CEO of Vycor Medical, Inc. (VYCO) Discusses Recent Agreement with HealthSouth
for NovaVision’s NeuroEyeCoach Eye Compensation Therapy
Vycor Medical’s NovaVision Vision Therapy Provides Unique
Solution for Millions of Stroke and Brain Injury Patients Afflicted with Visual
Disorders
Point Roberts WA, NEW YORK, NY -- June 15, 2015 -
Investorideas.com, a global news source covering leading sectors including biotech
and medical technology releases an exclusive interview with Peter Zachariou,
CEO of Vycor Medical, Inc (VYCO).
Peter discusses the recent agreement with
HealthSouth for its NovaVision NeuroEyeCoach Professional Center therapy
program.
This agreement follows the earlier approval by HealthSouth
for Vycor Medical’s NovaVision VIDIT. NovaVision’s lead therapy, Vision Restoration Therapy (VRT), has both a
diagnostic (VIDIT) and a therapeutic component. It is this diagnostic component
that is being made available to HealthSouth participating hospitals to enable HealthSouth rehabilitation and clinical teams
to perform high resolution visual field tests to screen for central visual
field deficits commonly associated with Stroke or Brain Injury.
HealthSouth’s interest in NovaVision’s therapies
demonstrates that vision is increasingly being recognized as an important
condition alongside speech, occupational and physical therapies.
“According to the CDC, every 40 seconds someone has
a Stroke. Nearly 2 million people sustain a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) per
year in the U.S. alone. The Stroke Association estimates there are 8 Million Stroke
survivors and approximately 20% of both Stroke and TBI survivors suffer some
form of permanent vision loss.”
Peter shares insight into this game-changing
technology and how the agreements with HealthSouth will play an integral role
in the future of bringing vision therapy products to patients.
Q: Investorideas.com
Peter, for investors that are not familiar with
your company and its technology, can you give an overview of the NovaVision suite
of products and the relationship between Vycor Medical and NovaVision?
A: Peter Zachariou, CEO of Vycor Medical, Inc.
NovaVision is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Vycor
Medical. NovaVision provides a comprehensive
family of therapies designed for patients with neurologically induced visual disorders. The suite of
therapies both restore (VRT) and help to compensate (NeuroEyeCoach)
for lost vision and complement each other to maximize patient benefit. NovaVision’s diagnostic
and therapy programs have FDA clearance.
All
of NovaVision’s therapies are supported by clinical data. NovaVision’s lead
therapy, Vision Restoration Therapy (VRT), is the only FDA cleared therapy
targeted at the restoration of lost vision as a result of neurological brain
damage such as that caused by a Stroke or Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). VRT is
underpinned by 15 years of research and over 20 clinical studies.
We estimate that the market potential for NovaVision’s
therapies in the US and Europe alone is around $4 Billion.
Q: Investorideas.com
In your most recent press release you announced your
second agreement with HealthSouth, now placing both NeuroEyeCoach, your eye
movement compensation therapy and your diagnostic technology (NovaVision’s VRT)
at HealthSouth. What does this mean in terms of patient treatment?
A: Peter Zachariou, CEO of Vycor Medical, Inc
Visual field deficits caused by neurological
injuries can result in a debilitating loss of confidence and cause
significant isolation; activities of daily life such as reading, shopping or
driving can be very negatively affected.
The VIDIT agreement with HealthSouth participating
hospitals provides their therapists with the tools to identify if a patient has
a visual disorder. The therapist then has the opportunity to refer the patient
to NovaVision for the treatment of these disorders.
It is important to note that prior to the
development of VRT, there was no commercially available therapy to improve the
range or sensitivity of the patient’s field of vision – patients were told they
“had to live with” their deficits. This has now been clinically proven not to
be true.
The significance of being able to
quickly identify visual disorders through this effective screening program is
highlighted by the fact that approximately one-third of Stroke or Brain Injury
patients will suffer from a neurologically-induced visual disorder. An
undetected visual field deficit may adversely impact other rehabilitation
modalities. Early detection and treatment are critical steps towards improving
overall patient care. Our product offering now available to the HealthSouth
network allows their therapists to both identify vision loss and help patients
compensate for their loss.
