One of Israel's most prolific medical device entrepreneurs, Yossi Gross has launched an amazing number of companies in a wide array of clinical spaces. Two years ago, Gross and GlenRock Israel came up with the idea for Rainbow Medical, a new approach to creating companies around the technologies Gross develops. Rainbow is neither quite a venture fund nor a US-style incubator but has aspects of both. Rainbow's point: too many fledgling device companies have to spend their time raising money rather than developing their technology, while the founders have little experience in doing so or in building the company once capital comes in. Rainbow's innovative investment-fund strategy addresses both issues.

Manufacturers of patient monitoring equipment are responding to a challenging hospital environment. They're providing advanced portable and telemetry monitoring systems that enable the continuous monitoring of critically ill patients, regardless of their location within the hospital, and often at a lower cost than could be achieved using traditional bedside systems. Portable and telemetry systems are two of the highest growth segments in the US patient monitoring market, according to Windhover Information/Medtech Insight's recently published report, US Markets for Patient Monitoring Products, which forecasts compound annual growth rates (CAGR) of 8.5% and 13.0%, respectively, in these segments through 2012.

A preview of the emerging health care companies profiled in the current, all-profiles issue of Start-Up. This month's profile groups are "Glioblastoma Start-Ups Get Specific," "Glaucoma Start-Ups Reach Critical Mass," and "ALS on the Cusp." Plus these Start-Ups Across Health Care: EarlySense, NeoChord, and Pantec Biosolutions.