A daily blood test told intensive-care doctors when antibiotics could stop — nearly two days sooner

Sepsis, the body's overwhelming response to infection, puts intensive-care doctors on a knife edge: stop antibiotics too early and you risk a life; keep going and you feed drug resistance. The ADAPT-Sepsis trial, across 41 UK intensive care units and 2,760 patients, tested whether a daily finger of science — measuring a blood marker called procalcitonin — could call the moment more precisely. It did: 'stop' recommendations arrived nearly two days earlier than with the standard marker, across more than 17,000 samples. 'Simple biomarker tests can provide an additional layer of reassurance,' says lead researcher Paul Dark — exactly the treatment needed, for exactly as long as it is needed.

SDG 3 · Good health and well-being — Mechanism: tech innovation