Screening for early stage cancer has gained a promising entrant with Thrive Earlier Detection Corp., which has raised a $110 million series A round to back its ongoing pan-cancer detection research. The Cambridge, Mass.-based startup was spun out of Johns Hopkins University, where the science backing it was already relatively far along.

Pillo Health Inc. garnered $11 million in a series A round to back its already marketed voice-activated robotic medication and care management system that offers video connection and alerts between patients and caregivers. The system, known as Pria, is slated to launch this summer for consumer purchase in a joint effort by Pillo Health and Black & Decker Corp., which also led this financing. The partners debuted the system early this year at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES).

The life sciences are terrible when it comes to information technology. Health care systems, devices and procedures often are oriented around a given patient's needs at a point in time. The clinical trials employed by pharma are a bit better, given their explicit need to track group data over time and draw conclusions. But clinical trials also are mired in the technology, systems and practices, or lack thereof, of the physicians and health care institutions that conduct them.