(FORTUNE Magazine) – If we told you that your tax dollars were going to a suave D.C. lawyer and a motorcycle freak, you'd be steamed. But if we added that Peter Levine and Ben Hitt of Correlogic Systems invented an early diagnosis test for ovarian cancer, and that tests for prostate, breast, and pancreatic cancer are on the way, you'd probably be more charitable.

Beltway insider Levine formed Correlogic three years ago, hiring Hitt, a biochemist turned programmer, to develop software to detect patterns among proteins in blood tests. (Most current cancer tests look for only a single protein).

In February the company published a small sample study with the FDA and the National Cancer Institute in the medical journal The Lancet. In the study, Correlogic's blood screen correctly identified each woman who had ovarian cancer, with few false positives.That got the attention of U.S. Representatives Steve Israel and Rosa DeLauro, who this March introduced a bill to fast-track Correlogic's trials and require Medicare to cover the test. That wouldn't make taxpaying any more palatable, but at least it might save lives.

--Noshua Watson