Former Columbia Medical school graduate and former chairman of Merck & Co. recently donated 250 million dollars to the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. Dr. P Roy Vagelos will donate the funds to help students with financial aid, full-tuition scholarships, school projects and grants. Vagelos said that he hopes the gift will “free Columbia’s medical students to pursue careers in family medicine, pediatrics, research and other fields that are less lucrative than the top-paying specialties.”

Called “the new front door of healthcare,” CVS and Aetna are aiming to reshape the medical industry by coming together to make health insurance and medical bills more affordable for everyone. If the $69 billion dollar merger is approved by shareholders, Aetna will be the stand-alone medical company inside all CVS locations and will serve as a walk-in clinic for patients.

Writer Lindsey Fitzharris’s writes a book about surgery and its once filthy enterprise. “Operating theaters were as dirty as London was, their surgeons as grimy as chimney sweeps. Doctors seldom washed their hands. They used the same instruments in successive procedures without cleaning them. It was not uncommon.” Fitzharris’s gives the history on Victorian medicine and the evolution of surgeons practice in medicine.

Consulting firm Avalere says that Obamacare’s Silver plan will rise almost $200 more dollars with a deductible of $3,937-up from $3,700 according to The Hill. VP for Avalere, Elizabeth Carpenter, says an increased deductible for the most popular exchange plans will “reduce premium costs, but may increase what consumers must pay out-of-pocket.”

A new health affairs study found opioid-related deaths in hospitals quadrupled from 2000 to 2014 as providers cared for patients with more severe cases of pain addiction.

HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection and a recent analysis shows that men are 20 times more likely to be reinfected after one year.

Medical devices such as mobile apps and virtual reality have taken healthcare to the next level. Mobile medicine, smart t-shirts, medical 3d printing, telemedicine/remote medicine and personal health records are some of the inventions in the last decade that ha

ve made life simpler for patients and doctors.

This podcast shares the story of Dr. Charles Cochran, the founder of Twitter account #LifeofaMedStudent, a community dedicated to helping healthcare students navigate through med school.

Over the course of the fall semester, more than a dozen Bowdoin students met regularly with elderly people to hear them talk about their lives. They listened to stories of what it was like to grow up during World War II and of how they met their spouses. They heard tales of weddings, children, moving and setting up new homes, of moments both joyful and sad.

Family Medicine for America’s Health launched the campaign to help strengthen the primary care infrastructure and make America healthier.