Venture capital funding for health IT totaled $623 million during the second quarter of 2013, according to a report by Mercom Capital Group, FierceHealthIT, reports. The report found that there were 168 health IT-related venture capital deals in Q2 2013, compared with 104 the previous quarter. At the half-year mark, health IT-related venture capital funding was nearly equal to all of such funding in 2012, the report found.

Enterprise Ireland said this morning that it supported venture capitalists who invested €54m in 135 Irish-based companies in 2012 under the Enterprise Ireland Seed and Venture Capital Programmes. The figure represents an €11m increase (26pc) on the amount invested during 2011.

Overall Irish venture capital firms supported by Enterprise Ireland made 159 investments in 105 companies with a total value of €81m in 2012.

Venture capital is the fuel that drives America's high-tech innovation machine. In previous posts I've examined venture capital investment and start-ups at the metro level, tracking overall levels of activity and investment, per capita trends and the factors that are associated with venture capital and start-up activity. Today, I turn to a finer-grained level of geographic detail, exploring venture capital and start-up activity across telephone area codes. 

National Cancer Institute scientists have released the largest-ever database of cancer-related genetic variations, providing researchers the most comprehensive way so far to figure out how to target treatments for the disease.

Open access worldwide to the new database, based on genome studies, is expected to help researchers accelerate development of new drugs and better match patients with therapies, NCI said in a statement on Monday.

Summer wouldn't be complete without a trip to the sandy shores of an ocean, bay, lake or river. As the gritty stuff gets in between your toes, you may wonder why beaches are distinctive sandy stretches and why sand looks and feels the way it does.

And then again, you might not — you didn't come to the beach to think, did you? But for those in an asking mood, a sandy beach is essentially where pulverized, weathered rock along with some fragments of shelled creatures and other biota have collected, tossed up by the waves and as sediment from inland areas.

The benefits of a college degree, a higher paying job and upward mobility, have been a long standing assumption for college students, but the ability to realize those benefits have diminished in recent years.  A study by the Pew Research Center and reported by Time points to the primary problem: “Only 54.3% of young adults aged 18 to 24 have a job.”  This is the lowest rate since 1948 when these statistics began being collected.  Layered on top of this is the grim news that total student debt now exceeds one trillion dollars.

Imagine leading 24 first- and second-year engineering students in building products to address the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) Grand Challenge, “Restoring and Improving Urban Infrastructure.” Students would find their own problems, brainstorm possible solutions, pick one and then build functional products. Now imagine that all of this would take place over 10 days and students wouldn’t be paid or receive credit.

I wake up every day and sit down on my bed for some minutes, meditating, and thinking: “what I will do today?” Then, I rapidly check my twitter feed and e-mail, just to know what happened when I was sleeping, after that… I know it’s time to get moving.

In the bus, on my way to the office, I imagine where other passengers are going and sometimes what they do. Maybe they’re going to school or maybe going for some groceries but at the end they’re probably also going to work. At the moment I arrive at my office, everything inside me changes. I’m not longer a random guy in the bus, but the CEO of my own business. An entrepreneur.

The good news: Americans are exercising more. The bad news: it’s not doing much to reduce obesity rates.

A new study from the University of Washington reveals that the level of women exercising "sufficiently" in the U.S. rose from 50.7% to 59.2% between 2001 and 2011, while the exercise level among men climbed from 59.4% to 61.3%. But in the vast majority of counties, waistlines kept increasing.

Joe Wallin and I had over 500 people tune in or visit to replay our live blogging of the SEC Open Meeting where three big things happened:

final rules to lift the ban on general solicitation, in Rule 506 offerings where all purchasers are accredited, were approved;

the bad actor rules called for years ago by Dodd-Frank were approved; and

new rules to change Form D, what it contains, filing requirements, and incentives to actually follow through and file it in a timely were, were proposed.

America has become much more metropolitan since 1950, when the Office of Management and Budget released the first modern criteria for determining the boundaries of metropolitan areas. Metropolitan areas are the economic or functional definition of the "city." They are otherwise known as labor markets and include the physical "urban area" (the area of continuous development) as well as economically connected rural territory from which people commute into the urban area. A previous article examined the development of the “physical” form of the city (urban areas) in the United States, from 1920 to 2010 (See Observations on Urbanization: 1920-2010).

A recently released study shows that Greater Cleveland-based startups contributed significantly—more than $688 million in the last three years—to Ohio’s economy.

According to an annual report from The Center for Economic Development at Cleveland State University's Levin College of Urban Affairs, 127 young companies collectively generated $270 million in economic benefits for Ohio in 2012. These companies helped create and retain 1,100 in-state direct jobs, with a total Ohio employment impact of 2,140. This impact increased as these tech companies matured: Analysis of 44 firms who participated in the study each of the last three years reveals that, collectively, they increased their state and local tax impact by 23% and in-state employment by 53% in that timeframe.

The US economy is struggling to find a new formula for vigorous growth. But all growth opportunities are not created equal. New McKinsey research pinpoints five catalysts—in energy, trade, technology, infrastructure, and talent development—that can quickly create jobs and deliver a substantial boost to GDP by 2020. An animated video below also runs the numbers on these game changers and frames the challenge for business and government to make the most of the opportunity.

Most entrepreneurs I know are individually very innovative, but a successful startup can’t be a one-man show (for long). That means they need to build an innovative team, which is not a skill that most people are born with. In fact, some very innovative individuals, known as ‘idea people’ or inventors, often end up creating the most dysfunctional teams.

A typical approach to dealing with team dysfunction or no innovation process is to work around it, which normally leads to startup failure. The only way to build productive, collaborative, innovative, and cohesive teams is by resolving core dysfunction issues and implementing a structured process for innovation.

The first potato chips were meant as an insult.

Hotel chef George Crum enjoyed a wonderful knack for cooking. From his kitchen at Moon’s Lake House near Saratoga Springs, N.Y., Mr. Crum could “take anything edible and transform it into a dish fit for a king.” That skill came in handy – the upscale Lake House attracted customers who were used to being treated like kings.

E-reader use is on the rise, and the textbook market is shifting toward customizable digital products. Are students ditching print in favor of electronic alternatives for their academic reading? A forthcoming small study from the City University of New York asked that question and found that, like previous generations, at least some Millennials still prefer reading long texts and academic selections in print.

July 16 (Bloomberg) -- Adam Johnson reports on the top 5 grossing shark films of all time on Bloomberg Television's "Lunch Money." (Source: Bloomberg)

To judge from media coverage, one might think of the U.S. tech industry as a bi-coastal phenomenon. But between Silicon Valley and New York City's Silicon Alley lie 3,000 miles of countryside dotted with business hubs. One of these growing centers for innovation in tech is a city that might not otherwise be on your radar: Cincinnati.

For many, a corporate directorship is a career capstone. But attaining one is far from easy. No one can say for sure how to get on a corporate board, but many people point to two routes: the first is to break into the "right" network and the second is to seek a progression of board seats that begins with, for example, a seat on a not-for-profit or community board and eventually results in appointment to a corporate board.

The continent has educated talent, a huge population, and massive wealth. It also has rigid labour laws, crushing tax systems and a bias against risk-taking.

It’s easy to blame “structural rigidities” for what is perceived today as a lack of competitiveness in Europe. But that is only a small part of the reality which businessmen see as impediments to economic growth, according to panelists gathered at INSEAD’s second annual Global Business Leaders Conference – “Europe: Converging on Competitiveness.”