Professor Sir Chris Evans OBE
Founder & CSO, EDX Medical
Employee health screening can now assess risk of — and diagnose — a huge range of conditions, including cancer, cardiovascular disease and metabolic disorders.
Biotech entrepreneur Professor Sir Chris Evans OBE believes that every company, large and small, should have its own employee health screening programme. It’s great for staff wellness and morale, he argues — and, frankly, it makes good business sense too. In short, it’s a wellbeing win-win.
Benefits of regular health screening for employees
“There are multiple benefits to these types of programmes,” says Prof Evans. “Employees who are screened regularly can be healthier and happier. If tests show they have a condition or illness, and it can be caught and treated in the early stages, staff can feel as though their employers are looking after them properly, which increases loyalty to the company. It may help employers who deal with lost time, lost performance, lost money and lost productivity due to illness and absenteeism. It also enhances their reputation as a good company, which attracts more applications.”
That’s before we get on to the moral and ethical dimension of why screening is the right thing to do. Because shouldn’t every business want to take care of its own people?
Technology to monitor a comprehensive range of major diseases
Of course, employee health screening isn’t new, notes Prof Evans. Companies have been offering it as a staff benefit for years. Usually, though, these programmes only perform basic health checks and tests for a handful of diseases. “They’ll routinely test cholesterol levels and blood pressure,” he says. “They’ll assess cardiovascular issues and look for conditions such as diabetes.”
However, things have changed massively in this space in recent times. For example, after the pandemic, Prof Evans founded a precision diagnostics company called EDX Medical, which he believes is going to transform health screening services in the UK and could save thousands of lives. It uses specially designed biomarker testing panels to determine the risk of a comprehensive range of major diseases.
“Instead of testing for seven or eight illnesses, we’re able to take one or two samples from each employee and test for hundreds of illnesses,” he explains. “That includes cancers, cardiovascular disease and metabolic disorders.” All tests are fully regulated and approved.1
Advances in AI and digital technology are changing diagnostics
In the healthcare world, things are moving fast. The company recently reached agreement in principle with three major UK employers (subject to final documentation) looking to offer health screening to their workforces. This is expected to begin in the final few months of this year and will be available for free to all employees. Biomarker and health check results will be computed with health and family history information for an accurate picture of an individual’s health status.
Numerous factors have brought EDX to this point. First, Prof Evans — one of Europe’s most prolific entrepreneurs — has been working in biotech for 40 years and built up an established network of medical teams around the world. “There have also been huge advances in equipment, automation technology and in the understanding of laboratory reagents, consumables and throughputs,” he explains. “On top of that, digital technology, AI and algorithms have come on in leaps and bounds.”
Initially, Prof Evans set up the company to focus primarily on cancer diagnosis but broadened its scope to test for other conditions. Yet, oncology remains a particular interest of his. “Early-stage testing of cancer is massively lacking in this country,” he says. “There are lots of drugs available today which can treat and even cure cancer — but for the best outcomes, it’s vital to find people in the early stages of the disease.”
Diagnosing people who might otherwise remain untested
With that in mind, Prof Evans’ company is at the heart of the Scottish Prostate Cancer Initiative, launched earlier this year. The EDX Medical carried out multiple screening sessions both for major employers and the general public. “This is specifically designed to screen for prostate cancer,” he explains. “Our hope is that by the end of 2026, we’ll have screened 25,000 men aged between 40 and 70. We’ve already screened around 16,000 and caught hundreds of men with prostate cancer in 40 different companies. In one company alone, we found 14 men with the disease.2 Many of them had no symptoms, so didn’t realise they had it until we uncovered it.”
The fact is, finding cancer patients early saves lives. It also saves money. “Treating stage one prostate cancer on the NHS costs around £4,000–£5,000,” he says. “Treating stage four prostate cancer, meanwhile, costs around £200,000. So, quite apart from the human aspect, early diagnosis also makes financial sense because it can save the NHS a fortune.”
Reaching larger numbers of the public efficiently
The problem with diagnostic testing has always been getting access to people, admits Prof Evans. One of the big benefits of employee screening is that it’s an easy way to reach them at scale. “In a company, large numbers of employees — members of the public who would otherwise remain untested — suddenly have access to easy screening,” he notes.
The actual testing session doesn’t take long. First, employees go online and pick an appointment time slot with an experienced healthcare professional whom they meet on the premises in facilities provided by their company.
We’ve already screened around 16,000 and caught hundreds of men
with prostate cancer in 40 different companies
“A nurse will take a blood sample from them and gather health information such as blood pressure and heart rate,” says Prof Evans. “Altogether, it takes around five minutes of an employee’s time. It’s painless, easy, efficient and quick. It’s a great leveller too because directors, senior managers and junior staff will all be in the same room having their blood taken at the same time. They’re all talking to each other, and it humanises everyone.”
Getting test results and potential next steps
After the results are tabulated, which can take about a week, they’ll be sent to employees by post and/or email. “Health reports are strictly compliant with GDPR rules and totally confidential to each individual,” says Prof Evans. “Employers never see the results.” At present, an app is being designed to make accessing results even easier.
It may be that results will recommend follow-up tests. “Our job is not to worry the employee,” says Prof Evans. “We’re there to inform them that, if something isn’t quite right, they should sit down with their GP, who will have access to our report, and have a conversation about next steps.” This may involve further investigations via the NHS or via advanced diagnostics available privately through EDX.
How diagnostics could impact people’s lives long-term
Looking ahead, Prof Evans predicts that health screening won’t just be limited to employees. “Some of the tests we’ve created could find their way into other venues, such as sports centres, gyms and sports clubs,” he says. “People might want to buy them for themselves and their families because it offers peace of mind.”
He also believes that health screening in the workplace will evolve because AI is changing so rapidly. “Over the next 10 years, my aim is to look at the tests that are available now and ask: ‘What’s lacking? What’s missing? How can we improve things? How can we innovate in our labs and elsewhere to develop even better tests?’ If we do that, we’ll be able to catch all sorts of diseases early and impact millions of people’s lives in a positive way.”
[1] EDX Medical Group PLC, 2026. tinyurl.com/yanxw5uu.
[2] Scottish Prostate Cancer Initiative, 2026. scottishprostate.com/News/
