Deutsche Telekom says it will announce more partners for its Global M2M Association (GMA) with France Telecom and TeliaSonera in the next two or three months.

Speaking to M2M Zone on the sidelines of last week’s M2M World Congress in London, Jurgen Hase, the head of Deutsche Telekom’s M2M Competence Center, said the new partners would help to expand the GMA’s footprint.

“We will announce some new partners from Europe in the next two or three months,” he said.

Tired of checking the washing machine to see if a cycle has completed, or worrying that the lights were left on at home? Apps are increasingly helping people monitor and control objects remotely on their mobile devices.

From Internet-connected washing machines and smart refrigerators to bathroom scales, gadgets that connect to the Internet are on the rise in homes, and apps are the means to monitor and control them.

M2M module maker Sierra Wireless says it has become a sponsor of crowdsourcing platform MedStartr and will henceforth be the preferred provider of wireless communications technology for MedStartr companies.

MedStartr says it will gain direct access to a full range of connectivity solutions from Sierra Wireless (Richmond, Canada), helping MedStartr companies to accelerate product development.

Not-for-profit group the Continua Health Alliance has appointed Orange Healthcare’s Elinaz Mahdavy as chair of its European Working Group.

Mahdavy, the European affairs and strategic partnership manager at Orange Healthcare (Paris, France), will take responsibility for Continua’s relations with EU institutions and government entities in Europe.

She takes over from Mario Romao, a senior policy manager at Intel, who will continue to serve as vice chair.

Venture-capital funding for the healthcare IT sector soared to $1.2 billion last year from $480 million in 2011, with the number of deals growing from 49 to 163, according to new research from Mercom Capital Group.

Calling 2012 a “spectacular year”, Mercom said the fourth quarter of 2012 saw the largest number of deals in a quarter since it began tracking the market in 2010.

That year, venture-capital funding totalled $211 million in 22 deals.

Telehealth services will reach 1.8 million patients worldwide in 2017, up from just 308,000 in 2012, according to a new report from InMedica.

Take-up will be driven by a combination of factors, including the introduction of readmission penalties in the US and the promotion of telehealth as a long-term cost-saving measure in the UK, France and China.

Healthcare providers also want to use telehealth to increase ties to patients and improve the quality of care – often irrespective of the lack of a clear financial return on investment, says InMedica.

Remote patient monitoring systems with integrated communication capabilities are set to number 9.4 million in 2017, up from just 2.8 million in 2012, according to new research from Berg Insight, while the number of devices with integrated cellular connectivity grows from 1.03 million in 2012 to 7.1 million in 2017.