If you want to lead people, make sure you’re thinking big on their behalf—and taking them toward an objective that’s both reachable and worth their while.

With 2016 just days away, various experts at the University of California-San Francisco (UCSF) were asked about the immediate future of scientific research. What diseases will we be closer to curing next year? How will science impact treatment?

Major League Baseball executive Paul DePodesta, known for his role in the “Moneyball” era Oakland Athletics, is joining the faculty of the Scripps Translational Science Institute (STSI). DePodesta will serve as an STSI assistant professor of bioinformatics, beginning on Jan. 1.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced on Dec. 18 that it planned on blocking the proposed merger of two major hospital systems in Chicago, the third time in six weeks that the FTC challenged a proposed hospital merger.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced the release of its draft Quality Measure Development Plan, a strategic framework for future clinician quality measurement development.

By cutting patients’ out-of-pocket expenses for screening mammography, the Affordable Care Act succeeded in sending many more women for the exams. Now comes a review of Medicare claims revealing that the effect was nowhere to be found in the target population for screening colonoscopy.

The Food and Drug Administration plans to hire a data officer as part of its 2016 strategy to improve its internal IT systems.  

A probing study of hospital pricing released Dec. 15 may cause state policymakers and attorneys general to re-think the urge to OK hospital mergers as a way to make the Affordable Care Act work for them—at least if their aim is to help cut the cost of care for patients in their respective markets.