By Chelsea Conaboy, Globe Staff

We are a society of people who like to feel part of something. We fill our wallets with membership cards for stores or hotel chains and sign up to be part of an ever-proliferating number of online communities, to connect with friends and join circles. So, when a flier dropped in my mailbox offering me “membership” to a new primary care practice in Boston, I thought they might be on to something.

By Robert Weisman, Globe Staff

An executive at Steward Health Care System told presidents of Steward’s hospitals Monday that the Boston-based chain “unilaterally withdrew” from talks to acquire Mercy Health System in Maine after concluding Mercy had misrepresented its finances. The account given in a confidential memo from Steward director of media relations Chris Murphy, obtained by the Globe, differed from a statement Steward and Mercy released jointly late Friday afternoon saying the letter of intent to merge had been terminated because the parties “were unable to come to a definitive agreement” during negotiations.

By Chelsea Conaboy, Globe Staff

As the Legislature begins planning for next year’s budget, public health leaders are calling on the state to “reverse the trend of disinvestment” in programs essential to protecting the public from infectious diseases, environmental contaminants, medical errors, and other potential harms.

By Chelsea Conaboy, Globe Staff

The growth of New England Compounding into pharmacy of national scope, operating beyond what its state license allowed, did not happen out of view of state and federal regulators. In meticulous detail, Liz Kowalczyk and Todd Wallack of the Globe staff outline how a Walgreens pharmacist became a major player in a competitive market and how health officials repeatedly failed to act on signs that the pharmacy posed a threat to patients.

By Carolyn Y. Johnson, Globe Staff

President Obama has announced his intent to appoint two local physicians to the National Cancer Advisory Board, the White House said in a press release. The 18-member board advises the National Cancer Institute.

By Carolyn Y. Johnson, Globe Staff

Three compounding pharmacies found to have problems in how they prepared or stored drugs have received cease and desist notices from the state Department of Public Health, as part of its ongoing surprise inspections of pharmacies that provide sterile drugs that are used in injections. At the same time, the state announced three new pharmacy board members from diverse health care backgrounds. The state began unannounced inspections after New England Compounding Center of Framingham was blamed for the meningitis outbreak.

By Chelsea Conaboy, Globe Staff

A Rhode Island spa kept products that were recalled by a Framingham, Mass., pharmacy after injectable steroids it prepared were blamed for a national meningitis outbreak, prompting the state Department of Health to issue a cease and desist order and suspend the license of a nurse at the facility.

By Chelsea Conaboy, Globe Staff

Dr. Ghazwan Acash left on Thanksgiving for Idlib, a city in northwest Syria on the Turkish border, where thousands of refugees have gathered in tents and a school building has been transformed into a field hospital. Volunteers there ring the school’s bell to summon doctors when a new wave of injured people arrive, some from cities and towns 150 miles or more away. He said he helped with basic medical needs and to insert breathing tubes in patients.

By Liz Kowalczyk, Globe Staff

Pharmacy industry executives requested changes Tuesday to emergency state regulations adopted last month in the wake of the national fungal meningitis outbreak. Under the new rules, specialty pharmacies similar to New England Compounding Center, the Framingham company whose contaminated drugs are blamed for the outbreak, are required to report to state regulators the volume of medications they are making and whether they have detected contamination in their laboratories.

By Chelsea Conaboy, Globe Staff

Mayor Menino posted a letter to President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner on his website yesterday offering his perspective on the fiscal cliff, burnished by the weeks he spent in Brigham and Women’s Hospital and now at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital.

By Patricia Wen, Globe Staff

CONCORD, N.H. -- A former medical technician at Exeter Hospital accused of spreading hepatitis C to dozens of patients nationwide pleaded not guilty Monday in federal court and was given a trial date of early February. David M. Kwiatkowski, appearing stocky in a tan prison uniform and displaying a trim haircut and goatee, was indicted last week in an elaborate scheme to steal powerful painkillers, causing patients to become infected with his strain of the liver-damaging virus.

By Chelsea Conaboy, Globe Staff

Brigham and Women’s Hospital emergency physician Jonathan Welch’s family did not want to sue when his mother died of sepsis that went untreated during critical hours in a Wisconsin hospital. It went against their “midwestern family mind-set.” What Welch wanted was an opportunity to talk with physician leaders or administrators at the hospital, to explain what went wrong and to hear how they would fix things. Welch writes about his family’s experience in an essay in Health Affairs.

By Chelsea Conaboy, Globe Staff

The Massachusetts Medical Society at its annual meeting Saturday decided not to ask for a delay in implementation of the state’s medical marijuana program. Instead, the state’s largest physician organization will push for regulations requiring doctors certifying patients for medical marijuana to enter patient information in a state database, Liz Kowalczyk of the Globe staff reports.

