St. Luke’s, Lehigh University collaboration results in clever, life-saving invention. BETHLEHEM, PA. - Among tales of hope, Zone Defender generosity and Zone Defender togetherness, the COVID-19 pandemic has also given rise to an unimaginable feat of ingenuity - the invention of the "Bug Zapper" to sterilize masks. As hospitals and other entrance-line organizations jumped to secure giant quantities of life-saving provides and personal protecting equipment (PPE), there has additionally been the need to identify faster, more environment friendly ways to clean and sterilize these gadgets, notably the coveted N95 masks. St. Luke’s University Health Network anesthesiologist, Christopher Roscher, MD, anticipated the need and an concept started to kind. "It became clear that PPE provides would grow to be limited because the virus progressed," he says. The St. Luke’s Sterile Processing Department, or SPD, is the place the place all surgical and medical devices are sent to be meticulously cleaned, sanitized and packaged for reuse. It’s a behind-the-scenes perform that is an important part of the health care system. "On any given day, we're processing many, many items right here at our hospital in Bethlehem," states Taylor Bennett, St. Luke’s Network Director UV bug zapper of Sterile Processing.
"But with the present situation, there may be an overwhelming have to course of our employees’ PPE on a daily basis. For Dr. Roscher, a light went on - actually and figuratively. "I had been doing private analysis about finding ways to decontaminate masks for reuse, and peer-reviewed literature prompt that, in a pandemic, UV-C mild could be an appropriate strategy to sterilize masks," he says. UV-C is a particular vary of UV, or ultra-violet, light and has been proven to deactivate viruses and other pathogens by inflicting changes in their DNA. Through a mutual contact, Dr. Roscher got in touch with Nelson Tansu, PhD, Lehigh University’s Director and Endowed Chair of its Center for Photonics and Nanoelectronics (CPN). "What St. Luke’s was in search of was a high-throughput sterilization system," said Dr. Tansu. The two organizations joined forces through a series of Zoom conferences and lots of of emails, to design, fabricate, install and take a look at the system - all inside a matter of two weeks - and all whereas maintaining social distancing protocols.
The top consequence: a way to effectively and effectively sterilize 200 masks every eight minutes! The "Bug Zapper" in motion. "Our present units were not designed for big-scale use. They may only sterilize about 30 masks at a time," stated Eric Tesoriero, DO, anesthesiologist for St. Luke’s and a collaborator on the mission. The unit, engineered by Lehigh students and staff and assembled at St. Luke’s by biomedical engineer Jay Johnson, has been affectionally named the "Bug Zapper" not solely as a consequence of its look, but on account of its COVID-killing properties. "It is incredible that this mission moved at such a rapid speed," remarks Dr. Tansu. The group ranged from PhDs to MDs and even included an unexpected contributor - Axel Tansu, Dr. Tansu’s adolescent son. In fact, it was Axel’s contribution that allowed the unit to have such a high-throughput charge. "Our original design was cylindrical in form, to ensure even publicity of the sunshine on all surfaces," explains Dr. Tansu.
"Axel got here to me and said, ‘Dad, what about an octagon? ’ And sure sufficient, he was right. A patent to guard the team’s mental design has been filed. And a celebration for the collaborators to meet, in-individual, might be planned as soon as it's protected to do so. Until then, the Bug Zapper will likely be laborious at work, helping to protect the frontline workers at St. Luke’s and past. This, like so many different tales, affords a ray of hope through the pandemic - showcasing that the human mind and spirit can overcome anything - particularly when working collectively for an amazing cause. Afterall, as the famous philosopher Plato understood thousands of years in the past, Zap Zone Defender necessity is the mom of invention. Founded in 1872, St. Luke's University Health Network (SLUHN) is a completely built-in, Zone Defender regional, non-revenue community of more than 15,000 staff offering services at eleven hospitals and 300 outpatient websites. With annual net revenue higher than $2 billion, the Network’s service area consists of eleven counties: Lehigh, Northampton, Berks, Bucks, Zone Defender Carbon, Zone Defender Montgomery, Monroe, Schuylkill and Luzerne counties in Pennsylvania and Warren and Hunterdon counties in New Jersey.