WID-easy, the only non-invasive triage test for endometrial cancer in routine use in a European public health system, has been cited in Germany’s highest-tier clinical guidance; a marker that non-invasive detection is reaching clinical maturity.

The vaginal-swab test designed to spare women unnecessary invasive procedures has been referenced in the updated German S3 Guideline on Endometrial Cancer, its maker Sola Diagnostics has announced.

The Austria-based women’s-health diagnostics company behind the WID-easy Test, said the test now features in the recommendations-supporting background text of the guideline’s latest version (v4.0, May 2026; AWMF 032-034OL), in Section 4.3.

The S3 designation is the highest evidence- and consensus-based tier in the German clinical guideline system, broadly comparable in standing to NICE guidance in the UK, and is widely drawn on in clinical practice, reimbursement and liability assessments.

In Section 4.3, the guideline cites four peer-reviewed validation studies of the WID-easy Test and credits it with a sensitivity of more than 95 per cent and a negative predictive value of at least 99.7 per cent.

It describes a fall in invasive workup from 19 to two dilatation-and-curettage (D&C) procedures per cancer detected when compared with transvaginal ultrasound alone, assuming a realistic 3.4 per cent cancer prevalence in women with postmenopausal bleeding, and states that the test has the potential to improve the diagnostic workup of women with peri- and post-menopausal bleeding by cutting the rate of invasive procedures.

A growing burden, an imperfect standard

Endometrial cancer is the most common gynaecological cancer in high-income countries, and its incidence is rising, driven by ageing populations and increasing obesity, making it one of the fastest-growing cancer burdens in women’s health.

A number of groups are now developing non-invasive tests for earlier detection. The current standard, transvaginal ultrasound, is an imperfect triage tool: it misses serous carcinomas and performs especially poorly in black women, a group with disproportionately high endometrial-cancer mortality.

WID-easy has been validated prospectively across multiple cohorts, including a dedicated cohort of black women in Ghana (Ken-Amoah et al., 2025).

Adopted in routine care

WID-easy is the only endometrial-cancer triage test in Europe with real-world adoption in a public health system. It is UKCA-marked and in use across NHS pilot sites in England and Scotland, and is delivered through commercial laboratory partners across the DACH region of Austria, Germany and Switzerland. Its UK pivotal study, EASY-CARE, is funded by a competitively awarded NIHR i4i grant.

The postmenopausal bleeding pathway has been singled out for change across three UK Government strategy documents published in 2026 — the National Cancer Plan for England (DHSC), the renewed Women’s Health Strategy for England (DHSC) and the National HealthTech Access Programme (NICE).

The NICE initiative names speeding up access to better tools for detecting endometrial cancer in women with unexplained bleeding as one of only four priority areas.

WID-easy is the only non-invasive endometrial-cancer triage test that is UKCA-marked and commercially available for NHS use today, with no competing molecular test yet on the market.

“Seeing WID-easy referenced in a guideline of this standing confirms that the science behind non-invasive endometrial cancer detection has reached clinical maturity,” said Prof Martin Widschwendter, founder and member of the scientific advisory board at Sola Diagnostics.

“Our goal has always been to spare women unnecessary invasive procedures without missing the cancers that matter — and to do so equitably, across all populations.”

The WID-easy Test detects and triages endometrial cancer from a vaginal swab using DNA methylation. It is built on the WID-qEC biomarker, exclusively licensed from University College London Business and complemented by Sola’s own patent portfolio. The same methylation platform underpins a pipeline of further tests in cervical, ovarian and breast cancer.

By Dr Fran Conti-Ramsden, clinician at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, academic at King’s College London, and chief medical officer of MEGI Health.

A woman gives birth. A few days later she goes home, often with a bag of medication for her blood pressure, and then, very often, very little structured follow-up for her heart (cardiovascular) health.

In my clinical work, and through our collaboration with Action on Pre-eclampsia, I see and hear about this postnatal cliff edge again and again, and it still shocks me.

We invest a lot of medical care and attention whilst a woman or birthing individual is pregnant, then, at the very moment emerging evidence suggests we have a window of opportunity to modify long-term health, the support falls away.

That cliff edge is a symptom of a deeper issue: we have come to treat “women’s health” as a synonym for reproductive health. Pregnancy, periods and fertility, important as they are, have crowded out everything else.

Yet the conditions that do most to shorten and limit women’s lives are not reproductive at all.

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in women worldwide, and it is still too readily thought of as a man’s problem.

Heart disease in women is more likely to be missed and under-treated, in part because for decades women were under-represented in the research that built our knowledge.

Pregnancy makes this vivid.

Conditions such as pre-eclampsia are not only risks to be managed for nine months; they are early warnings about a woman’s future, markers that she is more likely to develop heart disease and high blood pressure in the years to come.

We have the knowledge to act on that. What we mostly do instead is discharge her and look away.

