Meet our Team
BodyViz, a unit of Visual Medical Solutions, LLC
Curt Carlson 
Curt Carlson is a seasoned “serial” entrepreneur providing extensive CEO leadership, software sales and software development experience in commercializing tech-transfer technologies. He has spent over 20 years building tech-transfer companies via the Iowa State University Research Park. Mr. Carlson is a native Iowan and a 1985 graduate of Iowa State University. Upon graduation, he was recruited to Ford Motor Company in Detroit as a software engineer where he quickly became a key team member on high-profile Ford projects. At age 25, he was recruited back to Ames to start one of the first ISU Research Park companies: University Systems Technology (UST). In 1999, Mr. Carlson negotiated the sale of the company to the then multi-billion dollar public company, McLeodUSA; subsequently spinning-out the division and exiting in 2005. Following the exit Mr. Carlson was introduced to a compelling new ISU technology, “the Google for shapes,” a shape-based search engine called CADSeek. Mr. Carlson became a major investor and helped raise Series A financing for the company. Currently, Mr. Carlson is CEO and a major shareholder of BodyViz, a new Iowa startup whose PC-based software allows a user to quickly turn any MRI into 3D, then examine and fly though the anatomy using an Xbox controller. BodyViz has been sold into a large addressable market: medical, medical education, higher education, K-12 education, personal injury and medical malpractice trial lawyers and veterinary medicine. BodyViz has received extraordinary mass media exposure from publications, television stations, major broadcast networks including CNBC and NBC’s major hit, the Biggest Loser. Mr. Carlson is also a board member on the Iowa Innovation Council and the Iowa State University Research Foundation.
Dr. James Oliver 
Founder. Professor of Mechanical Engineering, currently serves as Director of the CyberInnovation Institute at Iowa State University a new federation of IT-related research centers at Iowa State University (ISU) focused on strengthening the university’s research competitiveness in Cyberinfrastructure and its applications, and leveraging it to enhance Iowa’s IT-based economy. He also serves as director of ISU’s Virtual Reality Applications Center (VRAC) and its Interdepartmental Graduate Program in Human Computer Interaction (HCI). Dr. Oliver’s current research, teaching and economic development activities involve a wide array of human computer interaction technologies, encompassing computer graphics, geometric modeling, virtual reality, and collaborative networks for applications in product development and complex system operation. Previously, Dr. Oliver served as Vice President of Product Development at Cognicity, Inc. a Twin-Cities startup focused on Internet-based entertainment marketing. From 1997-2000 Oliver headed product development for Engineering Animation Inc. (NASDAQ: EAII).
Dr. Eliot Winer
Founder. Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering. Currently the Associate Director of the Virtual Reality Applications Center at Iowa State University. Dr. Winer's research focuses on conceptual design of complex systems, virtual reality and visualization as aids in decision making, medical image visualization, segmentation, and surgical planning. From 1994-2001 Dr. Winer was a founding partner of After Five Technologies originally headquartered in Buffalo, NY. After Five focused on e-commerce systems at the beginning of the commercial Internet boom in the late 1990's. His second company, Visual Design Systems, LLC provided visualization software and services from 2000-2004 to improve the design processes for engineered products.
Dr. Thom Lobe
Founder. Is a world-renowned Pediatric surgeon based at Blank Children’s Hospital in Des Moines. Dr. Lobe is a pioneer and expert in robotic assisted surgery and specializes in pediatric minimally invasive surgery. Dr. Lobe received his MD at the University of Maryland and did his residency at Ohio State University. Dr. Lobe has written more than 200 books, book chapters and peer-reviewed articles. He has lectured world wide on nearly every continent. Dr. Lobe found time to study law and complete a Physician’s Executive Masters in Business Administration degree program at the University of Tennessee School of Business in Knoxville, TN. It was there that he focused on the development of his ideas for a new kind of medical practice, combining the best of conventional and complementary and alternative medicine. As an innovator, Dr. Lobe is also a board member and founding advisor to Neatstitch, LLC, a laparoscopic instrument company based in Israel and now in the United States. He is also the innovator and co-founder for Visual Medical Solutions, LLC, the producers of BodyViz.
