CW Optics is the Largest Grant Recipient among all For-Profit Virginia Businesses
A small medical device research and development company based in Seaford easily surpassed all its competition within the Commonwealth of Virginia
last year in the amount of award money it received from the National Institute of Health. CW Optics received nearly $1.8 million from the National
Institute of Health in fiscal year 2007, making it the largest grant recipient among all for-profit businesses in Virginia.
"We are in a so-called rural area, but we do good work, and the federal government recognizes that," said CW Optics President Nee-Yin Chou. Chou has lived
in York County for over 20 years, and started CW Optics over 15 years ago. "We love it here," she said. "In today's digital age, you can do great work anywhere.
Here, we are surrounded by land owned by the Nature Conservancy. We see deer, butterflies, rabbits and squirrels all the time. Who wants to deal with traffic
jams in or around big cities?"
Chou said CW Optics applies for research and development grants from the National Institute of Health. "We develop medial technologies and devices,"
Chou explained. "We propose our ideas to NIH in certain areas of medical research. When we get a grant from NIH, it shows they like our ideas, so they
provide us with the funding to carry out our research, with an end goal of improving public health."
Two such projects are highlighted on CW Optics' Web site, www.cwoptics.com. One proposes to provide a means of detecting intravenous infiltration, the
leaking of fluid from an IV line into surrounding body tissues. About half of IV lines fail, causing patients pain as the liquid meant to enter the blood
stream instead leaks into body tissue. Such leakage can lead to necrosis requiring amputation, and even death in the most severe cases. CW Optics will
begin an 800 patient study to further evaluate its Intravenous Infiltration Detection device.
The other project is the development of tissue perfusion and blood flow monitoring technology. The company is currently developing an advanced Laser
Speckle Imager to monitor the progression of wound healing in diabetic patients with chronic wounds who are under hyperbaric oxygen treatment therapy.
CW Optics plans to begin a 40 patient study in early 2009.
"These are just some of the research projects that CW Optics is currently working on," Chou said. "We may be a small company, but we are highly competitive.
We have to compete in a global economy. Being able to do so also brings us potential investors."
This article was originally published on www.yorkcounty.gov.
