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For Immediate
Release
January 3, 2005
Park tenants partner to develop medical products for the
military
Richmond, Va. – Hemodyne, a theranostic device company
that maintains an office at the Virginia BioTechnology Research
Park, was recently awarded a $70,000 Small Business Innovation
Research grant from the U.S. Army to develop a medical device
that can be used as an alternative to the tourniquet for noncompressible
hemorrhages.
Hemodyne has partnered with Bio•Track, LLC and Virginia
Commonwealth University’s Reanimation
Engineering Shock Center LINK TO (www.vcures.org) to produce
a wide range
of lightweight, durable medical devices appropriate for military
personnel to use in austere, remote conditions. Among these
products is a one-handed tourniquet that was developed utilizing
feedback from the highly trained Special Forces Medics at
the Joint Special Operations Medical Training Center in Fort
Bragg,
N.C. According to Devinder Bawa, president of Hemodyne, this
research also identified the need for a device that can be
used when a tourniquet cannot be applied to a wound.
“It is estimated that 10 percent of the soldiers killed
on the battlefield bleed to death from extremity wounds,” said
Devinder Bawa, president and CEO of Hemodyne. “Many
of these lives could be saved by the prompt and effective
use
of a tourniquet. However, a subset of extremity injuries
occur at a level that is not amenable to tourniquet application.
Vascular injuries in the region of the groin continue to
be
largely untreatable on the battlefield.”
Dr. Kevin Ward, associate director of VCURES, states, “Troops
incurring this subset of wounds are extraordinarily challenging
to stabilize and treat, especially since they must simultaneously
be removed from the battle area and may have to wait significant
periods of time to reach definitive care. Good insight into
the difficulty of this situation can be found in a scene from
the movie ‘Black Hawk Down.’ Temporary stabilization
strategies, which this grant will address, mean the device
must be lightweight, rugged, and have a miniscule failure
rate. Again, there is no golden hour in combat casualty care.”
During phase one of the grant, Hemodyne will develop a product
that can be used to control hemorrhages in these difficult
areas and demonstrate its feasibility in a (non-animal) model
system. The company will then test efficacy of device and begin
production for the military as well as civilian trauma settings.
The partnership takes advantage of the VCURES Operation Purple
Heart Program, which is a unique research endeavor focused
on combat casualty care.
“With our country’s increased use of military operations
far removed from traditional battlefield medical care, these
devices will help save lives,” said Mark Licata, president
of Bio•Track, LLC located at the Virginia Biotechnology
Research Park.
Contact:
Nicky Colomb
Virginia BioTechnology Research Park
Phone: (804) 828-6884
E-mail: ncolomb@vabiotech.com
Devinder Bawa
President and CEO
Hemodyne, Inc.
Phone: (240) 350-1110
E-mail: devinder@Hemodyne.com
Mark Licata
Bio-Track, LLC
Phone: (804) 828-9329
Web site: http://www.bio-track.com/
Kevin Ward, MD
Virginia Commonwealth University
Reanimation Engineering Shock Center
Phone: (804) 225-4861
E-mail: krward@vcu.edu
Web site: http://www.vcures.org/
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