Healthcare stakeholders dealt with a slurry of new regulations, policy shifts and mega deals across the industry in 2018. After a whirlwind of a year, we’ve rounded up our most popular stories from 2018.

John Giannandrea has been named Apple’s senior vice president of machine learning and AI strategy, the company announced Thursday.

Walgreens Boots Alliance has teamed up with Verily, the life sciences unit of Google parent company Alphabet. The two companies will focus on improving outcomes for patients with chronic conditions, CNBC reported.

Insurance company Cigna is using AI to predict whether patients might abuse and/or overdose on prescription opioids in an effort to reduce consumers from using the substances, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal.

CMS has finalized changes to the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) that “dramatically redesigns and sets a new direction” for Medicare accountable care organizations (ACOs). The final rule, as outlined in the proposed rule announced in August, will force ACOs to take on more risk at a quicker pace.

Minnesota-based multinational conglomerate 3M has acquired speech recognition software developer M*Modal for $1 billion, according to a report by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. M*Modal provides healthcare technology and conversational AI-powered systems for transcribing doctors’ verbal notes.

The expectation is that AI will revolutionize healthcare for patients and providers. But before AI’s potential can translate into action, several key questions must first be addressed, a recently published viewpoint argued in JAMA.

After a delay, Cigna has closed its $67 billion acquisition of Express Scripts, the company confirmed on Dec. 20.

Fimmic, a Finland-based medical software company, is offering researchers and pathologists free access to its AI platform in an effort to advance the implementation of the technology in microscopic image analysis.

The shift to value-based care made significant headway in 2017, according to a new survey from the Health Care Transformation Task Force that found nearly half of their business was in value-based payment arrangements by the end of the year.