St. Luke’s, Lehigh University collaboration results in intelligent, Zap Zone Defender USA life-saving invention. BETHLEHEM, PA. - Among stories of hope, Zap Zone Defender Experience generosity and togetherness, the COVID-19 pandemic has also given rise to an incredible feat of ingenuity - the invention of the "Bug Zapper" to sterilize masks. As hospitals and different front-line organizations jumped to secure massive portions of life-saving supplies and personal protecting gear (PPE), there has additionally been the need to determine quicker, extra environment friendly ways to clean and sterilize those gadgets, particularly the coveted N95 masks. St. Luke’s University Health Network anesthesiologist, Christopher Roscher, MD, indoor-outdoor zapper anticipated the need and an idea began to kind. "It grew to become clear that PPE provides would turn out to be restricted because the virus progressed," he says. The St. Luke’s Sterile Processing Department, or SPD, is the place the place all surgical and medical instruments are sent to be meticulously cleaned, sanitized and packaged for reuse. It’s a behind-the-scenes function that is an important part of the health care system. "On any given day, we are processing many, many items right here at our hospital in Bethlehem," states Taylor Bennett, indoor-outdoor zapper St. Luke’s Network Director of Sterile Processing.
"But with the present state of affairs, there's an overwhelming must course of our employees’ PPE each day. For Dr. Roscher, a mild went on - literally and figuratively. "I had been doing personal analysis about finding methods to decontaminate masks for reuse, and peer-reviewed literature steered that, in a pandemic, indoor-outdoor zapper UV-C light could possibly be an acceptable technique to sterilize masks," he says. UV-C is a particular vary of UV, or ultra-violet, gentle and has been proven to deactivate viruses and different pathogens by causing modifications of their DNA. Through a mutual contact, Dr. Roscher acquired 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 searching for was a high-throughput sterilization system," mentioned Dr. Tansu. The two organizations joined forces via a collection of Zoom conferences and a whole lot of emails, to design, fabricate, set up and check the machine - all inside a matter of two weeks - and all whereas maintaining social distancing protocols.
The end outcome: a solution to effectively and efficiently sterilize 200 masks every eight minutes! The "Bug Zapper" in action. "Our current units were not designed for big-scale use. They might 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 workers and assembled at St. Luke’s by biomedical engineer Jay Johnson, has been affectionally named the "Bug indoor-outdoor zapper" not only due to its look, however resulting from its COVID-killing properties. "It is unbelievable that this mission moved at such a rapid pace," remarks Dr. Tansu. The crew 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 high-throughput price. "Our original design was cylindrical in shape, to make sure even exposure of the light on all surfaces," explains Dr. Tansu.
"Axel got here to me and said, ‘Dad, what about an octagon? ’ And certain sufficient, he was proper. A patent to guard the team’s mental design has been filed. And Zap Zone Defender a celebration for the collaborators to satisfy, in-person, will be planned once it's secure to do so. Until then, the Bug Zapper can be arduous at work, indoor-outdoor zapper serving to to guard the frontline workers at St. Luke’s and past. This, like so many different tales, Zap Zone Defender Setup offers a ray of hope in the course of the pandemic - showcasing that the human thoughts and spirit can overcome something - especially when working collectively for a great cause. Afterall, as the famous philosopher Plato understood thousands of years in the past, necessity is the mother of invention. Founded in 1872, St. Luke's University Health Network (SLUHN) is a completely built-in, regional, non-revenue network of greater than 15,000 employees providing services at eleven hospitals and 300 outpatient sites. With annual internet revenue larger than $2 billion, the Network’s service space contains 11 counties: Lehigh, Northampton, Berks, indoor-outdoor zapper Bucks, Carbon, Montgomery, Official Zap Zone Defender Monroe, Schuylkill and Luzerne counties in Pennsylvania and Warren and Hunterdon counties in New Jersey.