By Chelsea Conaboy, Globe Staff

Nurses and other UMass Memorial Medical Center staff members who have not been vaccinated against the flu were told this week that they must wear a mask on the job to protect patients from being infected during a hospital stay. Similar or even more stringent policies are in place at some other Massachusetts hospitals, but the change at UMass Memorial has angered some nurses who say the hospital is trying to shame them into getting a flu shot.

By Noah Bierman, Globe Staff

Republican lawmakers said Thursday that Governor Deval Patrick’s health and human services secretary should resign because she did not act with enough urgency in responding to the tainted evidence scandal at a closed state drug lab. “This isn’t about simply policy differences,” said Representative Bradley H. Jones. Jr., the Republican leader from North Reading. This is about moving an agency forward that desperately needs to regain public trust on many, many, fronts and needs to go in a dramatically different direction.”

By Chelsea Conaboy, Globe Staff

Sandra L. Fenwick will be the next chief executive of Boston Children’s Hospital, Robert Weisman reports in today’s Globe. Fenwick is now president and chief operating officer. She will take over the leadership position Oct. 1. Dr. Dr. James Mandell is retiring from the post after 12 years.

By Carolyn Y. Johnson, Globe Staff

Hundreds of fungal infections linked to injectable drugs made by a Framingham specialty pharmacy have sparked questions among regulators, hospitals, and patients about the role such drugmakers play in providing crucial drugs. In an effort to educate patients about its drug compounding efforts, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute has produced a video explaining its own compounding practices, including preparation of 950 sterile products a day, including chemotherapy, anti-nausea medication, and intravenous fluids.

By Chelsea Conaboy, Globe Staff

Most young doctors who choose a career in primary care will be able to pay off medical school debt of about $160,000 within 10 years even as they raise a family in a high-cost urban area. But, a new study, which the senior author called “sobering,” found that those with higher debt may have to make choices to manage their finances. Others say primary care doctors are doing better as state and national laws make them more valuable to providers.

By Chelsea Conaboy, Globe Staff

Dr. Joseph E. Murray, who died Monday, led the Division of Plastic Surgery for nearly four decades at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and for years at Boston Children’s Hospital. Long after his retirement, he remained a mentor to physicians in the field. In 1954 in an operating room at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, Murray performed the first successful organ transplant, transferring a kidney between identical twins. Two Brigham surgeons reflect on his legacy there.

By Michael J. Bailey, Globe Staff

Dr. Joseph E. Murray, the Nobel laureate who conducted the world’s first successful organ transplant, died Monday at the Boston hospital where the pioneering surgery was performed. He was 93. He had suffered a hemorrhagic stroke at his Wellesley home Thanksgiving night.

On Dec. 23, 1954, in Operating Room 2 of the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston, Dr. Murray took the healthy kidney of Ronald Herrick and sutured it into the donor’s dying identical twin, Richard.

By Kay Lazar and Chelsea Conaboy, Globe Staff

Massachusetts public health regulators Wednesday adopted emergency regulations that will allow hospitals to share medications to address drug shortages created by the closure of two specialty pharmacies following a national outbreak of fungal meningitis. The rules adopted by the state’s public health council, an appointed board of professors, clinicians, and public health advocates, will go into effect Dec. 1.

By Chelsea Conaboy, Globe Staff

A pair of Boston physicians with experience working on national health policy are launching a new journal focused on changes in the health care system, including new payment methods. Drs. Sachin H. Jain and Dr. Amol Navathe expect the first issue of Health Care: The Journal of Delivery Science and Innovation to be published next summer.

By Chelsea Conaboy, Globe Staff

The National Football League announced Monday that it has partnered with eClinicalWorks of Westborough to create a single electronic health records system for all teams to improve treatment and research of injuries, Deborah Kotz of the Globe staff reports. The league faces mounting pressure over whether it has done enough to protect players, particularly from head injuries linked to long-term brain damage.

By Chelsea Conaboy, Globe Staff

Doctors at the hospital can write prescriptions for patients to visit the pantry twice a month. Just as for insulin or clot-busting drugs, the prescription becomes part of the patient’s medical record, allowing them to visit twice a month to stock up on fresh vegetables and canned goods. A chef provides lessons in the kitchen about how to prepare healthy food. The program, which assisted more than 80,000 people last year, is being recognized with the James W. Varnum National Quality Health Care Award from Dartmouth-Hitchcock.

By Kay Lazar, Globe Staff

State and federal health officials are investigating a possible case of fungal meningitis in a Massachusetts woman who received steroid shots manufactured by New England Compounding Center, the troubled Framingham pharmacy blamed for the national fungal meningitis outbreak.

The 71-year-old Andover woman received shots for back pain in August, September, and on Oct. 1 at Merrimack Valley Pain Management Associates in Lawrence, said her attorney, Peter G. McGrath of Concord, N.H.

