Venture funding in the health IT sector, including for mobile start-ups, was US$293 million in Q2 2012 spread among 28 deals, according to consulting firm Mercom Capital.  The total grew over the preceding quarter (US$184 million and 27 deals) as well as the same period in 2011 (US$66 million and just six deals).

In the second quarter, the type of company receiving the most backing was health information management firms with US$247 million, which represented the lion’s share of new funding, followed by telemedicine firms with US$19 million. The top six venture deals in the quarter were all in the US including the US$100 million raised by Castlight Health, a provider of an online and mobile-based service that enables patients to compare doctors, hospital and procedures. Castlight's was the biggest fundraising in the quarter.

M&A transactions were also massively up in Q2 2012 at US$2.9 billion compared to only US$653 million in the preceding quarter and US$703 million in the year-ago period, said Mercom. The biggest acquisition in the quarter was Veritas Capital’s US$1.25 billion purchase of Thomson Reuters’ healthcare IT business.