With a new year almost upon us, today's post will look at some of the healthcare industry's biggest trends. These issues, while not new, will undoubtedly take center stage over the next year - and beyond.

Many of us are thinking that 2016 turned out to be a pretty rough year. A few of the reasons this year will go down as particularly difficult have to do with health care crises, the biggest of which we will discuss in today's post. This won't be a smooth ride, so buckle up and get ready to explore 2016's biggest health issues.

The term "white paper" comes to us from a 100-year-old practice of government reportingin the UK. When government agencies provided data to Parliament to help them make decisions, they would offer three different types: Very long, comprehensive documents with a blue cover, open-ended reports with a green cover, and short, focused reports on a single topic with white covers. This last type, the concise document with information to solve a problem, came to be the formula for what is now known in many industries as a "white paper." Today, white papers are produced for sales purposes by for-profit companies, making them a marketing tool that can often be confused with a neutral scientific paper. While both publications have their purpose, it is important for the consumer to know how they differ. Today we will compare these two documents in order to help our readers see beyond the surface similarities and become aware of the important differences.