VCURES Partners with Hemodyne and Bio-Track to win U.S. Army SBIR Grant

Hemodyne Inc ( www.hemodyne.com ) has partnered with VCURES and Bio•Track , LLC ( http://www.bio-track.com/ ) to win a $70,000 SBIR grant from the United States Army to develop a medical device that can be used as an alternative to the tourniquet for noncompressible hemorrhage.

“It is estimated that 10% 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 occurs 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 who developed the idea for the device and is a consultant on the grant 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. Temporary stabilization strategies which this grant will address means the device must be light weight, rugged, and have a miniscule failure rate. 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 hemorrhage in these difficult areas and demonstrate its feasibility. Based on these results, the company and VCURES will pursue a phase 2 award for testing in other models. The partnership takes advantage of the VCURES Operation Purple Heart Program ( http://www.vcu.edu/vcures/purpleheart.htm ), 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 ( http://www.vabiotech.com/ ).

For more information contact Dr. Kevin Ward at krward@vcu.edu