A Guardian Unlimited reporter relates how he underwent a whole-body MRI scan in an American shopping mall. His experience was courtesy of Ameriscan, a company which promises to "...change the focus of health care in America from a reactive disease treatment to a pro-active wellness approach."
That's all very well if the scan is normal, when it can indeed be reassuring. However, if your lifestyle is risky, it may still only be a matter of time...
The real problem comes when the scan finds an abnormality. This will immediately cause a degree of anxiety, and further tests may well be needed to determine its significance. These will mostly eventually lead to reassurance, but the experience (which has been totally unnecessary) is likely to have been a harrowing one.
The compact you may think you have entered into with the screeners is that early detection means that anything nasty can be dealt with quickly...and will more likely be cured than if it had come to light later. Sadly, this is not always the case, and we simply do not yet have the information to say with confidence that this form screening is useful, and for whom.
There are undoubtedly benefits from this approach: it empowers consumers, and the screening company, the scanner manufacturers and the healthcare industry generally get to make a lot of money. Would it be too much to expect them to use some of it to undertake good quality studies of the utility of this approach?
