Medtech firms entered 2018 knowing that demands from providers and payers are increasing, the pace of business is quickening, and at the same time patients are more empowered and market access routes are more exacting than ever. Against this backdrop, PwC explains the top health industry issues for the coming year, highlights the forces that will have the most impact on the industry in 2018 and explains why manufacturers need to be nimble.

If the beginning of 2017 was marked by doubts around whether and how the FDA would act with respect to complex diagnostics, we enter 2018 feeling that slow-moving vessel may finally be turning.

Following Gilead's acquisition of Kite, buzz grew that the deal might catalyze a surge in deal-making. Scrip asked a broad cross-section of biopharma insiders and observers about the deal-making environment – featured here are big pharma and industry experts.

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.