Longevity Docs’ David Luu on building a global doctor network, scaling innovation and realizing the power of prevention.
When a pediatric cardiac surgeon pivots from congenital heart defects to digital biomarkers, it is worth paying attention. Dr David Luu, founder of Longevity Docs, is bringing clinical precision to a deceptively simple problem – how to shift medicine’s focus from reactive to preventive. His solution is less about disruption and more about coordination: equip physicians, connect them and support their practice with evidence, tools and ongoing discourse. The result is Longevity Docs – now 400-strong across 50 countries – a physician-led platform for education, certification and the practical application of longevity medicine.
This June, that vision finds form in Cannes, where the inaugural Longevity Docs Summit will bring together doctors, policymakers, investors and technologists. The goal is both pragmatic and ambitious – to shape infrastructure, clarify standards and test the boundaries of what longevity medicine could become. Cannes may be best known for auteurs and allegories, but for two days in June, the script will focus on senescence, systems and solutions – and yes, there will be a red carpet, though this time it leads not to premieres, but to panels and practicalities.
Longevity.Technology: What began as a WhatsApp group has grown – organically and globally – into a structured but open-ended community of clinicians united by a common interest in healthspan. Its appeal lies in balance: between innovation and rigor, optimism and regulation, experimentation and practice. In a field often driven by hype or heavy-handed protocol, Longevity Docs is cultivating something more interesting – a space for evidence, disagreement and shared learning. If longevity medicine is to become a medical specialty in its own right, it will need frameworks – but also forums. We sat down with David Luu to find out more.
David Luu on…
Community matters
Community, I think, is the cornerstone of our whole ecosystem – not only at Longevity Docs, but in science, in medicine, even in innovation. You need a community to push forward, but at the same time, I think community is also one of the most underrated hacks you can use for your own longevity, your own healthspan.
From surgery to systems – why prevention must come first
Having a community of doctors excited about evidence-based medicine is a solution for both my own healthspan and for the growth of the solar system. I’m grateful to have all those doctors – we are now 400 across 50 countries, which is amazing. What a growth! Having a doctor right in the middle, in between the science and the consumer solution driven by clinics, is really essential. I think that drives the interest from health system as well. I’m a pediatric cardiac surgeon, so really far away from biohacking and translational science, taking care of kids with congenital malformations. But what happened is, I really realized the power of prevention, especially in taking care of vulnerable populations. Some people cannot afford the costly treatment and sometimes it’s too late when you detect the disease. And so I quickly realized in my twenties that going close to the patient and treating them not only for the disease but preventing the disease at the early stage was one of the best things we could do not only for each individual and each patient but, I think, for humanity.
The scale problem – and how doctors are the key to solving it
When COVID hit, a lot of people wanted to optimize their health, not only optimizing biomarkers, but preventing disease. That’s why I started to build the first longevity focused clinic, a totally digital practice, and what we realized is even though we were successful at treating hundreds of patients, we had a bottleneck – and the bottleneck was doctors. How could we scale and impact more people, not just 100 or 200, but a million people? And that’s where it clicked. We need to find more doctors who are thinking alike, training and understanding new technologies, the biotech, the biomarkers, the solutions and the therapeutics that are coming onto the market.
I toured the world in different conferences, started to learn, meeting other friends, and I said: “You know what? Let’s use this small phone and put a WhatsApp group together.” And this WhatsApp group of twenty people has now become kind of a movement where people are just joining to belong to something that is greater than them, greater than us. It’s a movement that shows that medicine is not only limited to treating disease, there is a hope that we can eventually prevent them in the future.
Beyond certification
What we’re building is not just another course – it’s about saving lives. The training, certification and regulation are critical, especially when so many interventions vary in quality and legality across regions. If we can focus just on eradicating cardiovascular disease, we’re already winning in life expectancy and healthspan. As a cardiac surgeon, I can tell you – that alone would change the world.
The Longevity Docs Summit – The New Gods of Medicine – is on 25th & 26th June in Cannes, France. For more information – CLICK HERE.
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