Health Care

Two months after hinting that it would collaborate with Carewell Urgent Care in the Worcester area, UMass Memorial Health Care has formally announced its affiliation with the Quincy-based urgent care operator.

MCPHS University has branched into a new area of study after acquiring the New England School of...

Verax Biomedical, a young medical device company that makes a rapid test that screens for bacterial contamination in blood platelets, announced it has gained federal clearance to expand the use of its product.

The Massachusetts Medical Society has kicked off a campaign aimed at promoting safe opioid prescription practices among Bay State physicians, the latest in a collection of efforts by health care stakeholders to reduce the availability of opioids. The new guidelines, available on the Massachusetts Medical Society website, are intended to reduce the supply of opioids, which are frequently accessed by people other than the patients to whom they're prescribed, said Dr. Dennis Dimitri, president of the medical society. Dimitri cited statistics from the national Centers for Disease Control that more than 80 percent of people who abuse painkillers are using medicine prescribed to someone else.

The international lighting company Royal Philips, which has operations in Framingham, has signed a $25 million research agreement with MIT and will move its North American research center from New York to Cambridge's Kendall Square.

Hospitals have been feeling the heat from the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services since 2012, when the federal insurer — the largest single payer in the country — began penalizing hospitals with excessive readmission rates for Medicare patients.

Spectrum Health Systems of Worcester has been awarded a contract by the Virginia Department of Corrections to provide therapeutic community programming at three state facilities, the private, nonprofit substance abuse treatment and mental health service organization announced.

Precision Optics of Gardner, helped by higher demand for its products and the introduction of new offerings, saw a 17-percent jump in revenue growth in its latest quarter while the company cut its losses, it said Thursday.

Worcester-based Spectrum Health Systems announced the opening of a peer recovery center in downtown Lawrence to serve people trying to overcome addictions, the third such center the addiction treatment services provider operates in the Bay State. The Lawrence Peer Recovery Center, also known as New Beginnings, uses the same peer-support model employed at centers in Worcester and Marlborough, the company said. It's expected to serve 100 residents of Lawrence, Haverhill, North Andover and other nearby communities, offering peer-driven support groups, recreational activities, social events and volunteer opportunities to those who have completed more intensive addiction treatment programs.

(Updated May 13 at 11:50 a.m.) It's been a fruitful year so far for Worcester-based startup VitaThreads LLC. The medical device firm, founded by two Worcester Polytechnic Institute professors and two others, placed second in a business pitch contest held by the nonprofit Venture Forum in April. And this week, the startup is presenting preclinical data to its target audience — plastic surgeons — during the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery Congress in Montreal, which starts tomorrow.