Hospital IT leaders generally agree on IT infrastructure priorities but have varying approaches to addressing network scalability, executive support and viability of cloud computing to secure data, according to a May 6 HIMSS Analytics and Comcast Business report.

Health Wildcatters, a mentorship-driven seed accelerator based in Dallas, is offering 15 health IT startups up to $35,000 and 12 weeks of educational training to get their ideas and businesses off the ground. Companies also may receive up to $250,000 in follow-on funding, according to the Health Wildcatters website.

Medical body area networks (BANs) already are measuring multiple physiological parameters and sending the data to a smartphone over wireless channels like Bluetooth. Most are involved in vital signs monitoring such as pulse, electrocardiogram, stress, gait and breathing rate.

Information technology offers a host of options to help clinicians provide better care for stroke victims, from rapid exchange of data and images, alerts and reminders to quick and effective decision support and coordination of follow-up care.

“Anyone who follows big ideas has that sense of unrealized potential,” said Juan Enriquez, managing director of Excel Venture Management, during a panel discussion on innovation at TEDMED. Big ideas have become a real part of the mainstream culture in the past decade, he said. "At Big Think (an online collaborative), we’ve been trying to drill down on this and isolate action-oriented ideas and bring them to life in day-to-day life."

Venture capital funding of the health IT sector 2013 hit another record with $493 million raised during the first quarter of 2013, according to a recent report from global communications and consulting firm Mercom Capital Group.

Calling alarm events a “frequent and persistent problem,” the Joint Commission issued a Sentinel Event Alert to hospitals, imploring leaders to examine the serious risk caused by alarm fatigue from medical devices.

Independence Blue Cross (IBC), Penn Medicine and DreamIt Ventures announced the 10 healthcare startup companies selected to participate in DreamIt Health, a Philadelphia-based healthcare accelerator. The 2013 DreamIt Health inaugural class will enter a four-month boot camp, beginning April 8, to help rapidly advance the development of their innovative healthcare solutions and business models.