What would healthcare look like if GPs had the time, tools, and data to treat every patient like an elite athlete?

In this episode of Beyond Longevity, I am joined by Dr Angus Perry, a practising GP, clinical AI builder, and performance-medicine enthusiast with experience supporting Formula One teams and elite athletes. Dr Angus is focused on closing the gap between what preventive medicine can achieve and what is realistic inside a ten-minute GP appointment.He shares the path that led him here: a childhood ambition to become a GP, an early pull toward technology, and a personal family experience with chronic disease that clarified why the current model is failing both clinicians and patients. We talk candidly about GP burnout, time pressure, and why meaningful lifestyle support is so hard to deliver at scale.Two data points frame his urgency:-The Lancet Standing Commission’s 2024 report estimates that around 45% of dementia cases are potentially preventable by addressing 14 modifiable risk factors across the life course.-A 2018 JAMA Network Open cohort study of 122,007 adults undergoing treadmill testing found cardiorespiratory fitness was inversely associated with long-term all-cause mortality, with a median follow-up of 8.4 years and no observed “upper limit” of benefit. Dr Angus then walks through the two-part platform he is building:A clinician-facing tool that helps generate chronic disease and preventive-care plans (including areas such as diabetes, hypertension, and dementia prevention).-A patient-facing app designed around daily check-ins, habit tracking, nudges, milestones, and adherence dashboards — aiming to “close the accountability loop” between appointments giving clinicians the data they need and whilst keeping patients genuinely engaged with their own health in-between appointmentsWe also dig into what responsible clinical AI looks like in practice: hallucination risk, governance, compliance, and the line between augmentation and undermining the clinician–patient relationship. And we explore whether tools used in elite sport (including dynamometry for strength and fatigability) could become more relevant in ageing and sarcopenia care — including for patients using GLP-1 medications. Dr Angus is clear about where things stand today: the app has had a very promising soft launch, clinician feedback driving iteration, early NHS pilot conversations, and outcomes data still being gathered. The episode closes with a sober assessment of where healthcare may be heading without greater patient empowerment — and a reminder that many of the biggest longevity gains are still driven by environment and lifestyle, not expensive interventions.Rapid-fire highlights: why passion beats rigid planning, the single habit he prioritises most (sleep), what he would have done if medicine had not worked out, and why a simple daily gratitude practice can have outsized downstream effects. Links:Dementia prevention, intervention, and care: 2024 report of the Lancet standing CommissionAssociation of Cardiorespiratory Fitness and Mortality Among Adults Undergoing Exercise Treadmill TestingGeneralPractice.AI | HealthcareDr. Angus Perry - PAP - Pioneered Athlete Performancehttps://uk.linkedin.com/in/dr-angus-perry-b49918128In this episode:00:00 — Welcome + introducing Dr Angus Perry, GP and clinical AI builder01:39 — Origin story: why general practice, early tech roots, and high-performance medicine03:26 — Why standard GP wasn't enough: chronic disease, system limits, and burnout05:12 — The personal wake-up call: family experience and lifestyle-driven disease08:55 — From experiments to product: early LLM tools and the lifestyle research that changed everything10:52 — The evidence for prevention: dementia risk, fitness and mortality13:12 — Introducing the platform: clinician tool and patient app for behaviour change14:07 — Patient activation and empowerment: making people the CEO of their own health15:57 — How the app works: risk factors, activation scoring, check-ins, and accountability loops 19:26 — Early launch feedback, adoption questions, and the road to NHS pilots21:05 — What's next: AI agents, EHR integration, and removing workflow friction22:56 — Clinician concerns about AI: augmentation vs replacement, and can AI extend healthspan? 25:08 — ChatGPT for health: useful, but the doctor–patient bond still matters26:03 — What responsible AI means in healthcare: governance, risk, and regulation27:38 — Does technology change how he practises as a GP?28:20 — From Formula One to primary care: treating patients like elite athletes31:40 — Performance technology that could reach clinics: muscle testing and the realities of G-force data33:25 — Dynamometry explained: measuring strength, imbalances, and fatigability35:41 — Why muscle mass is a longevity cornerstone — and how it declines38:01 — Where GP and preventive medicine are headed in five years40:08 — Is longevity medicine only for the wealthy? The 70/15/5 reality43:28 — Rapid-fire advice and final takeaways on making innovation practical