Organ Cooler
By Julie Sloane

(FORTUNE Small Business) – Every day, 16 Americans die waiting for an organ transplant. Meanwhile, thousands of organs go unused because the ice-filled coolers in which they are transported can't preserve them long enough. In response, Organ Recovery Systems of Des Plaines, Ill., developed the LifePort Kidney Transporter, which pulses a kidney with cold fluids to increase its lifespan to 35 hours from 18. The kidney transporter won FDA clearance last August, but through May only 67 units had been sold. Despite its slick design, experts say, the device has not yet proved to work significantly better than Waters Instruments' RM3 Renal Preservation System, a decades-old competitor. --Julie Sloane