Since its founding in 2021, DEXA Scan Boston has worked with various elite athletes, from Boston Marathon runners to players on Boston University’s hockey team and the New England Revolution, Boston’s local Major League Soccer team. Yet, the Brookline-based body scan clinic is also attracting a growing number of everyday people.
Omar Haque, the clinic’s founder and medical director, said more and more people want personalized, data-driven preventative care.
“It used to be these advanced elite athletes who are into this stuff, but now everyday people are looking [to] understand their health trends, take control of their bodies and try to be empowered towards their health,” he said.
DEXA Scan Boston aims to measure body composition factors beyond traditional measures like weight or Body Mass Index, using advanced imaging technology.
DEXA, or dual x-ray absorptiometry, measures bone density, body fat percentage and lean muscle mass by passing a low and high-energy x-ray beam through the body. The technology is primarily used to diagnose specific bone conditions according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Haque said DEXA scanning offers a better glimpse into a person’s body than traditional measures.
“BMI and the scale don’t really tell the full story,” he said. He explained that BMI does not actually quantify information about a person’s body composition or their ratios of fat to muscle mass.
Body composition, such as the type of fat or distribution of muscle in someone’s body, is a key predictor of one’s future health, Haque said.
“This is helpful to know because it actually predicts mortality,” he said. “It’s a snapshot of decades ahead. It’s almost like a crystal ball.”
Haque said he was inspired to start DEXA Scan Boston after receiving a body scan himself.
“I saw how transformative it was for me, and I thought, ‘I want to share this with other people,’” he said.
Haque said his experience with the scan helped him stay motivated in his own health by “[giving] me metrics that I could track and try to follow over time,” he said.
Haque said Bostonians have been interested in the clinic because they want a “data-driven” approach to health that is “personalized and measurable.”
“Normal people in Boston want to use it to make these smarter decisions about their health and their training,” he said. “It’s a way to translate what used to be locked away for elite sports labs.”
Jonas Helman, BU sophomore and treasurer of BU Running Club, said he originally signed up for a DEXA scan out of curiosity.
DEXA Scan Boston first reached out to BU Running Club to offer free scans to some of its members in exchange for promotional social media content. Helman said he and Sara Maltempi, the club’s president, agreed “to go in and see what it’s like.”
“Maybe I can learn a little bit more about my body in a healthy way and be like, ‘These are ways in which I get stronger,’” he said. “At the same time, a lot of it just goes down to, ‘Oh, this is kind of a cool thing.’”
Maltempi, a sophomore at BU, said she first learned about body scans in her nutrition class, which made her more interested in getting a DEXA scan.
“They’re the gold standard for body composition measurement, and they’re so accessible to the general public, which is really cool,” she said.
She said she also wondered if, in addition to creating a complete picture of her current health, the scan could also help identify warning signs for future health issues.
“Everything they tell you in those scans is so important to know for your health,” she said. “Even though I don’t have any problems now, if there’s a result that raises some sort of red flag, I’d like to know now so I can start on prevention.”
Members of Generation Z have been coming to the clinic for scans due to their ability to help prevent medical problems decades in advance, Haque said.
According to a 2024 study by the American Cancer Society, excess body weight was the second highest risk factor for cancer cases in the United States in 2019.
“Many young people have seen their parents suffer, their grandparents [suffer] and they want to get ahead of disease,” Haque said. “Gen Z has taken on preventative medicine.”
Helman said he takes all new methods of measuring fitness “with a grain of salt” because numbers-based standards can lead to unhealthy attempts to meet those standards, such as disordered eating or certain exercise habits.
Currently, precise, medical-grade body scans like DEXA are not covered by insurance, unless someone has a specific condition such as osteoporosis, a disease that causes bone tissue to become weak and brittle.
Maltempi said the scans should be covered by insurance because understanding her bone density now can help her watch for signs of osteoporosis later.
“[DEXA] is a helpful tool for monitoring what’s going on your body, just like a normal blood test would be,” she said. “Insurance companies’ interests should be in prevention because it’s less expensive to prevent something than to have to pay for a treatment down the line.”
