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Intuit Inc., the Mountain View, Calif.-based provider of financial management solutions for small and mid-sized businesses, will acquire Medfusion, of Cary, N.C., which makes front-office and back-office software designed to improve patient-to-provider communications. The deal is valued at about $91 million.

Technology is always promising something and the iPad is no exception with some seeing it as a "game changer" for healthcare, and physicians in particular.Connecticut physician Steven A. R. Murphy proposes that every doctor should use one. "The iPad is going to crush laptops in this healthcare space," he said.Murphy, the managing partner of The Personalized Medicine Group of Connecticut, said he was purchasing one of Apple's 3G iPads to test it for any bugs.

The American Telemedicine Association's 15th Annual Meeting and Exposition kicked off May 16 with an expansive attitude, as ATA officials welcomed more than 3,000 registrants representing at least 35 countries to the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio, Texas."Never has there been greater interest in telehealth," said Karen Rheuban, the ATA's president and medical director of the University of Virginia's Office of Telemedicine.

Outdated hospital communications systems -- based on blaring PAs and multiple, often incompatible mobile devices -- are causing confusion, reducing efficiency, wasting money, and helping contribute to serious staffing shortages.