play a critical role in enabling the necessary structural changes to the healthcare system. The HITECH Act created a $25.9 billion’? Federal Government funded catalyst for the adoption of information technology in healthcare in the U.S., and this is stimulating significant investment in upgrading the information infrastructure at the provider level. This industry-wide technology upgrade moves the vast majority of providers onto electronic systems, which offers immediate efficiencies to their businesses and lays the foundation for the adoption of new targeted information based applications in the future. These investments and legislative actions by the U.S. government, and the subsequent response by insurers, providers and patients, are driving a dramatic increase in spending on healthcare information technology (HIT), benefitting the companies providing technology solutions that reduce cost and waste, drive efficiency, and improve the quality of patient care. The opportunity in information convergence also benefits significantly from the technologies and infrastructure that have been developed and implemented outside of healthcare, such as cloud computing, wireless communications, web-delivered software-as-a-service, and sensor technology. Small companies drawing heavily off these existing technologies are able to optimize their product through rapid iterations driven by user feedback, thereby reducing risk and capital requirements, and leading to more predictable timelines, similar to what has been seen in the broader information technology arena. The Fund Managers believe that smaller, focused companies will play a key role in developing and deploying information based products that address discrete problems within the U.S. healthcare market, and that a large number of these will be compelling investment opportunities for NLV-IIL. Medical Devices: Given the Fund Managers’ view that the operating and exit environment for companies in this sector will be more challe