Measure, treat, repeat - longevity clinics agree a standard

Longevity.Technology · Article

At the 4th Roundtable of Longevity Clinics, chaired by Buck Institute CEO Eric Verdin, clinic leaders including Andrea Maier of the NUS Academy for Healthy Longevity argued the sector must move past one-off diagnostic snapshots - the luxury diagnostic trap - to a loop of measure, treat and re-measure. Maier called both extremes unethical: diagnosing without treating, and handing patients whatever test they order without consultation. A framework defining what clinics should measure, treat and re-measure, from HLMS and Longevity Clinics World, has been submitted for publication.

Key takeaways:

• Maier’s test is blunt: if a clinic does not measure, do the therapy and re-measure, it is not a longevity clinic
• The field is pulling back from the single biological-age number: Maier’s team now works organ system by organ system, with the clocks as the cherry on the cake, and she notes clinics advertise biomarkers such as mitochondrial function that cannot actually be measured in clinical practice
• Follow-up is the hard part: one hospital programme enrolled about 1,500 patients over three years, follow-up visits are free, and many still do not return - behaviour change, not testing, is the bottleneck

Hype check: Proven - the basics the panel returned to (sleep, muscle mass, diet, screening) carry years of evidence. Promising - standardisation itself; the framework is submitted, not yet published or adopted. Marketing - the word longevity itself, now on everything from supplements to a Dubai hair salon, as Verdin noted in opening.