Lance Patak
Lance Patak, a graduate student in the Marshall School of Business and a registered nurse, is committed to helping people with his own special combination of medical and business skills.
While working as a critical care nurse and attending medical school at UCLA, Lance developed and patented a tool called the EZ Board, a dry erase board containing pre-printed symbols and icons to help voice-disabled patients express their needs.
“The EZ Board allows patients to communicate so that they can participate in their care and speed up recovery,” says Lance.
The response to the EZ Board was so positive that Lance created a company, Vidatak, to distribute it and recruited a medical school colleague to help him with product development. As demand grew quickly, Lance took a leave of absence from studying medicine at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine to attend business school at USC, where he hoped to learn how to build the company and make it more profitable.
At USC, Lance still finds time to mentor students as part of one of several USC mentor programs. He is also vice president of Entrepreneur Venture Management Association, a student-led organization that promotes the “recognition and capitalization” of innovative entrepreneurial solutions to business problems faced in technology, medical science, finance and entertainment.
“I have had a phenomenal experience at USC,” says Lance. “The Trojan network offers many opportunities.”
“It’s very impressive how Lance has advanced his entrepreneurial skills, especially since he is a busy graduate student,” says Vincent Vigil, director of the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Resource Center. “His knowledge and creativity will definitely assist him in all his future endeavors.”
Lance will complete his MBA with a focus in marketing and entrepreneurship in 2007. After graduation, he plans to continue building his business while completing his doctor of medicine degree. Lance hopes to spend his residency in anesthesiology.