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.

The higher dose of radiation required to x-ray extremely obese patients increases those patients’ risk of cancer, according to new research published in the Journal of Radiological Protection. The chances of getting cancer due to undergoing an x-ray are still quite low, the authors added.

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.

A team of researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has developed a portable optical imaging system that can visualize molecular features of breast tissue after it's been surgically removed from a patient, according to research published Dec. 19 in Science Advances.

The FDA is requiring all manufacturers of fluoroquinolones—a popular class of antibiotics—to warn about the risk of aortic aneurysm and dissection associated with the drugs in their prescribing information and patient medication guides.

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.

Omron Healthcare opened its latest product, a wearable blood pressure cuff that dually acts as a smartwatch, to presales Dec. 20 ahead of the device’s official launch in January 2019.