Small med firms pitch to North Shore-LIJ

They came from as close as Brookhaven Town and as far away as Hawaii, all to familiarize themselves with the workings of the North Shore-LIJ Health System, and to find out something vital to their futures: Could they eventually sell products or services to the giant Manhasset-based health care provider?

They were executives from small medical technology companies, and on Monday at a North Shore-LIJ facility in Lake Success, they made what amounted to sales pitches about their businesses to the chiefs of different hospital departments.

The session was arranged by North Shore and Accelerate Long Island, the Long Island Association initiative begun last year to create jobs and businesses from the research conducted at the Island's labs and educational institutions.

Accelerate Long Island has twice showcased research projects from the labs and colleges. But the meeting Monday marked the first time that small businesses have been able to meet with executives of a large entity like North Shore.

"The idea here is to provide an opportunity to exchange ideas," said Jeff Kraut, senior vice president of strategy for North Shore. "It makes sense to put these companies together with the leadership" of North Shore.

Dan Holley came from Hawaii, where the company of which he is chief executive, Qbrüt, is headquartered. Its product, CardioPanda, is a mobile and Web-based software program focused on preventive medicine and workplace wellness. "Fitness should be fun and easy," Holley told the gathering. CardioPanda is able to monitor a person's activity level via a mobile device. Long Island venture capitalist Mark Fasciano said he is trying to lure Qbrüt to locate on Long Island.

Holley said such a move is "in the discussion stages." The company has seven employees. Fasciano and Holley later met at Fasciano's Canrock Ventures firm in Jericho.

Marc Alessi, chief executive of SynchroPET, a company operating out of Brookhaven National Lab that hopes to become involved with medical imaging and diagnostics, said he came to "just start a dialogue" with North Shore.

Resi Cooper, the one-time Long Island aide to former Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton who is temporarily running Accelerate Long Island until a permanent executive director is hired, said she was pleased with the way things went.

"Today was a good beginning toward strengthening our entrepreneurial ecosystem," Cooper said. "But we need to make sure follow-ups occur."