To
carry out normal daily tasks, such as finding an object at home or on a
supermarket shelf, you need to make effective eye movements. Unfortunately,
normal eye movements are also affected after Brain Injury adding to the
problems of blindness. Specific training is needed for you to learn to make
effective use of your eye movement again. While VRT has been shown to actually restore some of a
patients lost vision, our NeuroEyeCoach program increases the
efficiency of a patient’s eye movement and re-trains the patients’ ability to
make the most of their remaining vision. The two therapies are therefore highly
complementary and provide broad benefits.
Q: Investorideas.com
Can you give us some background on this most recent
HealthSouth agreement and the steps moving forward?
A: Peter Zachariou, CEO of Vycor Medical, Inc.
HealthSouth trialed both the products for many
months in several sites and collected feedback. On the basis of the feedback, HealthSouth
approved our products to be made available in their network.
We have placed VIDIT products with several HealthSouth
hospitals and are now actively marketing our VIDIT and NeuroEyeCoach products
through the HealthSouth network.
The significance of this strategy is that most
patients who have suffered a Stroke or significant Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
will touch a rehab center as an inpatient or outpatient at some time and that
is the universe of patients that are eligible for our therapies.
Looking beyond HealthSouth, there are other
rehabilitation chains in the US which also may be interested in providing more
focused vision rehabilitation treatments. NovaVision stands ready to service
those other chains also.
Q: Investorideas.com
Can you share some success stories and statistics
of the vision therapy technology?
A: Peter Zachariou, CEO of Vycor Medical, Inc.
One of the most gratifying aspects of my job is
that we have a large number of success stories of people who have undertaken
both our VRT and our NeuroEyeCoach therapies. You may have heard most recently of
Carol Urban who has given a number of radio interviews on how she got her life
back following VRT. Carol is a good example of how these therapies can change
someone’s life. In her case, her physician actually told her that it wouldn’t
work and she has now got over 90% of her vision back.
One thing we haven’t touched on is our therapy
suite and how it is readily available to everyone who has suffered visual
disorders following some sort of brain damage such as Stroke. Our VRT and
NeuroEyeCoach will very shortly be available to patients in their own home - delivered
over the Internet onto their own computers, at a very affordable price. We
believe this is the
most affordable, clinically supported, comprehensive therapy suite available on the market to address visual
disorders from neurological brain damage. I would urge anyone who has suffered
vision loss of this kind to reach out to NovaVision.
Q: Investorideas.com
Vycor’s NovaVision is currently the only FDA
approved vision therapy product. What does that mean for the company in terms
of market opportunity?
A: Peter Zachariou, CEO of Vycor Medical, Inc.
NovaVision provides non-invasive, computer-based
vision solutions targeted at a substantial and largely unaddressed market of
people who have visual disorders as a result of Stroke, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
or other neurological brain damage.
Unfortunately that translates into many millions of
people who suffer from this kind of vision loss. Every 40 seconds someone in
the US has a Stroke and there are about 795,000 strokes a year and 8 million American’s
who have suffered a Stroke. Up to 30% of these have a visual disorder and 20% a
permanent visual field deficit. You can quickly appreciate that the market we
are targeting is in the many billions of dollars and as you say, VRT is the
only clinically supported restoration therapy out there with FDA clearance.
Q: Investorideas.com
In closing, can you summarize your corporate
strategy and vision that includes your complete portfolio of products and
medical solutions?
A: Peter Zachariou, CEO of Vycor Medical, Inc.
To date, NovaVision’s products have
changed the lives of many patients. It is our clear intention to continue to
promote and raise the awareness of our life-improving therapies with a view of
becoming the gold standard for vision rehabilitation for patients who have
suffered visual disorders resulting from Stroke and other brain injuries.
Since Vycor acquired NovaVision, we
have focused on building the basis for this gold standard objective by driving
down the price of the therapy by lowering the cost of delivery and increasing
efficiencies; broadening benefits to patients by adding NeuroEyeCoach; and
making our therapies truly scalable. NovaVision is now positioned for the first
time, with the suite of therapies and product offerings, to deliver on this
strategic vision: to provide a clinically supported, affordable and scalable
visual therapy solution offering broad benefits to those suffering visual
impairment following neurological damage and to offer solutions for both
patients and physicians alike.
