A baseline is a record of your health taken while you feel well, so that a change years from now has something to be measured against. Most first workups combine a broad blood panel with body composition, a measure of fitness and a careful history, and some add imaging. The value is not the number of markers. It is whether someone explains what came back, decides what is worth repeating, and tells you plainly which findings need nothing at all.
What a baseline is actually for
Most medical testing begins with a question: you noticed something, and a test looks for the cause. A baseline starts from the opposite place. You feel fine, and the point is to write down where you stand now, so that a result five years from now can be read as a change rather than as an isolated number.
That makes a baseline more useful over time than on the day you receive it. One reading tells you whether something sits inside the usual range. Two readings, years apart, tell you the direction you are moving in, and the direction is usually the part worth knowing.
What a first baseline usually covers
Practices differ, but most first workups are built from the same parts: a broad blood panel read across heart, metabolic, hormone, inflammation and organ markers; body composition and bone density; a measure of cardiorespiratory fitness; blood pressure; and a detailed personal and family history. Some add imaging.
The history is the part that tends to be underrated. It decides which of the rest is worth doing, and it is the reason two people of the same age can reasonably leave with different test lists.
How this differs from your annual physical
An annual physical is not a smaller version of this. It is built around a shorter set of checks with strong evidence behind them, chosen for what your age and risk make likely. A baseline workup is broader by design, and broader is not automatically better: it means more numbers, including some that sit just outside a reference range and mean nothing.
A baseline is also not a substitute for the age and risk appropriate screening you are due. If a colonoscopy or a mammogram is on your list, a broad panel does not stand in for it.
What a broad first workup cannot settle
Testing many things at once in someone who feels well reliably turns up results that are borderline, incidental or hard to read on their own. Most of them come to nothing. Some take a repeat test months later to settle, and the waiting is the part people tend to find hardest.
Newer measures are worth knowing by name. Biological age estimates are a research measure rather than a diagnosis, and different versions of them can disagree with each other. They may be interesting. They are not yet the thing a care plan should hinge on.
What happens to the numbers afterwards
A baseline earns its value on the second visit rather than the first, which makes the follow-up arrangement worth asking about before you book. Who reviews the results with you, what gets repeated and when, and whether your own doctor receives a copy.
A set of results handed over with no conversation attached is data rather than care. The interpretation is the service.
A baseline recorded while you are well gives every later result something to be read against, and it can sometimes find a treatable thing early. The trade-off is that broad testing in a well person also turns up borderline and incidental findings, and each one can mean a repeat test, a referral and a stretch of waiting before it comes to nothing.
How a first baseline visit usually goes
Practices organize this differently, but a first baseline tends to follow the same four steps.
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History and goals first
What concerns you, what runs in your family, and what you have already had tested. This decides which tests are worth doing, and a practice that books a panel before asking is starting in the wrong place.
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The testing itself
Usually a blood draw, body composition and a fitness measure, sometimes imaging. Ask what your booking includes and what would be arranged separately.
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Someone explains the results
A conversation covering what came back, what sits outside a range, what that does and does not mean, and which findings need nothing.
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A plan for the repeat
A baseline only pays off when something is later measured against it. Ask what gets repeated, on what interval, and whether your own doctor receives a copy.
How the main approaches differ
Three approaches show up across these practices. They answer different questions, so comparing them line by line can mislead.
| Approach | What it does | What to know |
|---|---|---|
| A one-off baseline assessment | A single broad workup with a written summary, bought once and not tied to ongoing care. | Suits someone who has a doctor they like and wants depth once. The repeat, and acting on what comes back, is left to you. |
| A baseline inside ongoing care | The same workup used as the entry point to continuing care, with repeat testing and a physician who follows the trend. | This is where a baseline is most likely to be acted on, because someone is scheduled to look again. It is an ongoing commitment rather than a single purchase. |
| A baseline built around imaging | A workup with a scan at the centre and bloodwork arranged around it. | Broad imaging in a person with no symptoms is intended as an addition to guideline screening rather than a replacement, and professional bodies have not recommended it for people with no symptoms or risk factors. |
Whole-body baseline testing at Greater Austin clinics
7 of the 11 researched Greater Austin clinic locations document a pathway for whole-body baseline. Each profile below shows how the practice is organized and who it identifies as its clinical leadership.
Which of these are near you?
