Bryan Johnson blood tests in a Chinese public hospital

I wanted to get some Bryan Johnson-inspired blood tests for a baseline of biomarkers. He sells an expensive testing service that, as far as I know, isn’t available outside of the USA. And getting blood tests in Hong Kong means going to an expensive private lab or expensive private hospital or clinic. Since HK public hospital care is paid for by the taxpayers, elective testing isn’t really a thing. And even when lab work is medically indicated, unless it’s an emergency, it can take days or weeks to come back through the public systems.

Since I’ve been in Zhuhai in the mainland for a few days, I thought I’d try to get tests done at a public hospital here as a learning experience. In contrast to Hong Kong’s public health care system, there’s an option to self-pay for all care even at public hospitals. I expected it to be inexpensive…and it was, but what I didn’t expect was how fast and convenient the whole process was.

I made an appointment for a GP during the 11 to 11:30 am slot at 10:45 am the same morning for 17 CNY. Next I hopped in a Didi and arrived at the hospital and only had to wait about 2 minutes to see my assigned doctor. I told him nothing was wrong and I just wanted to get some blood work.

I gave the doctor a list of tests I wanted and selected each test in the computer and added to my record. Interestingly, the doctor could see the exact price of each test as he added it.

He gave me a ticket which I took outside to a machine where I paid for the tests before walking over to the blood collection area. Total cost a bit over 300 CNY

There were about a dozen blood collection windows and about 50 people waiting ahead of me. Names were called in the order of arrival and it took only about 10 minutes until it was my turn.

I walked up to a window with a nurse. A machine sitting next to the nurse dispensed the vials required for your case pre-labeled with your patient information. It took the nurse about 90 seconds to insert the needle and collect my blood. She told me that because I’d ordered a lot of tests, I’d have to wait until around 430pm that afternoon to get my results.

I headed out to lunch and continued about my day. Around 1:30pm I checked the hospital’s WeChat mini app and my test results were already available…3 hours before they were promised.

The overall experience was very impressive…low cost, fast, easy access to medical diagnostic tests is really a game changer. It allows a motivated individual to better understand how changes in exercise, diet and lifestyle affect their body without having to wait once year for annual checkup.

The whole experience was cheaper and faster than the fancy private hospitals in Thailand.