By Chelsea Conaboy, Globe Staff

As he swore in board members who will oversee the Health Policy Commission, the new agency charged with holding down health care spending in the state, Governor Deval Patrick noted the gargantuan task they faced. “This is a big challenge, a complicated challenge,” he told the 11 members, who have varied backgrounds in health care, including some who have tried for decades to identify ways to slow rising costs. “It is one to which history has called all of you.”

By Carolyn Y. Johnson, Globe Staff

Ameridose LLC, the sister drug company of the Framingham specialty pharmacy that is at the root of a national meningitis outbreak, will now be shut down until at least the end of the year, under an agreement reached Friday with state regulators. To aid hospitals grappling with drug shortages in Massachusetts, state regulators will propose emergency regulations next week that would allow hospital pharmacies to safely share compounded drugs with other hospitals.

By Chelsea Conaboy, Globe Staff

Leaders of the Group Insurance Commission, which administers health benefits for the families of state employees and retirees, have drawn a line in the sand. Insurers who want to offer plans starting in April to the nearly 400,000 people it serves must agree to lower costs of coverage -- and save the state money -- within a five-year contract, executive director Dolores Mitchell said Thursday during a panel at the annual conference of the Massachusetts Association of Health Plans.

By Dr. Kiran Gupta, Globe Correspondent

Studies have shown that patients who do not speak English generally fare worse in our health care system. They are often diagnosed with more advanced disease, have difficulty taking medications as prescribed, and spend more time in the hospital. Medical interpreters are essential in bridging this gap, lending meaning to our interactions with non-English speaking patients. Yet sometimes the barrier between patient and provider is greater than language alone, one that no interpreter can surmount.

By Chelsea Conaboy, Globe Staff

The governor, attorney general, and state auditor yesterday afternoon announced their picks for a new commission that will set health care spending goals for the state and track providers’ progreess in staying within the target. The 11-member board, made up of people with deep histories in health care policy in Massachusetts and nationally, will play an unprecedented role in the state’s health care market. The commission will meet for the first time Friday at the State House at 9:30 a.m.

By Chelsea Conaboy, Globe Staff

Barry Cadden, owner of the Framingham pharmacy whose drugs have been linked to hundreds of fungal meningitis cases and 32 deaths, declined to answer questions Wednesday during a congressional hearing on the outbreak. He told lawmakers, “On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer [because] of my constitutional rights and privileges, including the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.’’

By Kay Lazar, Globe Staff

Three top administrators of the Massachusetts pharmacy board learned in 2006 that a company monitoring a troubled Framingham pharmacy was led by a man convicted of fraud involving a product blamed for blinding people, according to newly released documents. But the officials apparently did not tell board members. Illinois-based Pharmacy Support Inc., founded by Ross A. Caputo, was chosen by the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Pharmacy to review operations at New England Compounding Center.

By Chelsea Conaboy, Globe Staff

Much has been written in the past couple of years about how doctors should conduct themselves online, as more of their communication with patients, colleagues, and the public migrates there. But not enough attention has been paid to management of conflicts of interest online, Dr. Matthew DeCamp, a post-doctoral fellow at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine writes in a commentary published last week by the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

By Carolyn Y. Johnson, Globe Staff

In a 20-page report released Monday, federal inspectors detailed 15 problems found at Ameridose LLC, a major hospital drug supplier in Westborough, ranging from insufficient testing of the sterility and potency of the drugs it made to the presence of vermin in an area where sterile products were packaged and stored. Ameridose is a sister company of New England Compounding Center, where contaminated batches of an injectable steroid have been linked to fungal infections that have sickened more than 400 people and killed 32.

By Chelsea Conaboy, Globe Staff

None of the fungal meningitis cases involving tainted steroids from New England Compounding have taken longer than six weeks, from the time of injection, to diagnose. So, state and federal officials might have breathed a sigh of relief on Wednesday, which marked six weeks from the day drugs produced at the Framingham pharmacy were recalled and public health officials began collecting products leftover in physician’s offices. But they didn’t.

By Chelsea Conaboy, Globe Staff

Sarah Iselin will leave her post as president of the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation this month to become chief strategy officer for the nonprofit’s namesake insurer. She has led the foundation since early 2009.

By Chelsea Conaboy, Globe Staff

The state has selected six organizations to oversee health care for some of the neediest adults in Massachusetts, as it attempts to streamline coverage for about 110,000 people who qualify for both Medicare and Medicaid. The program is aimed at saving money and lessening the confusion for doctors and patients caused by the two programs sharing responsibility for bills. Many dually eligible people have complex and costly health needs, including mental illnesses, developmental disabilities, or drug and alcohol addictions.