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
Marketwired
InvestorIdeas.com
POINT ROBERTS, WA, and NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwired - 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."
http://player.vimeo.com/video/39765566
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.
For the latest information on the company, including media and other coverage, and to learn more, please go online at www.vycormedical.com, www.vycorvbas.com or www.novavision.com.
InvestorIdeas.com newswire is a global investor news source covering leading sectors including medical technology and biotech.
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Vycor Medical's NovaVision Vision Therapy Provides Unique Solution for Millions of Stroke and Brain Injury Patients Afflicted With Visual Disorders
Marketwired
InvestorIdeas.com
POINT ROBERTS, WA, and NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwired - 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."
http://player.vimeo.com/video/39765566
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.
For the latest information on the company, including media and other coverage, and to learn more, please go online at www.vycormedical.com, www.vycorvbas.com or www.novavision.com.
InvestorIdeas.com newswire is a global investor news source covering leading sectors including medical technology and biotech.
Follow Investorideas.com on Twitter http://twitter.com/#!/Investorideas
Follow Investorideas.com on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/Investorideas
Sign up for free news alerts at Investorideas.com
http://www.investorideas.com/Resources/Newsletter.asp
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