These Two Innovative Diagnostic Devices Just Scored Big FundingOne is for early detection of ovarian cancer, the other is a microendoscope that gynecologists can use in their exam rooms. Both aim to make a difference in patients' lives.

Taking care of business: Surbhi Sarna of nVision Medical.

Photo © Jeff Clark

As a teenager, Surbhi Sarna was plagued by painful ovarian cysts. After six months of hospital visits and uncertainty, she was finally diagnosed. "I got lucky, and it turned out to be benign," says Sarna, now 28. "But I realized that women's health isn't where it should be."

That experience and the frustration she felt over the limited diagnostic options available to women shaped her subsequent academic and professional pursuits. As an undergrad, she studied molecular and cell biology at the University of California, Berkeley, and worked as a clinical scientist at the Stanford University School of Medicine. After graduating from Berkeley in 2007, she worked as an engineer for medical-device companies Abbott Vascular and BioCardia. In 2012, armed with roughly $500,000 in seed funding, she founded nVision Medical, a medical-device company that works to improve women's healthcare.