The pandemic may accelerate a move toward versatile, single-solution renal replacement therapy in intensive care.

While liquid biopsy is becoming routine for cancer treatment stratification and monitoring, using blood tests to screen for early cancer in asymptomatic people remains a tantalizing target. Some question how practical such a test could be but several companies are already en route - some further down the road than others - to achieve this goal. Illumina spin-out Grail is one of these companies and while it is not alone, in a field where size matters, it may have an advantage. This article delves deeper into how these different technologies work and when they could reach the market.

As rheumatoid arthritis treatment improves in the biologics era, patients need fewer joint replacements. Instead, they now require more closely monitored, agile care, in the face of a growing shortage of qualified rheumatologists. These demands help propel digital health applications, bioelectronic devices and novel imaging modalities into the medtech spotlight.

Peritoneal dialysis (PD) can allow renal patients to dialyze at home, but connecting one’s catheter to the equipment carries an infection risk and is too tricky for some patients. Swiss startup Peripal AG, which closed a Series A1 round with prominent Swiss investors in July, is betting that its patient-aid device will make PD easier and safer while cutting costs for medical systems.

End-stage renal disease (ESRD) affects 600,000 Americans, striking over 120,000 people a year, and most of these patients require renal replacement therapy, such as hemodialysis. For most, that means a several-hour treatment, three times a week, at a dedicated outpatient center run by a service company like DaVita, Inc., or Fresenius Medical Care. But getting dialyzed at home is another option. Just under 2% of patients do home hemodialysis (HHD) today, but a growing number of companies are betting that this number could increase substantially.

Early diagnosis of lung cancer continues to be a major clinical challenge and the opportunity for products that can successfully detect the disease early enough to boost survival rate is huge. This article looks into the market potential and highlights companies developing technologies that they believe can finally turn this deadliest of cancers on its head.