, right, Yeah, so you know
13:43
the way that the facility is designed. First off, it's
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you know, you're all the series of tests, right, so
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you know, just kind of to recap full blood work.
13:55
You're gonna get your like hormone panel, vision test, auditory test,
14:01
body body composition. Typically it's like uh an X ray
14:07
of the chest right on the baseline or kind of
14:11
the most basic packages. There's there's different tiers as it
14:14
goes up. You do an ultrasound of the the abdomen, right,
14:20
so getting all divided organs MRIs typically for the brain, right,
14:27
an endoscopy, a colonoscopy. It kind of like that's like
14:32
just in the set package right, and then there's stuff
14:35
that you can add on like a DNA cancer test
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or et cetera, et cetera. Right, that sounds super daunting
14:45
if you're trying to coordinate all of that In the States,
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that's multiple appointments. It's going to take you weeks, if
14:54
not months to try and get all of those places right,
14:57
like you're going to different locations. Insurance is another major
15:02
issue right in the US, where you know, if you're healthy,
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none of this is gonna like most of it is
15:09
not going to be covered, right, and so it then
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access starts to become a problem, Whereas in Korea, like
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I was saying, it's it's just purely elective, right, and
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just because all of the Koreans, the locals, like they've
15:24
already just built that infrastructure and the system to do
15:28
it right. So a day, let's say so in the morning,
15:30
typically you check in, you literally get like a key card, right,
15:35
and every station, so there's an ultrasound station, there's an
15:39
X ray station, CT station, MRIs, and you're just badging
15:43
in station by station, right, like minimal wait time. Language
15:50
not an issue because so part of what we do,
15:54
like with HI media, is if the center themselves don't
15:59
have like you know, English speaking staff members will put
16:02
an interpreter there, right, and so we get completely rid
16:06
of the language barrier. And then you mentioned reports, You'll
16:10
get a digital report right for you to have images.
16:15
You'll get it on a CD so you could transfer
16:17
it basically take it back home. Right. I'll be very
16:22
candid though, what you know, the diagnostic testing is just
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it's just the beginning. It's step one right when you're
16:32
thinking of you know, living healthier longevity, it's how are
16:38
you going to improve something if you don't really know
16:41
what to improve. So that's where we are today, I
16:44
think as an industry and just kind of as for
16:48
us as a company, right, Like first is how do
16:51
we make sure that we give the most amount of
16:53
access to the best testing kind of in the world. Right.
16:58
The gap that's still the exists, right is so what
17:02
do you do with the statum? Right? And so for
17:05
me personally, the reports that I get and kind of
17:10
the images that I get, it's like the next kind
17:13
of you know, primate care. You know. The next time
17:15
I went to my doctor here in the States, I
17:17
brought it all to him. Luckily for me, everything was
17:22
kind of still in the normal range, right, So I
17:25
didn't require any sort of follow up. What I do
17:28
know of is other customers where let's say, like you know,
17:31
there's certain markers that are outside of the normal range. It.
17:36
The key benefit here, though, is even if you're not
17:40
showing any visible symptoms right, either externally or how you feel,
17:45
it just creates a map for now. Then with you
17:48
and your doctor back in your home country, you now
17:53
have a more of a plan of Okay, great, you know,
17:57
let's start kind of looking deeper into this secific area. Right.
18:02
Speaker 2: Yes, I'm curious.
18:03
Speaker 1: Have you had any resistance that you've heard from doctors
18:07
in the US. Somebody goes has all this work, the
18:10
patient comes in now, Doctor Roger is quite unique. But
18:14
talking to some doctors where you say this is what
18:16
another doctor says I should do. I need to follow
18:18
up on this. Do they give any pushback and say
18:21
I don't believe that that's not our test.
18:26
Speaker 4: For the most part, typically not, okay, right again, full transparency.
18:37
An MRI scan that you got done in Korea, just
18:41
because you've got it done, and let's say it highlighted something.
