NEW ORLEANS – On the day prior to the official start of HIMSS 2007, a new conference-related event brought together leaders of emerging healthcare IT companies and venture capitalists looking to invest in the industry.

The HIMSS07 Health IT Venture Fair was created to expose potential investors to “young companies” seeking a $500,000 to $10 million investment, said Elizabeth West, vice president of Business Development and Marketing at HIMSS.

“We pre-screened the participating companies to make sure they are real investment opportunities,” West said. “We want to provide our conference attendees with access to new healthcare IT companies, and we also want these companies to thrive.”

HIMSS organized the Venture Fair in collaboration with Blank Rome, LLP, a law firm with a strong healthcare IT practice. The organizers chose 20 companies to present their products and business plans to a collection of approximately 35 venture capitalists, investment bankers, and representatives from private equity firms. The companies had to show investors that they would be able to provide an adequate return on investment.

Executives from the participating companies gave strong, targeted pitches to the audience of venture capitalists, hoping to convince potential investors that their money would yield significant returns.

“There is an enormous market for mobile information devices in healthcare, and none of the currently available products are ideal,” said Bob Caspe, CEO of Emano Tec, when describing his firm’s product.

Emano Tec, based in Waban, Mass., makes a portable data tablet device called MedTab. The company is launching the device at HIMSS07, and wants to develop relationships with EMR software providers or other hardware providers that would sell MedTab as a privately branded device.

“We’re trying raise a million dollars to continue the development of MedTab and to expand our sales and marketing,” Caspe said.

Ken Rosenfeld, president of Rochester, N.Y.-based eHealth Global Technologies, said that his company hoped to raise $5 million from investors.

“We have a potential market of over $750 million, and one hundred percent of that market is wide open,” Rosenfeld told his audience. eHealth Global provides digitally-based medical record retrieval services to healthcare providers. Rosenfeld said that the company collects medical records that are normally out of the “digital reach” of a client’s IT systems.

West said that HIMSS is pleased with the initial response to the Venture Fair, and hopes to replicate the event at future annual conferences.

“The annual conference draws so many young companies each year,” she said. “It would be great if the Venture Fair led to a ‘marriage’ or two between company and investor.”