5 breakthrough health innovations in 2025
For years, the need for reading glasses to correct farsightedness seemed like an inevitable part of aging. This year, visual accessories could officially be a thing of the past. VIZZ eye drops from LENZ Therapeutics offer a new tool against age-related hyperopia. The newly approved drops are powerful enough to improve vision by three or more lines on an eye chart in just 30 minutes.
This large-scale impact explains why Popular science chose drops as the winner in the 2025 Health category. This year’s list also includes groundbreaking improvements to pediatric heart transplants, a potential cure for a deadly blood cancer, and a minimally invasive way to treat prostate cancer.
(Editor’s note: This is a section of Popular Science’s 38th annual Best of What’s New awards. Be sure to read the full list of the 50 biggest innovations of 2025.)
Grand Prize Winner, Health
VIZZ from LENZ Therapeutics: Eye drops correct age-related farsightedness for up to 10 hours at a time
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Presbyopia, age-related farsightedness that requires reading glasses, affects 128 million people in the United States and nearly 2 billion people worldwide. It’s one of the few conditions that is basically guaranteed if you live long enough. Now, an eye drop called VIZZ, developed by LENZ Therapeutics, offers presbyopic patients vision correction for 10 hours at a time.
Aceclidine eye solution gained FDA approval for the treatment of presbyopia in July. Aceclidine, formerly known in Europe as a common treatment for glaucoma, acts on the iris by reducing the pupil. The smaller the pupil, the greater the depth of field. In trials involving 1,059 participants aged 45 to 75, VIZZ improved people’s near vision by three or more lines on eye charts in 30 minutes. Investigators reported that participants could read on phones and tablets without reading glasses and had no loss of distance vision. Results lasted up to 10 hours.
Previously, other presbyopia drops acting on another part of the eye, the ciliary muscle behind the iris, caused forehead pain in some users. For VIZZ users, the most commonly reported side effects are eye irritation, decreased vision, redness, and headache. The company also recommends consulting an eye care professional before starting these treatments, as miotics like VIZZ could increase the risk of retinal tears.
Tabletop Resuscitation of a Donated Pediatric Heart After Circulatory Death by Duke University Medical Center: Expanding the Donor Pool for Children in Need of a Heart
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Babies are much more likely than adults to die while waiting for a heart transplant. In 2022, a study by the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients found that more than 1,100 children were on the waiting list, with hundreds more added each year. Due to the small donor pool and lack of devices for use in pediatric transplants, up to 20% of these children will die while waiting. The most common type of heart donation is brain death donation (DBD). However, one way to expand the donor pool would be to include heart donations after circulatory death (DCD) or after the donor’s heart stops beating. A known technique called normothermic regional perfusion (NRP) resuscitates a DCD heart so that it can be donated. However, the NRP raised ethical concerns regarding the definition of death and the restoration of blood flow to a corpse. As a result, the technique is banned in many institutions and viable donor hearts, including pediatric hearts, often go unused.
In an effort to circumvent the fierce debate over PNR and increase the donor pool for infants in need, a team at Duke University Medical Center developed the tabletop resuscitation technique, a system with special circuitry that resuscitates the DCD heart outside the body, directly on the operating table. Because all of this happens outside the body, the new technique bypasses many of the restrictions of the NRP. Using this new technique, the team successfully transplanted the heart of a one-month-old donor into a three-month-old recipient. According to Dr. Joe Turek, a pediatric heart surgeon at Duke University, the recipient baby has been healthy since then.
The Duke team is currently demonstrating the technique to colleagues across the country. Its widespread adoption could increase the number of donors for pediatric heart transplants by up to 20% and save countless children’s lives. According to the Duke team, this method could also be applied to adult heart transplants, providing a less expensive way to get donor hearts to patients in need.
Carvykti from Legend Biotech and Johnson & Johnson: possible cure for deadly blood cancer
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Multiple myeloma has long been considered incurable. The deadly blood cancer, a disease that 36,000 Americans develop each year, eats away at bones, creating holes that weaken the skeleton. In a landmark study published this year, Carvykti, a CAR-T immunotherapy, achieved remission and long-term survival in patients with multiple myeloma. Of 97 patients treated, a third saw their cancer disappear. This is a striking result for people who were at risk of dying after trying everything before treatment. While some patients today are completely disease-free for five or even seven years after treatment, researchers encourage their colleagues to consider using cancer medicine’s forbidden four-letter word: cure.
Developed in China by Legend Biotech, which later partnered with Johnson & Johnson, Carvykti works by extracting the patient’s own white blood cells, recycling them to fight cancer, and then reinjecting them into the body. Unsurprisingly, this can be a physically exhausting process.
The FDA approved the therapy in 2022, and it’s now making a splash as follow-up research reveals its astonishing long-term effects. Researchers say the results would likely be even better if Carvykti was used as an early treatment, not just a last resort.
Remote Patient Monitoring Program for Blood Pressure by UC Davis Health: A Personalized, Widely Accessible Program to Solve Hypertension
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Hypertension is a chronic disease that affects nearly half of Americans over the age of 20, according to the American Heart Association. High blood pressure can put a person at risk for heart disease, heart attack, and stroke. Controlling high blood pressure can not only prolong a person’s life, but also improve their ease and enjoyment of daily activities. UC Davis Health recently launched an at-home patient monitoring program using take-home technology to help patients with hypertension reduce their blood pressure.
The remote patient blood pressure monitoring program lasts six months, but patients can extend their participation in the program for up to one year. The program includes education, medications and blood pressure cuffs for home monitoring. Each patient receives orientation, group classes, and one-on-one coaching on best practices for their health, while working remotely with a full medical team. In total, more than 150 patients are currently participating or have completed the program.
Now, more than a year later, UC Davis Health declares its triumph, citing an average drop in people’s blood pressure from 150/80 mmHg to 125/74 mmHg in just a few months, significantly reducing patients’ risk of heart disease. And participants maintain their progress even after graduating from the program.
UC Davis Health currently has several remote patient monitoring programs and wants to use new technologies to make care more accessible. For many reasons, such as distance, age, mobility or pregnancy, a patient may not be able to easily visit the doctor as often as they would like. The UC Davis model could be useful to both rural and urban medical centers. According to program officials, they are working to not only continue the program, but also expand it in the years to come.
AngioDynamics NanoKnife: a minimally invasive procedure for prostate cancer
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One in eight men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime, according to the American Cancer Society. Treatment may include surgery or radiation therapy, but these procedures can damage the nerves surrounding the tumor, leading to complications such as erectile dysfunction and urinary incontinence.
Developed by AngioDynamics and cleared by the FDA in December 2024, NanoKnife delivers localized electrical pulses directly to cancer tissue with precision that avoids damage to nearby tissue. Just as some breast cancer patients have the option of undergoing a more targeted lumpectomy instead of treating the entire breast, eligible prostate cancer patients now have a more targeted, radiation-free alternative that does not require treating the entire gland.
The NanoKnife system offers men with prostate cancer that has not yet spread a minimally invasive solution with limited side effects on quality of life before doctors turn to other, more aggressive treatments. It is now used in hospitals across the country.
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