Downers Grove, Illinois-based Advocate Health Care and Milwaukee’s Aurora Health Care have gotten the final approval needed to close their merger, which will create the 10th largest nonprofit, integrated health system in the country.

Barely a tenth of U.S. physicians practice in rural locations, but up to 60 million patients live in those areas.

Early data suggest image-guided injections of immunotherapy could be used to treat advanced-stage liver tumors, according to a study presented at the Society of Interventional Radiology’s annual meeting in Los Angeles.

The $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill released on March 21 includes boosts in funding for HHS, the National Institutes of Health and efforts to fight opioid abuse. What was left out were measures aimed at stabilizing the Affordable Care Act (ACA) exchanges with funding for additional reinsurance and restoring the law’s cost-sharing reduction subsidies.

Utah Gov. Gary Herbert recently signed legislation that requires facilities performing mammograms to notify women if they have dense breast tissue. The signature makes Utah the 32nd state to enact such a law.

In what could be a surprise to experts and industry leaders, a recent survey from Accenture has suggested that consumers are more optimistic about the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) in medicine, according to a recent article by Harvard Business Review.

Enrollment in a Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) Accountable Care Organization (ACO) is associated with improvements in appropriateness of breast and colorectal screening, according to a new study published in JAMA Internal Medicine. It was also associated with a reduction in the number of patients being screened for prostate cancer.

Robert Redfield, MD, has been named the new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). But before his appointment, a top Senate Democrat said complaints about his past work as an HIV/AIDS researcher would make him an unsuitable public health leader.