About Vycor Medical, Inc.
With corporate headquarters in Boca Raton, FL,
Vycor Medical, Inc. (“Vycor”) is a publicly traded company (OTCQB—VYCO)
dedicated to providing the medical community with innovative and superior
surgical and therapeutic solutions and has a growing portfolio of FDA cleared
medical solutions that are changing and improving lives every day. The Company
operates two business units: Vycor Medical and NovaVision, both of which adopt
a minimally or non-invasive approach. Both technologies have exceptional sales
growth potential, address large potential markets, have the requisite
regulatory approvals and are commercialized and generating revenue.
Vycor Medical’s ViewSite™ Surgical Access Systems
(VBAS) is a suite of clear cylindrical minimally invasive disposable devices
that hold the potential for speedier, safer and more economical brain surgeries
and a quicker patient discharge. VBAS is designed to optimize
neurosurgical site access, reduce patient risk, accelerate recovery and add
tangible value to the professional medical community. The company is ISO
13485:2003 compliant, has U.S. FDA 510(k) clearance for brain and spine
surgeries and full regulatory approvals for brain in Australia, Brazil, Canada,
China, Europe (EU – Class III), Korea and Japan and is seeking or has partial
regulatory approvals in India, Russia, Taiwan and Vietnam. For an overview of
Vycor Medical’s VBAS see VBAS
Video.
NovaVision develops and provides science-driven
neurostimulation therapy and other medical technologies that help improve and
partially restore sight in patients with neurological vision impairments. The company’s proprietary Visual Restoration
Therapy® (VRT) platform is clinically supported to improve lost vision
resulting from Stroke, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), or other acquired brain
injuries. VRT is the only FDA 510K cleared medical device in the U.S. aimed at
the restoration of vision for neurologically induced vision loss and can be
prescribed by any physician. VRT also
has CE Marking for the EU. NovaVision also provides Neuro Eye Therapy (NeET) in
the EU, aimed at increasing visual sensitivity deep within the field defect.
The Company has also developed NeuroEyeCoach™, a
therapy which is highly complementary to VRT™. The two therapies address different visual disabilities each
of which results from neurologically-induced vision loss – a loss of visual
field as well as difficulty with eye movement, affecting the ability to
integrate visual information. VRT provides partial restoration of the patient’s
lost visual field; NeuroEyeCoach™ is designed to increase the efficiency of eye
movement and re-train the patients’ ability to integrate visual information
between the left and right hand side.
For an overview of NovaVision see NovaVision Video.
InvestorIdeas.com
newswire is a global investor news source covering leading sectors including
medical technology and biotech.
Sign up for free news alerts at
Investorideas.com
Become an Investorideas.com Member and access our online stock
directories listing thousands of publicly traded stocks in leading sectors
Disclaimer/
Disclosure: The Investorideas.com newswire is a third party publisher of news
and research as well as creates original content as a news source. Original
content created by investorideas is protected by copyright laws other than
syndication rights. Investorideas is a news source on Google news syndication
partners. Our site does not make recommendations for purchases or sale of
stocks or products. Nothing on our sites should be construed as an offer or
solicitation to buy or sell products or securities. All investment involves
risk and possible loss of investment. This site is currently compensated by
featured companies, news submissions, content marketing and online advertising.
Contact each company directly for press release questions. Disclosure is posted
on each release if required but otherwise the news was not compensated for and
is published for the sole interest of our readers. More disclaimer info: http://www.investorideas.com/About/Disclaimer.asp
(VYCO): June 2, 2015 – The company has retained Investor Ideas for PR, media
and news distribution: Five thousand per month, one month with option to renew.
BC Residents and
Investor Disclaimer : Effective September 15 2008 - all BC investors should
review all OTC and Pink sheet listed companies for adherence in new disclosure
filings and filing appropriate documents with Sedar. Read for more info: http://www.bcsc.bc.ca/release.aspx?id=6894
. Global investors must adhere to regulations of each country.
Contact Investorideas.com
800 665 0411