This is exactly the kind of problem better tools should help us solve: spotting risk earlier, supporting women and their clinicians through the vulnerable postnatal window, and providing continuity where the system currently provides a drop due to lack of capacity.

Artificial intelligence and digital health have real potential here; in risk prediction, in monitoring blood pressure at home, and in helping stretched clinicians know who needs attention and when.

And yet this is not where most of the energy is going.

It is far easier to build, fund and scale an app that tracks a cycle than a tool that changes the trajectory of a woman’s heart.

So, innovation clusters at the lighter, lower-risk end of innovation, while the conditions that actually kill and disable women, and moments like the postnatal cliff, stay under-served.

Closing the women’s health gap could add at least a trillion dollars to the global economy each year, the World Economic Forum estimates, but the bigger prize is women living longer, healthier lives.

None of this means technology is a cure in itself. It is a tool, and a tool built carelessly can do harm.

Because women have been under-represented in medical data, systems trained on that data can quietly carry the same blind spots forward, deepening inequalities rather than closing them.

Responsible innovation, with clinical-grade evidence, privacy and equity designed in from the start, and tools built around real clinical pathways rather than bolted on afterwards, is not a brake on progress.

It is the only version of progress worth having.

I am optimistic, because a serious community is forming around exactly these questions and the appetite to get it right is real.

It is why, at MEGI, we are bringing clinicians, researchers, founders, regulators and investors together for our AI × Women’s Health summit on 25 June.

If we keep our focus on the conditions that matter most to women’s lives, and build the tools to meet them responsibly, the postnatal cliff edge could become something else entirely: the moment the system finally catches her and delivers preventative healthcare.

AI × Women’s Health: Innovation, Challenges and Opportunities summit is taking place on Thursday 25 June 2026 at the London Institute for Healthcare Engineering. The event is free and is fully booked and operating a waiting list. Join the waiting list here.

About Dr Fran Conti-Ramsden

Dr Fran Conti-Ramsden is a UK Obstetrics and Gynaecology registrar and Chadburn Clinical Lecturer at KCL passionate about transforming women’s health through technology and innovation.

Combining NHS clinical experience with an MRC-funded PhD, recent NHS Clinical AI fellowship and commercial role as Chief Medical Officer at Megi health, she works at the intersection of clinical medicine, data science, technology and AI.

Her current programme of research focuses on the intersection of healthcare and technology; leveraging advances such as smartphone based vital signs capture and large language models to drive forward scalable innovation in maternal cardiovascular care.

She has published over 20 peer-reviewed manuscripts (See gScholar, h-index 12), including award-winning work recognized by Hypertension Journal.

She was awarded an AI visionary award in 2025 by Health Innovation KSS was the recipient of the 2024 International Society for the Study of Hypertension in Pregnancy Zuspan prize.

The HPV vaccine has cut the risk of dying from cervical cancer before age 30 to almost zero among those vaccinated at 12 or 13, research suggests.

The first study of its kind found that deaths have fallen sharply since school-age girls began being offered the jab in 2008, with around 200 lives saved in England so far.

Between 2020 and 2024, no cervical cancer deaths were recorded among women aged 20 to 24, the first time this had happened over a five-year period.

Without vaccination, around 23 deaths would have been expected.

Professor Peter Sasieni, lead researcher at Queen Mary University of London, said: “It’s incredible to think that a single jab can almost eliminate a particular type of cancer.”

Around 3,300 people are diagnosed with cervical cancer each year in the UK, making it the 14th most common cancer among women.

Human papillomavirus, or HPV, is thought to cause 99 per cent of cervical cancer cases. The virus is spread through close skin-to-skin contact.

Most HPV infections clear up without causing problems, but some can cause abnormal cell changes that may lead to cancer years later.

The study’s authors expect deaths from cervical cancer to continue falling as more people receive the jab and vaccinated generations grow older.

Cancer Research UK, which funded the research, called the findings an “incredible milestone” but warned that vaccination rates in England remained below recommended levels.

Michelle Mitchell, chief executive of Cancer Research UK, said: “We know the HPV vaccine is extremely effective at stopping cervical cancer before it starts and for the first time these findings show it is saving lives.”

Professor Sasieni, who specialises in cancer epidemiology at Queen Mary University of London, described the reduction in deaths since the vaccine was introduced as the “tip of the iceberg”.

Cancer epidemiology examines patterns of cancer and how the disease affects different groups of people.

He said: “As vaccinated generations grow older, we’ll see many more lives saved from cervical cancer.

“New research shows just how vital it is to keep HPV vaccination levels high so more people are protected.”

The UK government has pledged to eliminate cervical cancer as a public health problem by 2040.

However, the latest figures show vaccination rates have fallen below recommended levels.

UK Health Security Agency data shows that 76 per cent of girls in England were vaccinated by the age of 15 in 2024-25, well below the 90 per cent level the World Health Organization says is needed to eliminate cervical cancer.

Mitchell said: “It’s essential that the UK Government and health systems urgently address this with targeted action to reach communities where uptake is the lowest.”