San Diego, CA-based software-as-a-service company Seqster developed a technology that integrates data from electronic health records, genomics and wearables into one platform. Seqster's CEO Ardy Arianpour believes he has solved a major interoperability problem and hopes to attract providers, payers and pharma companies as clients.

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.

Artificial intelligence and machine-learning will be the biggest disrupters in the health care industry, forcing a major shift in how companies innovate and operate, offering physicians unprecedented tools to diagnose and treat patients to improve outcomes and connecting patients like never before through consumer-driven devices. This feature takes a close look at how smaller companies and giants like Abbott, as well as national health care systems, are leveraging the power of AI to expedite innovation and product development in diabetes and other diseases. It highlights some of the latest studies that show how AI is being harnessed to improve imaging analytics, predict hard-to-find risk factors for heart disease and detect cancer, and discusses the critical role tech giants such as IBM, Google and Amazon continue to play in this space.

Derived from Strategic Transactions, Informa’s premium source for tracking life sciences deal activity, the Venture Funding Deals column provides a comprehensive monthly review of emerging life science companies that have received venture funding, including companies within the In Vitro Diagnostics, Medical Devices, Pharmaceuticals, and Research, Analytical Equipment and Supplies sectors. This month’s column covers deals announced December 2015 through January 2016.