Alphapointe Receives Approval from Department of Defense for its Tactical Mechanical Tourniquet (TMT)

The Tactical Mechanical Tourniquet Will Save Lives of our Nation’s Fighting Men and Women

May 6, 2019, Kansas City, MO ~ Alphapointe, the non-profit organization dedicated to helping individuals who are legally blind secure gainful employment, announced today that it has received notice that after years of testing and evaluation, the Tactical Mechanical Tourniquet (TMT) it has been developing has been approved by the Department of Defense – Committee for Tactical Combat Casualty Care (CoTCCC) and will be listed as a recommended limb tourniquet to be used by the military.

The Tactical Mechanical Tourniquet (TMT) is a life-saving medical device designed alongside the US Army to improve casualty rates among the American warfighter. The TMT has been under development since September 2012 when at the request of the Army, Alphapointe began collaboration on a design of an improved field tourniquet.  What has resulted is a superior tourniquet based on lessons learned, identified failures, and feedback from the battlefield while performing front line medicine. The TMT is designed to ensure ease of application, definitively control hemorrhage and eliminate the current tourniquet percentage of failure rates.  Taught as a self-aid/buddy-aid task, the TMT requires minimal training to instantly treat life-threatening hemorrhage of an extremity.  The TMT has gone through multiple testing and evaluations performed by the Department of Defense (DoD) as well as independent studies, practical labs, training exercises and real life use.  In all cases, the TMT has never failed and in the majority of cases was the preferred tourniquet when compared to other devices.

Alphapointe has sold over 180,000 TMTs which have been fielded by various Army units and taken into combat zones.  With this full endorsement by the DOD, Alphapointe will be able to pursue additional markets such as first responders, law enforcement, first aid programs, retail and international military sales.

With today’s announcement, the TMT will be in full production by Alphapointe and will create new jobs in the upcoming year for individuals with vision loss.

Reinhard Mabry, President and CEO of Alphapointe said, “We are elated with today’s news.  The TMT was developed due to device failures and inadequate patient outcomes with the current solution. The Army has invested time and resources in testing and evaluating various tourniquets and has consistently found that Alphapointe’s product was superior to what is currently on the market.” According to Mabry, “The selection of Alphapointe’s TMT as a tourniquet of choice for the US Army will create 15-30 new jobs in our Queens, New York location, and its Kansas City headquarters, for people who are blind and visually impaired. With the unemployment rate of people who are blind over 70%, we know this will provide much needed jobs.  Many of our employees have never served in the Armed Forces because of their disability.  They are eager to serve our nation’s volunteer army by supplying the best lifesaving device on the market.”

About Alphapointe:

Alphapointe, headquartered in Kansas City, MO, has been empowering people with vision loss to achieve their goals and aspirations since its founding in 1911. Alphapointe, one of the largest employers of people who are blind in the U.S., with manufacturing facilities in both the State of Missouri and the State of New York, has over 400 employees, of which 230 are blind or visually impaired. Alphapointe is one of the region’s largest resources for people with vision loss, offering products and services nationwide. Alphapointe’s business lines include plastics, micro-molding, office products manufacturing and sales, textiles manufacturing and sales, janitorial products, contact center services, retail stores and a comprehensive rehabilitation and education program for people who are blind or are losing their vision. For more info about Alphapointe, visit www.alphapointe.org.

About CoTCCC:

Joint Trauma System (JTS) / Committee on Tactical Combat Casualty Care (CoTCCC). The CoTCCC is the branch of the JTS focused on the standard of care for pre-hospital battlefield medicine. The JTS is the Department of Defense Center of Excellence for Trauma providing clinical practice guidelines and performance improvement for all levels of military trauma care.