The MUSC Health & Wellness Institute to Deliver a Health Report Card of Sorts Through the Health Discovery Lab

As the MUSC Health & Wellness Institute launches this year, among its valuable offerings for the Charleston community is the Health Discovery Lab. Here, visitors will be able to get a robust picture of their health, empowering patients with a clearer understanding of what’s happening inside their bodies.

Within the Lab itself is a menu of services, says Health & Wellness Institute project manager, Hanna Maghsoud. “The biggest thing is the body analysis, which essentially is a way for people to understand things like their cognitive ability, balance, strength, and body composition so that they can get a baseline of their health, and then look to improve their human performance or adjust their health goals in general. There really isn’t anything else out there like this – it’s innovative and novel, and lets people be in control of their own health.”

The Lab is not a traditional lab, so to speak. “It’s much more,” Maghsoud says. “It’s an interactive and informative place for the client.” There, a standardized information gathering (SIG) session will consist of eight different stations, each dedicated to a different assessment. The visit will take approximately 90 minutes.

Patients begin by getting their pictures taken. “Then they'll have a few vital signs taken,” Maghsoud says. “They'll get a blood draw, which will show that it's a liquid and metabolic test. The session also includes things like a 3D, full-body scan, a cognitive test, DNA sequencing, computational image analysis, and a body composition test that will measure things like muscle mass, fluid composition, and imbalances in the body.”

By the session’s conclusion, the patient will get a comprehensive health report card reflecting all of the information about their body that has just been observed.

The assessments involve research-grade measurements, and at the end of the visit, the patient meets with a provider to discuss the measurements and next steps. “And the purpose of this is not to make clinical recommendations but rather to help patients contextualize their health by integrating best-in-class measurement tools and data visualization, giving them a holistic understanding of their health,” she says.

To better inform the provider, patients take part in a survey and questionnaire prior to their assessment, going over their medical history and sleep patterns and answering questions about what their mental health, nutrition, and physical activity look like.

The Lab has also implemented a red flag protocol, meaning that if the health report shows that a client is performing outside of certain thresholds that are set, then the provider will recommend further, more specific medical help that is not given by the health professionals at the Health Discovery Lab — the Health and Wellness Institute is intended not to diagnose, but rather to improve wellbeing and human performance.

Powered by Thorne Health, the Health Discovery Lab currently offers another Thorne service, a gut health test, which gives patients a picture of what their microbiome looks like. “Once the client receives their results back, they can participate in a one-on-one session with a wellness dietitian at the Institute who can give them recommendations to address areas where they can improve based on their results,” Maghsoud says.

Another Lab offering is a 3D gait analysis, which involves recording a client’s movement patterns as they walk or run on a treadmill, scientifically determining excessive or atypical movement patterns.

Former athletic trainer for the Yankees, Mike Sole is at the helm of the operation as the Lab’s sports manager, and he’ll be on hand to provide recommendations on how to improve a person’s gait. “The 3D gait analysis is targeted to the person who’s concerned with how they move, whether that’s an athlete or someone’s who’s super active,” he says. “It’s a way for them to prevent injury and improve the way they move athletically.”

Sole plans to continue delivering professional-grade recovery tools that athletes would use, making them available to the general public. The Lab, as a whole, aims to fill a gap, providing services that no one else is providing to the average person concerned with their overall health. It is for individuals who are willing to make the necessary adjustments to improve their wellbeing, prevent injury or chronic disease, and reach goals they have for their bodies. That goal can be as simple as achieving a good night’s sleep every night or improving day-to-day energy levels.

“People want to be able to sleep better and function at a higher level so they can accomplish more,” Maghsoud says., The lab helps people understand why they aren’t functioning at their desired level and gets them to where they want to be.’

She continues, “The Lab’s purpose is to provide these tests and assessments so people can achieve their goals and reach their highest performance potential – to be the best version of themselves.