18:43
If you bring it back to the States and you
18:45
take it to your doctor. They can't just go off
18:48
of the scan that you got in Korea, They're going
18:50
to have to do their own scan, right, most likely
18:53
because of insurance purposes, right, And Roger, you would know
18:57
much better than I would write the it's like a scan.
19:03
Speaker 2: I mean, it's like a you know, a general scan,
19:06
and wherever there's an abnormality, your primary care physicians should
19:09
zero in on that. And one of the first things
19:12
you usually usually do in medicine is you get an
19:14
abnormal test, is you repeat it. And so that makes sense.
19:19
Speaker 4: Yeah, so the push generally speaking, there isn't a lot
19:26
of pushback, largely because you know, the Korean hospitals and
19:32
clinics are world you know, globally recognized, right. I think
19:37
there's the top five kind of hospitals in Korea, Like
19:41
they rank in the top twenty or thirty in the world, right,
19:45
And so it's the reputation that they have on a
19:49
global stage kind of doesn't leave room for doubt or skepticism, right,
19:59
And yeah, these tests are they're they're globally standardized tests, right,
20:04
Like in Korea, they're not performing you know, Korean exclusive right,
20:10
Like an endoscopy is an endoscopy, right, A blood A
20:15
blood test is a blood test, right, like a chess et,
20:19
And they're all using you know, basically the same images
20:22
or the same machines, right, and so uh you know
20:27
there there isn't really any pushback in terms of, oh,
20:31
you're I want to doubt the results that you're getting.
20:35
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, thank you for that. Now, I have an
20:38
aura fitness ring that's fond of telling me my cardio age,
20:41
like you're one point five years behind your age? I
20:44
know on your system, your checkup centers give the nations
20:47
of biological age. What's the number measure? And what should
20:51
someone do once they know it, particularly if it's not
20:55
a good number.
20:58
Speaker 4: So biological ages, I think a really fun right first
21:05
and foremost, right, I know, just between me and my friends,
21:09
is we always take the kind of like pictures of
21:12
our biological age and it kind of turns into a
21:14
game in a lot of ways. It's it's almost a
21:17
way of you know again, so this is kind of
21:19
my startups brain, right, it's how do you gamify? Even help? Right?
21:24
And but numbers in general people relate to numbers better, right,
21:32
It's a it's an easier data point for us to
21:36
kind of zero in on, right, But it's not the
21:39
end all be all right, the in Korea, So for example,
21:44
the biological age, it's it's a pretty complex model, but
21:48
it's all based off of like real clinical data, right.
21:52
And then I think the like I have a biological
21:57
age from my wop band, like I know Aura has
22:00
their own, right, Like a lot of these different wearables
22:04
create a biological age. It's almost the what is that?
22:10
Where is that age coming from? Like what data set
22:13
is it calculating from? So if you compare, you know,
22:18
what your r ring can basically track versus the list
22:22
of tests that I just mentioned that's in a Korean checkup,
22:25
It's it's kind of like that denominator of what your
22:30
model is computing off of just becomes much more accurate, right,
22:35
And and in Korea it's you know, this model continually
22:39
gets trained off of the entire country's kind of data set, right,
22:44
And so so yeah, but you know, the one thing
22:48
I want to mention about like kind of biological ages,
22:52
it's really it's an easy number for you to kind
22:56
of keep in mind, right, But that's more of just
23:00
the motivator, as you're saying most people are saying, oh no,
23:03
my age is actually older than my actual age. That's
23:07
a really strong motivator. Yes, the lifestyle or what you
23:12
kind of do with that information is that's more of
23:15
the medicine. Right It's how do you then change your
23:20
eating habits or sleeping habits or exercise habits and things
23:24
like that. Right, Like, that's the medicine, And that's kind
23:27
of what all longevity is about. Right, It's how do
23:30
I get more access to data so I kind of
23:32
know what to do, and then it's what should I
23:35
do once I have access to this information.
