The Affordable Care Act, will usher in a fertile period for innovative, venture-backed companies that can navigate the brave new world of healthcare delivery and management, says Psilos’ Al Waxman.

Winnipeg, Manitoba-based medical diagnostic company Miraculins Inc. has agreed to acquire all assets related to the SCOUT DS® technology, a diabetes screening technology, from VeraLight, Inc. Financial terms of the proposed deal were not released. VeraLight, which is based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, is backed by a mix of U.S. venture capital firms and strategic investors, including Psilos Group, CMEA Ventures, vSpring Capital, EPIC Ventures, Dow Chemical and the Southern Ute Growth Fund.

Even though the Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act, it is clear that the healthcare crisis is this country is not over. While the ACA is focused primarily on expanding health coverage, it misses the two other very real problems: controlling costs and improving quality.

Psilos Group said Monday that it earned a 10x return on the sale of portfolio company Extend Health to Tower Watson. Tower Watson announced the $435 million acquisition on Sunday.

Psilos Group’s Lisa Suennen weighs in with a guest post VCs in the life sciences and healthcare space will want to check out.

Seven of the LP’s latest 10 venture funds saw portfolio values increase from March to June 2011. Two experienced declines and one held steady, according to a peHUB analysis of recent portfolio reports.

The market for venture-backed IPOs has been pretty dead so far this year. But based on new filing activity, it looks like there’s some optimism things will improve. At least six venture-backed companies have filed to go public since the start of the year, in sectors ranging from enterprise software to semiconductors to car rentals. [...]

The Psilos Group, a healthcare focused VC, is looking to raise $400 million with its latest fund, three sources say.

Psilos held a first close in December of roughly $50 million, one of the sources say. The target for fund IV is $450 million, that person says.

Founded in 1998, Psilos currently has $585 million under management. The firm’s third fund, Psilos Group Partners III LP, raised $303 million in 2007.

Psilos, which has offices in New York, Corte Madera, Calif., and Santa Fe, N.M., invests in healthcare services, healthcare information technology and medical technology. The VC firm typically puts in from $8 million to $15 million per deal and expects to invest up to $20 million to $25 million over the life of an investment, according to the Psilos web site.

Last month, one Psilos Group-backed portfolio company was all set to file an S-1 to go public. We did have one IPO in France in July before the world markets got strange. But then there was the debt ceiling crisis in Washington, more bad news on the economic front, and a steep sell-off in the [...]

Back in July 2011 Vivek Wadwha, a highly regarded entrepreneur, author and academic, wrote an article describing five myths about entrepreneurs. Among the five myths he sought to debunk was that women are less-suited than men to succeed in the technology and/or venture-backed economy. Among all the “myths” in Wadwha’s piece, this was one that [...]