St. Luke’s, Lehigh University collaboration leads to intelligent, life-saving invention. BETHLEHEM, PA. - Among tales of hope, generosity and togetherness, the COVID-19 pandemic has additionally given rise to an unimaginable feat of ingenuity - the invention of the "indoor bug zapper Zapper" to sterilize masks. As hospitals and different entrance-line organizations jumped to safe large quantities of life-saving provides and personal protecting equipment (PPE), there has also been the need to determine faster, extra environment friendly ways to wash and sterilize those objects, significantly the coveted N95 masks. St. Luke’s University Health Network anesthesiologist, Christopher Roscher, MD, bug zapper for patio anticipated the need and an concept began to kind. "It became clear that PPE provides would develop into restricted as 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 despatched to be meticulously cleaned, sanitized and packaged for reuse. It’s a behind-the-scenes function that is a vital a part of the well being care system. "On any given day, we are processing many, many objects here at our hospital in Bethlehem," states Taylor Bennett, mosquito prevention device St. Luke’s Network Director of Sterile Processing.
"But with the present state of affairs, there is an overwhelming have to course of our employees’ PPE every day. For Dr. Roscher, a light went on - actually and figuratively. "I had been doing non-public research about discovering ways to decontaminate masks for reuse, and mosquito prevention device peer-reviewed literature suggested that, in a pandemic, UV-C light could be an appropriate strategy to sterilize masks," he says. UV-C is a selected range of UV, or ultra-violet, light and has been proven to deactivate viruses and different pathogens by causing adjustments 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 on the lookout for was a high-throughput sterilization system," mentioned Dr. Tansu. The two organizations joined forces by means of a collection of Zoom meetings and a whole lot of emails, to design, fabricate, set up and check the system - all within a matter of two weeks - and all whereas maintaining social distancing protocols.
The tip end result: a technique to successfully and efficiently sterilize 200 masks each 8 minutes! The "Bug Zapper" in action. "Our existing items were not designed for big-scale use. They could only sterilize about 30 masks at a time," acknowledged 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 "outdoor bug zapper mosquito zapper" not only resulting from its look, but attributable to its COVID-killing properties. "It is unimaginable that this challenge moved at such a fast speed," remarks Dr. Tansu. The team ranged from PhDs to MDs and even included an unexpected contributor - Axel Tansu, Dr. Tansu’s adolescent son. The truth is, it was Axel’s contribution that allowed the unit to have such a excessive-throughput charge. "Our unique design was cylindrical in form, to ensure even exposure 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 proper. A patent to guard the team’s mental design has been filed. And mosquito prevention device a celebration for the collaborators to fulfill, in-particular person, will probably be deliberate once it's protected to take action. Until then, the Bug Zapper shall be onerous at work, serving to to protect the frontline employees at St. Luke’s and beyond. This, like so many different tales, mosquito prevention device offers a ray of hope throughout the pandemic - showcasing that the human thoughts and spirit can overcome anything - especially when working together for an important cause. Afterall, because the well-known philosopher Plato understood hundreds of years ago, necessity is the mom of invention. Founded in 1872, St. Luke's University Health Network (SLUHN) is a completely integrated, regional, non-revenue community of greater than 15,000 employees providing companies at 11 hospitals and 300 outpatient sites. With annual internet income greater than $2 billion, the Network’s service space includes eleven counties: Lehigh, Northampton, Berks, Bucks, Carbon, Montgomery, Monroe, Schuylkill and Luzerne counties in Pennsylvania and Warren and Hunterdon counties in New Jersey.