23:40
Speaker 2: You know, South Koreans live longer than Americans and that
23:44
and it's a surprise to many Americans that we don't
23:47
rate so high with all the all the outcome measures.
23:51
That we have great technical medicine. But as we've talked about,
23:55
access as a problem and payment is a problem. And
23:58
so South Career enjoy a universal healthcare system or a
24:02
national health insurance service. It covers nearly everyone, and who's
24:05
ever left over there is they have a medical aid program.
24:08
That's a socialized medical system. That's not a dirty word.
24:11
That's a wonderful word in my mind. And most countries
24:14
in the world who have those great outcomes are similar
24:18
to that, and so it provides access and affordability, and
24:24
it is in the interest of the government to do
24:28
this preventive work for them as it should be for us.
24:32
And is it not so? I mean so, I'm sure
24:36
if someone says, why can't the US do this well
24:39
because we don't have a system like that, and that's
24:42
that's really what we should should go for. But it's
24:45
still in my mind as a preventive medicine physician, this
24:48
is the way to go. But you won't get this
24:50
unless it's incentivized. Do you agree a.
24:54
Speaker 4: One hundred percent agree? Yes? I think you know. One
24:57
of the main differences is not to knock I mean, look,
25:01
the US has the best doctors and best hospitals in
25:05
the world, right the uh if you're sick or have
25:12
any sort of you know, kind of terminal illness or
25:15
cancer treatments or whatnot, right, it's the best success rate
25:19
is likely going to be in the States. So this
25:22
is a knock on kind of the medical field. It's
25:26
really just a difference in how the healthcare system is
25:29
designed and almost the philosophy behind why it was designed
25:32
a certain way right, So whereas you know, in Korea,
25:36
it's maybe the easiest way to put it is, you know,
25:40
prevention is the responsibility of the healthcare system in Korea,
25:47
whereas in the States that responsibility lies with the individual, right,
25:53
and a key difference, right. And with that's difference, it
26:01
it changes the math and economics and ultimately behaviors of
26:07
depending on where you live.
26:10
Speaker 2: Absolutely true. No, it's I said that they enjoy that
26:14
system and it is. It is the gold standard as
26:17
far as I'm concerned. And that's it. You know, you
26:19
talk about how difficult it is to get anything like
26:22
this done in the US, and and it's a system
26:25
that is uh that is not single pair universal care.
26:30
So access is a problem. And so it's really and
26:34
and much of that care is not available to someone
26:38
who is doesn't make a lot of money. But in Korea,
26:41
this is this is available to everybody, is it.
26:45
Speaker 4: Uh? Yeah, So they have a national kind of insurance system, right.
26:50
It almost like our Medicaid like program here in the
26:54
States for seniors. Uh. More coverage is provided, right to
26:59
provide more age appropriate testing. The you know, so the
27:05
issue is you know, yes, I think the universal kind
27:09
of you know, healthcare system in Korea, there is a
27:12
benefit and you see it kind of in the numbers,
27:15
but that's not really it doesn't tell the whole story.
27:18
I think really where the pointed difference comes into is,
27:21
like I was saying, is how how are our systems designed? Right, Like,
27:26
when it comes to prevention, do we put it front
27:29
and center? Which kind of where Korea does as opposed
27:33
to it? And then it becomes around what what are
27:37
the motivators? You know within the healthcare field in the
27:41
States is largely around treating diseases, right, Like, That's how
27:44
all the reimbursements work. The business model of hospitals and
27:50
clinics operate that way, right. It's it's a better business
27:53
when you treat a disease as opposed to when you're
27:56
trying to keep someone healthy.
28:05
Speaker 1: In his award winning book Livelong, Die Short, A Guide
28:09
to Authentic Health and Successful Aging, doctor Roger Landry reveals
28:13
what it takes for humans to be healthy and age
28:16
in a better way. He presents research on aging that
28:19
smashes stereotypes and affirms that how we age is determined
28:23
by the lifestyle choices we make every day. He then
28:27
lights the path with a simple and practical guide to
28:30
achieving health and well being based on our basic needs
28:34
as a species. Learn more at Livelongdie short dot com.
