Here's a sampling of Healthcare IT News headlines from just the past year: "Health IT VC funding sees 'torrid' Q1." "Record quarter sees VC cash top $737M." "VC funding sets yet another record."

As then-U.S. Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra put it when speaking at HIMSS the last time it was in Orlando, in 2011: "Today is the best time to be a healthcare entrepreneur in America."

Things have only gotten better in the past three years, as technology has matured, startups have proliferated and the venture community has become much more attuned to the value and huge potential of health IT.

This year at HIMSS14, at the day-long Venture+ Forum on Sunday, Feb. 23, entrepreneurs, investors and other healthcare and technology leaders will gather in Orlando for live presentations from some of the most promising health IT startup companies.  

The day kicks off with keynote address from Lucian Iancovici, MD, investment manager at Qualcomm Ventures. His speech is titled “The Evolution of Digital Health,” and nothing illustrates the industry's maturation these past few years than the slate of early-stage firms showcasing their products and services at HIMSS.

Whether focused on driving better outcomes, engaging patients, protecting privacy or enabling accountable care, the companies competing in the pitch contest from the Venture+ Forum stage represent an industry that's changing fast – and creating huge opportunities for firms that know the right niches to target.

“It’s an incredibly exciting time to explore the future of digital health," said Iancovici in a press statement. "There is a new generation of companies trying to disrupt the healthcare system by freeing data from their traditional silos to drive more efficient and effective care. The massive influx of investment dollars in the space has revealed a pattern in how new companies are approaching healthcare: using data from many sources to uncover insights and effect change.”

Joseph Volpe, managing director of Merck's Global Health Innovation Fund, agrees.

"I'm a data guy," he says.

Volpe is speaking on a panel at the Venture+ Forum titled, "Health IT Venture Trends." And he says data – and all the capabilities related to it, from capture and storage to security to analytics – is one of the biggest trends he's paying attention to nowadays when looking for companies in which to invest.

"Data is the currency of the future," says Volpe. "And as that gets deeper and richer, we have to be able to do something with it."

Merck's Global Health Innovation Fund was spun off as a separate LLC from the pharmaceutical giant; its self-stated mission is "investing in transformative healthcare."

With some $500 million entrusted upon it to invest, Merck GHI has so far funded 22 companies since 2010, says Volpe – mostly minority positions, to the tune of $5 million to $15 million.

"We've broken it into two areas," he explains: "technology-enabled solutions and health IT platforms."

In the former space, "We look at precision medicine, accountable care, provider and patient engagement, decision support," says Volpe. The latter includes "health informatics, analytics, health data liberation" and more.

As the industry has evolved, Volpe has also noticed his investment priorities changing these past few years.

"We've gone from a high-level health IT focus to dig a little deeper," he says. "I'm looking now at privacy and security, predictive analytics, machine learning."

For instance, in 2012 Merck GHI invested $6 million in Remedy Informatics, which develops clinical registries, research software and informatics tools for translational medicine

"When companies like this get out into the Cleveland Clinics and Mass Generals of the world, you really start to get a view of disease-specific data and the ability to pull disparate sources together and actually do something with it, which we really haven't been able to do, research-wise," Volpe explains.