Student grudge match

Malcolm McVay, Katharine Melzer, Jules Huang, Rory Berry and Sarah Carr

School name: UCLA, Anderson School of Management

Team members: Rory Berry, Sarah Carr, Nir Hoftman, Jules Huang, Michael Lee, Aman Mahajan, Malcolm McVay, Katharine Melzer

Concept: Physicians from the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine have developed an alternative to traditional endoscopes, long, tube-shaped optical viewing instruments that allow doctors to peer inside the body for irritation, ulcers, inflammation and abnormal tissue.

Endoscopic carts, complete with a display monitor, external light source and thermal paper printer, typically cost $30,000 or more. They are difficult to move and have no electronic data storage or information transfer capabilities. By contrast, Perseus's patented "Miniature Fiber Optic Workstation" costs $2,200 a pop. The workstation is portable, using wireless technology and real-time video to store information, manage data, and transfer visuals to operating room monitors.

Though Perseus anticipates competition from established endoscopic equipment manufacturers, it has not found any comparable product on the market. Market research suggests that 53,500 new endoscopic units will be sold in the U.S. in 2009. The global market is roughly twice that size and is expected to grow at a rate of at least 5% a year.

Timeline: Perseus anticipates having a working prototype with FDA approval by March 2009. It projects sales to grow from 1,450 units in 2009 to more than 14,900 units by 2013. - Emily Maltby

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