Greater Austin covers a wide area, and travel matters for testing you may repeat on a schedule. Enter your ZIP code and the list below reorders by distance.
Sorting by distance never hides a clinic. Every researched practice stays on the page.
Austin Functional Medicine Clinic
This is the unusual one in Austin: functional medicine that runs through insurance. The practice is in-network with Aetna, BCBS and Cigna, and frames itself as longevity-focused primary care with longer visits and labs read in context. Dr. Hachem Dadoush and nurse practitioner Kim Truong publish a functional medicine consult, IV and IM nutrient therapy, and longevity primary care.
The practice frames itself as longevity-focused primary care with advanced lab strategy and interpretation as the starting point.
Hachem Dadoush, MD and 1 more named clinician
Physician. Board-certified in Internal Medicine and Emergency Medicine, with board certification in Addiction Medicine. Graduated from Damascus Medical School in 1989 and continued his training at Harvard, Boston University (MPH), and Yale University. He served as Medical Director of the Emergency Department at Knapp Medical Center before moving to Austin.
Beyond Healthy MD
Dr. Amy Burton runs this practice on Bee Caves Road, and it treats slowing aging on the inside and outside as one job. The longevity side is specific about what it offers: biological age testing, 3D DNA and functional genomics, microbiome gut evaluation, bioidentical hormones and a rapamycin protocol the site explains at length. Skin, hair, body and weight care sit alongside it under the same physician.
Advanced lab testing is described as identifying risk factors, disease processes and important biomarkers through individualized diagnostic testing.
Dr. Amy Burton
Physician. An Emergency Medicine physician whose stated shift was toward longevity and regenerative medicine, using a targeted customized approach to a person's concerns and symptoms of aging.
Concierge Health of Austin
Dr. Emmanuel Lee's concierge practice in Rollingwood keeps its panel to several hundred patients, so visits run long and members reach a physician directly, 24/7. The executive medicine program is the longevity end of it: InBody composition, DEXA referrals, Galleri multi-cancer detection, cognitive testing and cardiovascular diagnostics, folded into the membership.
The executive program is described as a comprehensive health assessment with advanced biomarker analysis and comprehensive laboratory panels.
Emmanuel Lee, MD and 2 more named clinicians
Founder.
Humanaut Health Austin
This is Humanaut Health's Austin flagship, open since 2024 in The Grove. The front door is the Advanced Health Check: 300+ biomarkers plus DEXA, CIMT, VO2 max and grip strength, read back to you by a provider with a written plan. From there the Path membership turns that baseline into quarterly reviews. Stem cell therapy, plasma exchange, hormone and peptide programs run alongside.
The Advanced Health Check is the clinic's stated front door: 300+ biomarkers with DEXA, CIMT, VO2 max and grip strength in one visit.
Jon-Michael Ong, MD and 1 more named clinician
Regenerative Medicine Physician.
Apeiron Center
Apeiron Center is a downtown Austin precision-health practice founded by Dr. Daniel Stickler and Dr. Mickra Hamilton. Its Signature Membership runs 12 months through an Analyze, Stabilize and Optimize sequence built on testing across six domains of life. The Congress Avenue center also books therapeutic plasma exchange, EBOO therapy, advanced IV therapy and DXA body and bone scans.
The membership opens with a 6 to 12 week Analyze phase of blood work, body scans and brain waves, and the center states it tests all human systems across six key domains of life.
Dr. Daniel Stickler and 1 more named clinician
Co-Founder, Chief Medical Officer. A retired vascular surgeon and trailblazer in holistic systems health, leading groundbreaking clinical trials in human enhancement and longevity. Integrates wearable technology, epigenetics and artificial intelligence to redefine patient care, with a stated mission of merging systems science with age-rejuvenation medicine.
Austin Regenerative Therapy
Dr. Khanh Nguyen, an internal medicine physician of over 20 years, built this northwest Austin practice around regenerative and longevity medicine. Her concierge program opens with a comprehensive blood panel, PNOE metabolic testing and body composition, then quarterly follow-ups. Young plasma exchange, VSEL stem cell therapy, peptides and PRP sit alongside Galleri early cancer detection.
The concierge pathway starts with a comprehensive blood panel evaluating hormones, vitamins, inflammation and metabolic health before anything is planned.
