Healthcare & Biotech

DÜSSELDORF, GERMANY – 22 September 2026 – Messe Düsseldorf will stage REHACARE 2026 from 23 to 26 September in Düsseldorf, placing community creators and people with disabilities at the center of the independent living debate. The trade fair is adding a Community Hub in Hall 7, organized by X Carstens and REHACARE, as a dedicated stage for around 20 creators and influencers across all four trade fair days. The program includes personal stories, talks, roundtables, readings, entertainment and Meet & Greet opportunities, with a Community Day on Saturday, 26 September. For care practitioners, specialist retailers, associations and institutional stakeholders, the move signals a stronger emphasis on user-led perspectives in rehabilitation, prevention, inclusion and nursing care.

Boston – September 21, 2026 -- Nurses and clinicians across Mass General Brigham (MGB) will stage rallies outside the health system's World Medical Innovation Forum on September 22 and 23, escalating a labor dispute that culminates September 24 when 4,000 Brigham and Women's Hospital nurses vote on authorizing an open-ended strike.

Brigham nurses to vote September 24 on open-ended strike authorization

The vote runs from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. at multiple locations. A "yes" result would empower the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA) Bargaining Committee to call a strike, though no date has been set; nurses must give 10 days' legal notice before any walkout begins. The move follows a July 8 strike and a subsequent four-day lockout imposed by MGB, with the hospital system refusing additional negotiating sessions since August.

Valencia, Calif. – September 21, 2026 -- Bioness Medical, Inc. has commercially launched HaloPlex, an FDA-registered ceiling-mounted body weight support and fall protection system aimed at rehabilitation hospitals, outpatient clinics, and rehab centers treating patients with severe gait and balance impairments.

HaloPlex extends the Vector Gait & Safety System with multidirectional movement support

The system unloads a programmed amount of a patient's body weight while providing continuous postural support and overhead fall protection, allowing patients to practice walking, balance activities, transfers, and functional mobility tasks across a larger therapy space.

New York – – September 21, 2026 -- FINN Partners has released a new eBook, The Next Frontier in Brain Health, timed to World Alzheimer's Day and the opening of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. The collection arrives as the World Health Organization reports nearly 10 million new dementia cases develop worldwide each year, with delayed diagnoses and fragmented patient journeys leaving families without clear direction.

Collection targets the gap between scientific advances and patient care

The eBook argues that complex scientific information often fails to reach patients, caregivers and policymakers in usable form. Richard Hatzfeld, Senior Partner and global lead for FINN's Global Health Practice brain health initiatives, edited the collection and said it brings together FINN colleagues to help clients explain the science, address barriers to care and embed brain health into workplace and public policy decisions.

CHARLESTON, S.C. – – September 21, 2026 -- VIO Med Spa has signed a three-unit development agreement to enter South Carolina for the first time, with the first Charleston-area location targeted to open in 2027. Site selection is currently underway.

Former CVS Health Executive Leads Local Development

Ted Loya, who spent more than 23 years at CVS Health in its pharmacy benefits business working with national employers, will spearhead the brand's build-out across the Charleston area. New to franchising and medical aesthetics, Loya cited VIO's established infrastructure, financial backing, and existing East Coast footprint in North Carolina and Georgia as deciding factors in bringing the brand to South Carolina.

Deal Extends Brand's East Coast Footprint

Ryan Rao, Chief Development Officer at VIO Med Spa, said the Charleston entry strengthens the company's presence in the Southeast and supports further expansion along the East Coast.

Mesquite, Texas – September 21, 2026 -- Ernest Health has secured development sites in six North Carolina markets for freestanding inpatient rehabilitation hospitals, marking Phase 1 of a statewide expansion program. The company controls parcels in Winston-Salem, Mooresville, Gastonia, Hickory, South Asheville/Arden and Goldsboro through development partner Summit Healthcare Group.

Six sites move from announcement to construction-ready status

Summit Healthcare Group, a Winston-Salem-based healthcare real estate firm founded in 2008 with more than 750,000 square feet of ground-up healthcare delivery experience, now holds control of all six parcels. The sites span the Piedmont Triad, the Lake Norman and Gaston County submarkets of Charlotte, the Catawba Valley, Western North Carolina and Eastern North Carolina. Each location was chosen for proximity to acute care referral sources, transportation access and local older-adult population density.

Las Vegas – September 21, 2026 -- Concept Medical's MagicTouch sirolimus-coated balloon will face fresh scrutiny at VIVA 2026 as researchers unveil new subgroup data from the SirPAD randomized trial covering 597 patients treated for femoropopliteal peripheral artery disease without tissue loss.

SirPAD enrolled 1,252 patients to compare drug-coated and uncoated balloon angioplasty

The academic, investigator-initiated trial randomized 1,252 patients with symptomatic infrainguinal peripheral artery disease to angioplasty using either the MagicTouch PTA sirolimus-coated balloon or an uncoated balloon. Primary results, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, showed the sirolimus-coated balloon arm was both non-inferior and superior to the uncoated balloon on major adverse limb events (MALE) at one year.

Atlanta and Carlsbad, Calif. – September 20, 2026 -- Field Medical, Inc. reported 12-month outcomes from its first-in-human Field PULSE trial showing 94.2% per-vein durability for pulmonary vein isolation using an optimized waveform, with results published in JACC: Clinical Electrophysiology and presented as a Late-Breaking Clinical Trial at HRX Live 2026.

Subsecond ablation cuts median procedure time to 13 minutes

The trial recorded a 13-minute median elapsed pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) ablation time, with a fastest case completed in 7.7 minutes. Field Medical's high-voltage focal pulsed field ablation (PFA) architecture, delivered through its FieldForce PFA System, applies energy in under 200 milliseconds per point, reducing the need for prolonged catheter stability during atrial procedures.

Atlanta and Los Angeles – September 20, 2026 -- StimCardio Medical reported that patients treated with non-invasive median nerve stimulation (MNS) after atrial fibrillation (AF) ablation showed 90.0% freedom from atrial arrhythmias at six months, compared with 80.8% for those receiving sham treatment, though the difference did not reach statistical significance. The randomized, double-blind, sham-controlled NeuroPulse pilot study was presented as late-breaking clinical science at HRX Live 2026 and simultaneously published in the peer-reviewed journal Heart Rhythm.

Post-blanking analysis finds statistically significant drop in arrhythmia events

In a sensitivity analysis conducted after the 60-day blanking period, patients receiving MNS recorded 12 recurrent atrial arrhythmia events versus 28 in the sham group, a statistically significant reduction (p=0.025). No MNS- or device-related serious adverse events were reported across the trial.

Sheridan, Wyoming – September 20, 2026 -- The global remote patient monitoring (RPM) market is set to grow from $34.5 billion in 2026 to $62.2 billion by 2031, a 12.5% compound annual growth rate, according to a new study by Wissen Research.

Reimbursement codes and readmission penalties push hospitals toward RPM at scale

Dedicated CMS billing codes are giving U.S. providers a recurring revenue incentive to deploy RPM, while health systems use the technology to avoid costly 30-day readmission penalties tied to chronic disease relapse. Cardiovascular disease held the largest application share in 2025, reflecting the clinical and financial burden of heart failure, atrial fibrillation and hypertension.