How should you choose a Korean health-screening program?

Start with four questions

• Your age and sex. Screening priorities change with age and sex.
• Your personal and family history. For example early cardiovascular disease; breast, colorectal, gastric, lung or prostate cancer; diabetes; kidney disease; chronic liver disease; osteoporosis.
• What tests you have already had. Repeating CT, MRI, endoscopy or ultrasound without a clear reason may add cost, inconvenience, radiation, sedation, or false-positive findings.
• What you want the screening to answer. For example a general preventive check-up, cancer-focused evaluation, heart and vascular risk, digestive screening, metabolic health, women's health, or men's health.

Basic / comprehensive screening

Often includes a medical questionnaire, physical measurements, blood pressure, blood and urine testing, metabolic and liver/kidney markers, basic imaging, and selected age/sex-specific screening.

Cancer-focused screening

May add gastroscopy/colonoscopy, breast imaging, gynecologic screening, low-dose chest CT for selected risk groups, abdominal imaging, and selected other organ-specific tests.

A tumor marker blood test by itself is not a substitute for evidence-based cancer screening.

Heart / vascular screening

Depending on risk: ECG, echocardiography, arterial assessments, and coronary or vascular imaging in selected patients.

Premium / extensive programs

Some major hospitals offer broad CT, MRI, PET-CT or multi-organ imaging programs. More imaging is not automatically better. Discuss:

• radiation exposure
• incidental findings
• false positives
• follow-up burden
• whether the test is recommended for your risk profile