Nightingale Health and Archipelago Health have signed a letter of intent to bring the Nightingale Health Check, a single blood test that detects the risk of several major chronic diseases, to small-island healthcare systems across the Crown Dependencies, Bermuda and the wider Caribbean. Archipelago Health will run the service locally, offering the test through family doctors and setting up a clear route to refer people at higher risk on to specialists, while Nightingale Health provides the testing platform behind it. The aim is to make this kind of early risk detection a routine first step in preventive care, in island communities where these diseases are especially common.

Under the letter of intent, Archipelago Health will handle local delivery, partnerships and the design of care pathways, while Nightingale Health supplies the test and the technology behind it. From a single blood sample, the Nightingale Health Check produces a 10-year risk estimate for five chronic diseases: heart attack, ischemic stroke, type 2 diabetes, chronic kidney disease, and fatty liver disease. The plan is to make the test part of a routine visit to the family doctor, with a clear path to refer people at higher risk on to specialists in heart, diabetes and liver care. Doctors continue to make all clinical decisions under existing medical guidelines; the test helps them identify earlier who would benefit most from preventive action. 

Small islands are a strong fit for this kind of population-wide screening. Rates of heart- and metabolism-related disease are high, testing and care are handled by a small number of local providers, and the way healthcare is funded makes the case for catching disease early particularly compelling. Archipelago Health is already in discussions with insurers, government and public-sector buyers, employer health programmes, and family-doctor and primary-care networks across these jurisdictions.

Archipelago Health is a Jersey-headquartered preventive health venture founded and led by Dr Jeff MacLeod FRCGP, a Jersey-based general practitioner and small-island health-systems strategist. It has assembled a senior clinical and public health advisory team to ground its work in island health systems. Professor Andrew Krentz, Visiting Professor at King's College London, and Editor-in-Chief of the journal Cardiovascular Endocrinology & Metabolism, has joined Archipelago Health as Chief Clinical Advisor. Dr Ayoola Oyinloye, former Chief Medical Officer of Bermuda and currently Senior Public Health Adviser and Regional Lead for West Africa at the UK Health Security Agency, serves as Senior Public Health Advisor, helping shape the venture's focus on island health systems and its relationships with chief medical officers across the British Overseas Territories.

"Small islands feel the weight of chronic disease early, and they have the local infrastructure and the funding model to do something about it. What has been missing is a reliable, affordable way to spot risk before disease takes hold. The Nightingale Health Check gives us a clinically proven starting point to build a real preventive pathway around, from the family doctor's room through to specialist care," says Dr Jeff MacLeod, Founder of Archipelago Health.

"Detecting this kind of risk earlier, and acting on it within existing care pathways, is where preventive health changes outcomes rather than simply describing them. A single blood test that measures the risk of several chronic diseases at once, reliably enough for everyday use, is exactly the kind of tool primary care in these communities has lacked," says Professor Andrew Krentz, Chief Clinical Advisor to Archipelago Health.

"On a small island, a single avoidable hospital admission is felt right across the health system, and so is every case caught early. Screening the population for chronic disease risk, and building it into the care people already use, is one of the most practical investments these health systems can make," says Dr Ayoola Oyinloye, Senior Public Health Advisor to Archipelago Health.

"Archipelago Health brings the local delivery, the care pathway design and the relationships across island health systems to put risk detection where it belongs, at the front of primary care. Their focus on prevention matches ours: find risk earlier, so that action can be taken while it still changes the outcome. We look forward to building this together," says Teemu Suna, CEO and Founder of Nightingale Health.

For Archipelago Health enquiries: jeff@archipelagohealth.org

About Archipelago Health

Archipelago Health is a Jersey-headquartered venture focused on bringing population-wide preventive health screening to small-island healthcare systems across the Crown Dependencies, Bermuda and the wider Caribbean. It designs and operates the local care pathways and partnerships, working with insurers, government and public-sector buyers, employer health programmes, and primary-care networks. Archipelago Health was founded and is led by Dr Jeff MacLeod FRCGP, a Jersey-based general practitioner and small-island health-systems strategist. Its clinical and public-health advisory team includes Professor Andrew Krentz (Chief Clinical Advisor) and Dr Ayoola Oyinloye (Senior Public Health Advisor).