South Florida Business Journal: Military Veterans Have Access to NovaVision VRT
08/29/2007
NovaVision to Treat Tampa Veterans
South Florida Business Journal – August 29, 2007 - NovaVision said it has agreed to provide a vision restoration treatment to veterans and active-duty military members with partial vision loss due to traumatic brain injury and stroke at the Tampa Polytrauma Rehabilitation Center.
The Boca Raton-based medical device and services company is providing the treatment at no cost to the government or soldiers, Chief Executive Officer Navroze Mehta said. Its goal is to roll it out at other veteran centers, then bill under a standard operating agreement.
Veterans of the conflict in Afghanistan have been treated with its vision restoration therapy and one soldier improved enough to get redeployed, Mehta said.
"We wanted to offer this to our veterans immediately," Mehta said.
The rehabilitation center, part of the Department of Veterans Affairs, is the only veterans institution to provide vision restoration therapy (VRT), which has been cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to restore vision lost to brain trauma and stroke, NovaVision said. Studies show the treatment to be 70 percent effective in helping patients regain significant vision.
NovaVision licenses the technology to 50 centers in 26 states.
Although each case of vision loss due to brain trauma needs to be diagnosed to determine if the treatment is appropriate, the company estimates that between 10 percent and 30 percent of service people returning from Iraq and Afghanistan suffer from traumatic brain injury, and about 20 percent could potentially have vision loss.
Patients who qualify undergo testing to map their seeing and blind areas. Based on their visual field deficits, patients receive a customized therapy program. The treatment is based on neuroplasticity, which is the brain's ability to adapt, form new neuronal connections and compensate for injury, the company said.
The Boca Raton-based medical device and services company is providing the treatment at no cost to the government or soldiers, Chief Executive Officer Navroze Mehta said. Its goal is to roll it out at other veteran centers, then bill under a standard operating agreement.
Veterans of the conflict in Afghanistan have been treated with its vision restoration therapy and one soldier improved enough to get redeployed, Mehta said.
"We wanted to offer this to our veterans immediately," Mehta said.
The rehabilitation center, part of the Department of Veterans Affairs, is the only veterans institution to provide vision restoration therapy (VRT), which has been cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to restore vision lost to brain trauma and stroke, NovaVision said. Studies show the treatment to be 70 percent effective in helping patients regain significant vision.
NovaVision licenses the technology to 50 centers in 26 states.
Although each case of vision loss due to brain trauma needs to be diagnosed to determine if the treatment is appropriate, the company estimates that between 10 percent and 30 percent of service people returning from Iraq and Afghanistan suffer from traumatic brain injury, and about 20 percent could potentially have vision loss.
Patients who qualify undergo testing to map their seeing and blind areas. Based on their visual field deficits, patients receive a customized therapy program. The treatment is based on neuroplasticity, which is the brain's ability to adapt, form new neuronal connections and compensate for injury, the company said.