A look back at Medtech Insight’s five most-read Market Intelligence features of 2019 reveals a diverse mix of interests among our readers – hemodialysis, robotic surgeries, ophthalmic surgical solutions, liquid biopsy and digital technologies that seek to improve women's health.

Liquid biopsy is a rapidly developing noninvasive technology for the early detection of cancer. Multiple companies have entered clinical testing, using mostly blood to detect circulating tumor cells and/or circulating tumor DNA. But urine and even cerebral spinal fluid are promising liquids too. Regardless of the fluid, testing costs a fraction of a traditional, invasive tissue biopsy and offers much quicker results.

The potential to use a simple blood test to guide physicians in monitoring cancer therapies, detect early cancers, serve as a companion diagnostic to guide targeted therapeutics and predict the likely course or outcomes of disease in patients has spurred a lot of interest and innovation. Here's a look at emerging companies hoping to make an impact, including insights from interviews conducted with C-Level visitors at the recent Liquid Biopsy Conference in San Francisco. This is the second of a two-part series focusing on the global liquid biopsy market.

Starts & Stops is a regular feature highlighting Medtech Insight editors' picks of noteworthy medtech clinical trial initiations, completions and suspensions the past month or so. Over the last month, 38 new trials started, 17 trial were completed, one trial was "reinitiated," and four trials were terminated or suspended, according to Meddevicetracker.