Dollars committed to the healthcare merger, acquisition and takeover market declined 38 percent from $231 billion in 2011 to $143.3 billion in 2012, according to a report from Irving Levin Associates.

Physician leaders view online physician ratings as inaccurate, unreliable and not widely used among patients, according to the results of a survey conducted by the American College of Physician Executives (ACPE), which found that physicians much prefer internal organizational ratings based on actual performance, as opposed to the consumer websites that many physicians consider to be nothing more than “popularity contests.”

CampusMD, which provides college students with around-the-clock mobile access to U.S.-licensed physicians, has launched a nationwide telehealth service available either directly to students and their parents or through wholesale arrangements with partner colleges and universities.

Health IT and big data have the potential to revolutionize clinical research and, at the Columbia University Medical Center, the implementation of a centralized research data repository helped researchers produce more studies with more value, according to a case report published online Jan. 15 by the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association.

A recent webinar and journal article argue that interoperability is the victim of products offered by vendors, sluggish EHR adoption and poor health IT system design.

Paul H. Frisch, PhD, received the 2012 ACCE-HIMSS Excellence in Clinical Engineering and Information Technology Synergies Award, which recognizes individuals who have best demonstrated leadership in promoting or implementing significant synergies between the clinical engineering and information technology professions.

On January 1, Alliance Healthcare Solutions and Final Support merged to form Quatris Health, the largest privately held company authorized to sell and support GE Healthcare’s Centricity Practice Solution.

Optum and Mayo Clinic have jointly launched Optum Labs, an open, collaborative research and development facility with the goal of improving patient care.