Residence: Adams

Age: 45

Family: Wife, Mary; son, Austin, 12; daughter, Sydney, 10

Education: Bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from West Virginia University, 1986; master’s degree in public management, Carnegie Mellon University, 1992

Occupation: CEO of Clear Count Medical Solutions Inc., a medical technology company founded in 2004 and based in Ross.

Background: In 2006, Palmer joined Steven Fleck, a co-founder of Clear Count and its chief technology officer, in an effort to commercialize a device that would prevent surgical personnel from leaving sponges inside patients. From 2003 to 2006, Palmer was chief operating officer of the Life Sciences Greenhouse in Pittsburgh.

Noteworthy: Palmer recently was awarded the 2009 Carnegie Science Center Start-Up Entrepreneur Award for commercializing the SmartSponge System. The device is the only system to use both counting and detection for the prevention of left-behind surgical sponges. An RFID chip about the size of a penny in the sponges allows them to be easily tracked — counted before they go into the patient, then reconciled at the end of surgery. The device, now on the market, could end surgical slip-ups that can be deadly to patients and costly to hospitals.

Quote: “We clearly have all the elements in place here in Pittsburgh that made (the commercial launch of the Smart Sponge System) easier than it would have in another region. The Pittsburgh Life Science Greenhouse, Innovation Works and the Idea Foundry were all three early investors. As far as medical devices go, this one is going very quickly.”