28:48
Speaker 2: Yes, if you're responsible for the health of a population,
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this makes sense to do these preventive tests because in
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the end, you pay less as a for a population.
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That's what the data showed in all the countries where
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that is well. I hope that what you're doing is
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going to be a sort of people will pay attention
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to it and think, how can we have more of
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our people the US have access to that kind of
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care and because and again it does make business sense
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and he as well as health sense. Good on you, really,
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I'm really just I have to go to career again.
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From a longevity perspective, research has identified lifestyle measures as
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the major determined and you've alluded to this. And Career
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has a population of fifty one million hours of six times,
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so once again we're talking about, you know, a much
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more difficult thing to initiate in our country. Has the
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data and what I just said, has the data shown
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that this investment pays off for them in the long run?
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Do you know from a national perspective, I know you
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have a company that brings international people there, But do
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you happen to know if that pays off of them
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in South Korea for the population there.
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Speaker 4: Yeah, it probably the starkest example or maybe case with
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the if you kind of look at the survival rate
30:13
for stomach cancer, right compared the US to Korea. I
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believe the US is somewhere in the mid thirties or
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high thirty percent of stomach cancer. In Korea, it's closer
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to eighty percent. Right, What is that earlier? Exactly? Exactly.
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It doesn't mean the doctors in Korea are better, right,
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It's just we're catching it earlier again because of the system. Right,
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It's prevention is for first and foremost, and so that
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that kind of study. It's even in the States when
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they catch stomach cancer in the earlier stages, the survival
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rate jumps basically on part to Korea. Right. So it's
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it's the most clearest example of uh, prevention actually works,
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right in terms of saving lives.
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Speaker 2: Uh, you kind of in terms of health care costs
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for the for the for the country.
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Speaker 4: Exactly, Treating you know, cancers in stage three four exponentially
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more expensive versus treatment plants you know in stage zero
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one right, So for the individuals for the entire I
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would say call it ecosystem, right, it's much cheaper. And
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so stomach cancer is a is a really really great
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example just to kind of highlight how you know, if
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you put prevention first, uh, you know it. You know,
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we're we're talking about health span and and kind of
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longevity for the individual almost the clearest way that you
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can do it. And so and you know Roger like
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as a doctor, right, it's most of the diseases that
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just take cancer for example, it's a lot of these
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that really that trement kind of your health span or
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longevity are very silent. In the early stages. You are correct,
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the individual does not feel any different, right, And normally
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by the time you actually feel something, it's a little late. Right.
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I have a lot of friends, unfortunately, that you know,
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got diagnosed with you know, most of the friends that
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I know, even at kind of around my age, that
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are getting diagnosed with cancer. It's it's a very it's
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almost a mistake that they caught it. They felt totally fine,
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but for some reason or another, right, like maybe they
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took a scan and then the doctor's like, ooh, this
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looks kind of weird, right, but that wasn't the intent
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of their visit, right, And so.
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Speaker 2: I just had a friend where that happened. She had
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a kidney problem. They did a scan and found some
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lung cancer, early lung cancer.
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Speaker 4: Yeah, she will be a survivor, yes, Yeah, So it's
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you know, the earlier we all know this, the earlier
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you can catch anything, your survival rate, success rate of
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kind of you know, overcoming that exponentially increases economically as well, right,
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And so that's why we're so high on prevention.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, well you're a hero in my intation.
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Speaker 1: You've answered my next question about Koreas system putting prevention
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and health span at the center. So as Americans travel
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abroad for this preventive care, what are some of the
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misconceptions they feel about receiving medical care internationally?
