What Are INSiGHT Scans and What Can They Tell Us?
A parent-friendly guide to the technology we use at Hope Family Wellness, what the scans involve and why they form part of our assessment process.
Family Wellness · Babies & Children · Pregnancy & Postpartum · Complex & Intensive Care
💡 Key Takeaways for Parents
They're non-invasive: INSiGHT scans are designed to gather information without needles or radiation.
They give us additional information: We use the technology alongside your history and chiropractic assessment - not as a standalone diagnosis.
They give us a baseline: Where appropriate, repeating scans later allows us to compare measurements over time alongside how you or your child are doing.
"What Are All Those Scans?"
If you've looked around the Hope Family Wellness website or spoken to us about your first appointment, you've probably come across the words INSiGHT scans.
And understandably, one of the first questions parents ask is:
What exactly are you scanning?
The scans are one part of the assessment process we use at Hope.
They allow us to gather additional information relating to nervous-system function and establish objective measurements that we can refer back to.
But they're only one piece of the puzzle.
We interpret them alongside your history, our examination and the wider clinical picture.
What Happens During the Scans?
The scanning process is non-invasive.
There are no needles and no radiation involved.
Depending on the individual and the assessments being performed, sensors are used to collect measurements from the body.
For children, we aim to make the process as relaxed as possible. We know that not every child wants to stand perfectly still in an unfamiliar room while someone they have just met performs an assessment!
We'll explain what we're doing, work at your child's pace and adapt where we reasonably can.
What Do We Measure?
The INSiGHT system includes different forms of assessment.
Depending on what is appropriate for the individual, these can include measurements such as:
Surface EMG
Surface electromyography - often shortened to sEMG - measures electrical activity associated with muscles along the spine. This provides information that can contribute to our assessment of patterns of muscle activity.
Thermal Scanning
Thermal scanning measures temperature differences along the spine. This information is considered alongside the rest of the assessment rather than being used by itself to diagnose a condition.
Heart Rate Variability
Heart rate variability, or HRV, looks at variation in the time between heartbeats. HRV is influenced by the autonomic nervous system and is used in a range of settings as one way of looking at autonomic function. Again, a single measurement doesn't tell us everything about someone's health.
Context matters.
Why Not Just Ask How Someone Feels?
How you or your child feels is incredibly important.
In fact, listening to your experience is one of the most important parts of our consultation. But subjective experiences and objective measurements tell us different things.
A parent might tell us:
"Bedtime has become much easier."
"She's coping better with busy places."
"He seems more settled."
Those observations matter. The scans don't replace them. Instead, objective measurements can give us another set of information to consider alongside what you are noticing in everyday life.
Why Do We Repeat Scans?
One reason we like having a baseline is that it gives us something to compare with later.
Rather than relying only on memory or asking, "Do you think anything has changed?", we can compare later measurements with those collected at the beginning.
We then consider those results alongside your experience, our clinical assessment and your goals.
That helps us have a more meaningful conversation about progress and whether our recommendations still make sense.
What INSiGHT Scans Don't Do
This is equally important.
An INSiGHT scan isn't a medical diagnosis.
It doesn't tell us that a child has ADHD, autism, anxiety, digestive disease or another medical or developmental condition.
And we don't use a scan result to promise that chiropractic care will resolve a particular symptom or condition.
If something in your history or presentation suggests that you or your child needs assessment from another healthcare professional, we'll discuss that with you.
Our scans are a tool within our chiropractic assessment - not a replacement for appropriate medical care.
Helping Parents Understand the Bigger Picture
One of our favourite things about the technology is actually quite simple:
It gives us something we can sit down and talk through together.
The nervous system can feel like an abstract concept. Seeing measurements and having someone explain what we're looking at can make the conversation much easier to understand. We want you to know what we're assessing, why we're assessing it and how it relates to the recommendations we're making.
Because ultimately, you should feel informed about the care you choose for yourself or your child.
What Happens After the Assessment?
Once we've completed the appropriate assessments, we'll review the information we've gathered.
We'll then explain our findings and discuss whether we believe chiropractic care is appropriate.
If we recommend care, we'll explain:
What we've found
What our goals for care would be
The type of care we're recommending
The proposed frequency
When we would reassess
Any questions or concerns you have
There should never be pressure to make a decision you don't understand.
Continue Exploring
→ What Is Family Chiropractic Care? Our Approach at Hope
→ Your Child's Nervous System: A Simple Guide for Parents
→ Could Intensive Chiropractic Care Be Right for My Child?
→ Read Our Stories of Hope
Curious About Your Own or Your Child's Scans?
Our initial consultation gives us time to understand your concerns, take a detailed history and carry out the appropriate assessments.
INSiGHT scanning technology forms part of our chiropractic assessment and is not used to diagnose medical or developmental conditions. Information on this page is provided for general educational purposes.
