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The perimenopause sensor is worn under the breast. Arms and legs, its makers found, missed some symptoms. The device made TIME’s list of 300 best inventions of the year, published in mid-October 2026, alongside more than three dozen other medical technologies. We picked six for the body and checked what backs each one.
Four sensors under the breast
Peri , from the Irish company of the same name (formerly identifyHer), tracks the symptoms of perimenopause. These are the years before the last period, when hormones swing and a woman has little to show a doctor but her own account. Four sensors pick up changes in heart rate, temperature and sleep, and an algorithm looks for hot flashes and night sweats.
CEO Heidi Davis has explained that limb sensors missed the “digital fingerprints” of some symptoms, while the torso gave the strongest signal. The sensors themselves are ordinary, and Davis says so. The novelty lies in algorithms that, according to the company , were trained on continuous data from 204 women.
Hospital vitals on a wristband
On a regular ward, a nurse checks vitals every few hours. Between rounds no instrument watches the patient. Medtronic puts that at up to 96% of the time, but the estimate is its own, and alarming numbers help it sell.
The Corsano wristband , from Dutch Corsano Health, sold in the US by Medtronic, weighs 19 grams, less than a candy bar. Wire-free, it tracks pulse, oxygen, breathing, skin temperature and steps, and can go home with the patient. It is FDA-cleared for patient monitoring but makes no diagnoses; it prompts the doctor.
Ninety seconds for a concussion
A concussion is hard to spot by eye, especially on a sideline that needs a call now. Oculogica’s SNAP test asks a person to follow a dot on a screen while a camera records how the eyes move. An algorithm gives its verdict in 90 seconds; the company’s earlier device needed up to four minutes.
The FDA cleared SNAP in June 2026 as an aid to the doctor, not a standalone diagnosis. The company reports 90% sensitivity and 94% specificity. In plain terms: out of ten real concussions the test catches nine, and out of a hundred healthy people it wrongly raises the alarm for six.
Ultrasound against blood pressure
Recor Medical’s Paradise system is meant for people whose blood pressure pills and lifestyle cannot keep in check. It targets nerves around the kidney arteries that push pressure up when overactive. A thin catheter travels from an artery in the groin to the kidneys. There it heats the nerves with ultrasound two or three times for seven seconds each, while a balloon of circulating water cools the vessel wall, according to the FDA .
In the RADIANCE II trial, 224 patients came off their pills for the study. Some got the catheter with the ultrasound never switched on, and neither patients nor those measuring knew who got what. After two months, daytime systolic pressure fell by 7.9 mmHg after the real procedure and 1.8 after the sham. A gap of about six points. For scale, a meta-analysis of 48 drug trials found a 5 mmHg drop cuts major cardiovascular events, such as heart attacks and strokes, by about a tenth. The FDA approved it as an addition to medication, not a replacement.
A peptide that survives the stomach
The stomach digests peptides, short protein chains, like meat. That is why protein drugs, the backbone of severe psoriasis treatment, are injected. Johnson & Johnson’s Icotyde became the first targeted peptide for psoriasis in pill form when the FDA approved it in March 2026.
It blocks the receptor for IL-23, a signaling molecule that drives skin inflammation. In the ICONIC-LEAD trial of 684 patients, teenagers from 12 included, 65% of those on the pill had clear or almost clear skin after 16 weeks, against 8% on placebo. Like the injections, it dampens part of the immune response. But the syringe is gone.
Motors for your legs on a hike
A Popular Science writer with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and POTS describes climbing one hill near the Grand Canyon three times. Without assistance from the Hypershell X Ultra S exoskeleton , heart rate rose from 102 to 158 beats per minute. In eco mode it peaked at 126, in the strongest mode at 118. One person, one hill, but the gap shows.
It straps to the waist and thighs and, per the maker, weighs about 2.5 kg. TIME filed it under Sports & Fitness, and it sells for $1,999 in the US. In lab tests the company commissioned, the body used up to 20% less oxygen walking and 39% cycling.
Where the line runs
The evidence behind the six varies widely.
Peri says the most. The sensor records what a woman already feels, and that is the whole point: a complaint a doctor might brush off becomes a chart. The new medicine turns how you feel into evidence. Peri has registered an accuracy trial of about 110 women, with no results yet. The evidence is being gathered, but for now it is checked by the company that sells it.