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Speaker 4: I would say, broadly speaking, you know, from a market level,
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is Korea is already quite well known for I would
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say kind of the aesthetic or cosmetic within the medical field, right, huge,
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you know, k beauty, huge global trend. What we're seeing
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now is especially among kind of you know, the Westerners,
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so like you know, North America, Western Europe. The much
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younger generations are very keen on you know, being healthy,
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staying healthy and a lot. You know, so when you
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travel to Korea, one of the biggest misconceptions is you're
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not sacrificing on quality. Right. Again, Korean hospitals and clinics
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some of the best in the world. Right. So, but
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then you start looking at the prices, and you know,
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we are just inherently trained of you kind of get
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what you pay for, right, And so generally speaking, things
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in Korea are at least maybe half the price of
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your comparable here, right, And so I would say the
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misconception isn't the quality you're getting is half as good.
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It's like a checkout, for example, just doesn't even exist
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in the States, right, It's extremely hard for you to
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get a very comprehensive, one day, one facility type of checkup.
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And so that I would say is kind of one
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big miss misconception of because it's so affordable, like does
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it really is it of really good quality? Right? And
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then it I don't know, maybe the second is just
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really around, uh, it's it seems a lot more difficult
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than it really is. Right. The actual process we talked
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about that where I honestly not know how to navigate
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even here in the States of how I can try
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and string together all the tests that I would you know,
36:07
would get in a checkup without me completely faking and
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being like, oh my gosh, my head hurts and please
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get an MRI, and you know, start making up stories
36:17
about family history or whatnot, right the But whereas in
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Korea it the ease to get the access to this
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very comprehensive kind of full body checkup. They it's already
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been we'd like to say, like productized, right, Like they're
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productizing kind of health and wellness right. And the biggest
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example of that is there's set packages, right, so almost
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like there's a menu when it comes to prevention. And
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in every menu you need to have prices, right Like
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in the States, probably one of the the scariest thing is, Wow,
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I need to get a CT scan. I have no
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idea how much that's gonna cost until the bill shows
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up in the mail, right, Whereas in Korea the price
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is transparent and it's all upront, right, So the testing
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pricing is all upfront. What does that mean again, it's
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the way that the system, the healthcare system was built.
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They really productize kind of health and prevention I'm sure
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the US can do it. It's not saying that the
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US cannot, right, It's just that's where the differences lie
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right now.
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Speaker 1: Yea, and some are. Fortunately, I've been to some offices
37:39
where they have the list of here's what your insurance is,
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here's what you're going to pay if insurance doesn't cover it,
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so at least you know the sticker shock going in.
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Speaker 4: Yeah.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, So William, you are someone who looks ahead and
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looks to the future and wants to change it. So
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looking ahead, what gives you the most hope for the
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future of preventive health care and longevity?
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Speaker 4: I think Roger, you're gonna love this because you know
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you spent you devoted your kind of life to it, right,
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and I plan to do it for myself as well.
38:09
Is the prevention really becoming kind of front and center? Right?
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The My biggest hope and we're already seeing it, right,
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is just kind of you know, last year, over two
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million people traveled to Korea for medical tourism.
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Speaker 2: Right, oh my goodness.
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Speaker 4: Over it was about close to about sixty percent of them.
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Their main driver was for the esthetic cosmetics kind of purposes, right,
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like the but then the fastest growing segment within those
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medical tours kind of group were people that were going
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for checkups, right, the preventive checkups, And so I think
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prevention and we're seeing it with just even you know,
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the different type of startups that are popping up here
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in the States, right, like Perneuva is a great example. Uh,
39:09
function Health great example. And so there's a lot of
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and you know, there's tons of supplement kind of companies
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and r rings whoop bands, right, Like, there's so many
39:21
people are trying to really address and tackle prevention from
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different angles. Uh, you know, we my biggest hope is
39:32
and kind of you know, this is almost like an
39:33
underlying I would say thesis, so almost like vision of
39:37
mine is the world is only going to get smaller
39:40
and smaller. Right. You know, when I was young, all
39:44
of my vacations were kind of camping, you know, campsites
39:47
in southern California, right, And so as opposed to as
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I got older and older, it's so much easier for
39:53
you to fly anywhere, right, And I think health in
39:58
general is going to start to become more cross border, right,
40:02
you see it. You know, Korea isn't the only kind
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of medical hub Right, there's a Turkey is you know
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a lot of people know about Turkey, right, Like South
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America is also very popular. Right, And so there's I
40:18
think the health on a global scale, it's going to
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turn into much more of a kind of cross border
40:27
kind of phenomenon just because it just becomes much easier
40:31
for us to access, right. And I mean the good
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thing is, look, there's if prevention does successfully become kind
40:42
of front and center there, it opens up so many
40:46
more doors to basically everything because everyone's health span starts
40:54
to increase, right, And so you know that's why are
40:59
we doing the right It's like I want to personally
41:02
live you know, healthier longer. I think almost everybody does. Right.
