Who is James Murray, the new health secretary replacing Wes Streeting? From a high-profile, media-friendly Secretary of State to a relatively unknown MP, the departure of Wes Streeting and arrival of James Murray has raised eyebrows in the health and political worlds. It is one of the biggest Cabinet jobs with the largest public service departmental budgets. There will be a steep learning curve with no time for preparation away from the front line. Murray says he's deeply honoured to be appointed to the brief and continue Wes Streeting's brilliant work on such a critical mission, but who is he, and what issues will he face in his in tray?

As some of Doctor Who's most formidable enemies, you would expect the Cybermen to try to turn humans into an android army – not help out in care homes and hospitals. But luckily these gentle robots resemble the TV villains in looks alone, having been created to fill shortages in sectors suffering from understaffing. The high-tech invention, Beomni 1.0, is set to be unveiled for the first time in public at the 2022 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week. It is so nimble it can pick up a pinch of salt, but is strong enough to lift up to 30kg (4st 10lb). While at first it is controlled remotely by humans, its AI brain will ultimately learn how to carry out tasks independently.

Machine learning is a form of artificial intelligence that uses algorithms and statistical models to detect patterns in data and make predictions based on …

With his spiky hair and Adidas sweatshirt, Shay Murray looks like a typical 11-year-old. But he also has Pearson syndrome, an incredibly rare mitochondrial disease that affects multiple body organs. His eyesight, hearing and memory are deteriorating, his kidneys are operating at barely 60%. I'm watching Shay play video games in a big, bright social area at the Keech children's hospice in Luton, where he is a regular and very enthusiastic visitor. "Whenever he comes here, I know the staff need a rest when he leaves," says his father, Alan. In a way, the disability has made him who he is – with the family sarcasm added on."

Infinity Hospice is using a population health management platform to improve services to Medicare patients. The end-of-life care organization, which serves the Phoenix, Reno and Las Vegas metropolitan areas, is using guidance from the newly developed application, which uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to determine which patients are entering the final stages of life. Hospices seek to incorporate family members and palliative and other types of care to patients during their final days of life. But it can be difficult to determine when a patient is near the end, especially when the hospice is serving 200 patients, says Darren Bertram, CEO of Infinity Hospice. Finances also come into play.

Death is an inevitable part of life and while it cannot be delayed indefinitely it is possible to predict with some certainty when the health of a person is going to deteriorate. In this paper, we predict risk of mortality for patients from two large hospital systems in the Pacific Northwest. Using medical claims and electronic medical records (EMR) data we greatly improve prediction for risk of mortality and explore machine learning models with explanations for end of life predictions. The insights that are derived from the predictions can then be used to improve the quality of patient care towards the end of life.