The recently announced deals which could blur the lines between insurers and care providers—including the $66 billion purchase of Aetna by CVS Health and UnitedHealth’s Optum paying $4.9 billion for DaVita Medical Group—may not deliver the kind of “disruption” healthcare needs, Commonwealth Fund president David Blumenthal, MD, MPP wrote in Harvard Business Review.

Of the more than 21,000 newly enrolled students in medical schools in 2017, 50.7 percent were women—the first time the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) has recorded a female majority in medical school enrollment.

Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh and UPMC Hillman Cancer Center have found using a smartphone application with a wearable activity tracker may improve outcomes for patients with cancer undergoing chemotherapy by providing real-time monitoring and detection of worsening symptoms. Findings were published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research.

Physician-Focused Payment Model Technical Advisory Committee (PTAC) will recommend a primary care-focused alternative payment model developed by the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) be tested by HHS.

A day after about 80 employees at Mayo Clinic Health System in Albert Lea, Minnesota, staged a one-day strike, the hospital wouldn’t let them return to work, following through on Mayo’s threats to do so because of one-week contracts with replacement workers.

Over half of Americans (51 percent) report using a wearable fitness tracker at least once a day, according to a report conducted by Researchscape International.

Researchers with the U.S. Military HIV Research Program have developed an experimental heroin vaccine capable of preventing the drug from passing the blood-brain barrier in mice. Findings were published in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry.

Physician groups and value-based care proponents have written to CMS Administrator Seema Verma, MPH, asking for the agency to focus its efforts to promote the transition to value amongst independent physician practices.