41:06
That's probably a universal I would say kind of goal
41:10
or wish. And you know we're providing one way to
41:14
try and you know, help you accomplish that goal.
41:18
Speaker 3: Yeah.
41:19
Speaker 2: So, Uh, in this program and what we've been doing,
41:22
Danielle and I were in Masterpiece Living Together where we
41:26
where we had the MacArthur's study that showed that the
41:29
lifestyle is uh, you know, holistic lifestyle does prove to
41:33
be the way to healthy longevity. I think what we're
41:37
talking about now is access to more Uh.
41:43
Speaker 4: The technology.
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Speaker 2: I guess it's the technology which can go deeper and
41:48
find UH disease ahead of time and hopefully that you
41:52
can prevent with lifestyle. But it's not always you know,
41:56
it's going to it knocks on your door periodically. So
41:59
so I think what you're doing is a major I
42:04
hope that it's a it's it's it's it's a major
42:07
pathway to enlightenment, so to speak, for national uh.
42:13
Speaker 4: For political.
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Speaker 2: Countries and their healthcare systems, as well as for individuals.
42:20
So I congratulate you, William, thank you. I wish you
42:24
lots of luck. But I'm sure I hope it's accessible
42:27
to more and more people I think right now, of
42:28
course it's probably accessible into someone with some means, but
42:32
still it doesn't sound like what I thought it would
42:35
be like. Uh An actually absolutely UH A fee that
42:39
would be prohibited. So thank you for what you're doing.
42:43
Speaker 1: Before we wrap up, where is the best place for
42:46
people to go to learn more about you and your work?
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Speaker 4: Uh? You can check us out on himedi dot com
42:53
right UH that's our main sight. Our instagram also has
42:58
we we put out a lot of content right now.
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One thing that we notice is when it comes to
43:06
let's say, kind of longevity and health and wellness, it
43:13
particularly in the States, it's there's a lot of different definitions,
43:18
and so for us, it's really more around we put
43:24
out a lot of very you know, objective educational content, right,
43:31
and so for me, quite honestly, I didn't know the
43:35
first time I got my check up results. You get
43:37
a long list of what all you know, all the
43:39
different kind of blood markers and levels. I don't know
43:43
what that means, right, But you know, fast forward to today,
43:46
we're getting a lot smarter and smarter around what what
43:51
should we be looking for, how do we optimize, like
43:55
what is worth optimizing or not? And so the you
44:00
and we want to keep educating the broader. As we learn,
44:06
we share what we're learning. And so Instagram is a great,
44:11
you know, one of our major channels for us.
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Speaker 1: I'll make sure that I have the link to Instagram
44:16
all the social media and the website. In the description
44:18
of this episode, thank.
44:20
Speaker 4: You thanks for being with us.
44:22
Speaker 3: William.
44:38
Speaker 1: You've been listening to the bright Side of Longevity with
44:41
host and preventive medicine physician and award winning author doctor
44:45
Roger Landry and co host nationally board certified positive psychology
44:50
and mindfulness coach Danielle Payee. If you like the show,
44:53
please rate and review, and be sure to click to
44:56
follow
45:03
Speaker 4: Sandy had