The design of a system that uses radio frequency identification tags to track patients through the surgical process has earned a South Side-based start-up a plum industry award. PeriOptimum now is looking to convert the buzz from receiving the 2005 Product Innovation Award from Palo Alto, Calif.-based consulting firm Frost & Sullivan to assist in efforts to raise up to $5 million in venture capital and open doors with new customers. The company, founded in 1998 by former UPMC anesthesiologist Dr. W. David Watkins and Hakan Ilkin, an industrial engineer who worked in UPMC's surgical services division, has consulting relationships with 25 hospitals and has installed its patient tracking system, PathFinder, in six hospitals, said CEO Jeff Karp. Karp said PeriOptimum had about $1.5 million in revenue in 2005 and targets revenues of up to $20 million in three years. The company employs 17, but plans more hires upon its capital-raising effort. The company has been funded to date largely through the founders and a group of Pittsburgh-area individual "angel" investors. The company recently added former Allegheny County Executive Jim Roddey to its board of directors. Karp, who joined the company in April to provide business development acumen so Watkins and Ilkin could focus on product development, said plans are to hire 10 to 12 people over the next year in sales and marketing and consulting positions. "Our products and services help hospitals to do more surgeries during the prime shift and make it more predictable for surgeons, nurses and patients," Karp said. This helps increase operating room utilization and decreases overtime for surgeons and nurses, he said. Frost & Sullivan's Acute Care Information Systems analyst, Christopher Boone, said PathFinder allows operating room directors to make quick decisions about adjusting room and personnel assignments, which is especially helpful when receiving unscheduled admissions from the emergency department, or when scheduled surgeries run longer than expected. Lancaster General Hospital, in Lancaster County, implemented the system two years ago, and said it has helped increase operating room utilization rates by 15 percent, leading to a $9 million increase in revenue, according to spokesman John Lines. Karp says PeriOptimum could eventually be acquired by a strategic partner, or be acquired in a roll-up of companies providing automation of hospital services. "The piece of the puzzle we solve is part of a much broader set of solutions" for automating health care processes he said.

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