Dr. Khanh Nguyen, MD and 2 more named clinicians
Physician and Owner. Board Certified in Internal Medicine, Fellowship Trained in Critical Care Medicine, Board Certified in Aesthetics, and Board Certified in Anti-Aging Medicine by the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine (A4M). She earned a B.S. in Biology from the University of Southern California and her M.D. from Rush Medical College in Chicago, and has practised internal medicine for over 20 years, the last decade in Austin. She also publishes Regenerative Medicine training, a Seeds Scientific Research & Performance fellowship in peptide therapy, International Peptide Society certification and certification as a BioTe Medical provider.
Prenuvo, Austin
Prenuvo Austin is a whole-body MRI screening clinic on Kramer Lane in North Austin, open Monday to Saturday. Its memberships pair a yearly MRI with a blood panel and a results review with a Prenuvo provider, and the top tier adds brain and body composition imaging. Imaging and lab data are tracked year over year. People come here to set a whole-body baseline and to screen early for cancer.
Clinic lists whole-body imaging paired with a blood panel and a review with a Prenuvo provider, repeated year over year.
Published by Prenuvo, not for this location
Prenuvo publishes medical leadership for the organisation, not for this clinic. It names country-level medical directors for the UK, Australia and Canada and none for the United States, and nobody at all for Austin. The person you actually speak to is described only as "a licensed Prenuvo provider, either a nurse practitioner or physician", assigned by availability and state licensure, so no individual can be named in advance.
Company-wide role, not this location's clinician.
Common questions
Is a baseline workup worth it if I already have an annual physical?
They are doing different jobs. An annual physical covers a shorter list of checks chosen because there is good evidence they help at your age and risk level. A baseline workup is broader, and its argument is about the future: it gives later results something to be compared against. Broader is not automatically better, though. More numbers in a well person means more borderline results, and a baseline is worth most when someone is going to look at it again rather than file it.
I keep seeing blood panels advertised with hundreds of markers. Is that the same thing?
That is one part of it rather than the whole. A baseline usually spans more than blood: body composition, bone density, fitness and a detailed history all feed into it. If it is the panels themselves you came looking for, our comprehensive biomarker panels page lists the clinics near you that publish them.
What does a baseline workup cost?
It varies widely by practice and by what is included, and many clinics discuss fees only after an initial conversation. Some sell a workup as a single purchase; others fold it into a membership alongside ongoing care, where the repeat testing is part of what you are paying for. Ask which of the two you are looking at, and what a repeat would involve.
Will insurance cover it?
Some individual components are commonly covered when they are guideline recommended for your age and risk, and coverage depends on your plan. Broader testing bought as a package is often self-pay, and practices differ in whether they bill insurance at all. Ask each one directly how it handles both parts.
What if something comes back abnormal?
A finding is usually the start of a process rather than an answer. Depending on what it is, the next step may be a repeat test, a targeted scan or a referral, and many findings turn out to be harmless. Before booking, ask who reviews an unexpected result, how quickly you would hear, who arranges any follow-up, and whether the practice sends your records to your own doctor.
How do you decide which clinics appear on this page?
A clinic appears here when its own published material shows it offers this kind of testing at that location.
Whole-body baseline in other cities
Sources
- U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, A and B recommendations Supports: That an annual physical is built around a shorter set of checks with evidence behind them, chosen by age and risk level; That recommendations, rather than individual clinics, set which checks are due and how often.
- U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, Osteoporosis to prevent fractures: screening Supports: That bone density measurement is an established test with defined age and risk criteria.
- National Cancer Institute, Cancer screening overview (PDQ), patient version Supports: That testing people without symptoms produces false positives, which are usually followed by further tests and procedures; That screening can find things that would never have caused symptoms; That a normal result does not rule out disease.
- American College of Radiology, statement on screening total body MRI Supports: That professional bodies have not recommended whole-body imaging for people with no symptoms, risk factors or suggestive family history.
- American Heart Association, Importance of assessing cardiorespiratory fitness in clinical practice: a case for fitness as a clinical vital sign Supports: That cardiorespiratory fitness is a measurement worth recording alongside the standard clinical measures.
- National Institute on Aging, In search of better biomarkers of aging Supports: That biological age measures are an active research area rather than a settled diagnostic; That different measures of biological age can disagree with each other.
This page is educational information, not medical advice, and it is not a recommendation to have or to skip any test. What is worth testing depends on your age, your history and your personal risk, so discuss it with a clinician who knows them. If you have a symptom that concerns you, seek a medical evaluation rather than a baseline package.
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