St. Luke’s, Lehigh University collaboration results in clever, life-saving invention. BETHLEHEM, PA. - Among tales of hope, generosity and togetherness, the COVID-19 pandemic has also given rise to an unbelievable feat of ingenuity - the invention of the "Bug Zapper" to sterilize masks. As hospitals and other entrance-line organizations jumped to secure large quantities of life-saving supplies and personal protective tools (PPE), there has also been the necessity to identify faster, extra environment friendly ways to scrub and sterilize those objects, particularly the coveted N95 masks. St. Luke’s University Health Network anesthesiologist, Christopher Roscher, MD, anticipated the need and an concept started to kind. "It turned clear that PPE provides would become restricted because the virus progressed," he says. The St. Luke’s Sterile Processing Department, or SPD, is the place where all surgical and medical devices are sent to be meticulously cleaned, sanitized and packaged for reuse. It’s a behind-the-scenes perform that's an important part of the health care system. "On any given day, we are processing many, many objects right here at our hospital in Bethlehem," states Taylor Bennett, St. Luke’s Network Director of Sterile Processing.
"But with the present situation, there is an overwhelming must course of our employees’ PPE on a daily basis. For Dr. Roscher, a gentle went on - actually and figuratively. "I had been doing personal analysis about finding ways to decontaminate masks for reuse, and peer-reviewed literature instructed that, in a pandemic, UV-C mild could be an acceptable strategy to sterilize masks," he says. UV-C is a selected range of UV, or extremely-violet, mild and has been shown to deactivate viruses and different pathogens by inflicting modifications in their DNA. Through a mutual contact, Dr. Roscher bought 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 2 organizations joined forces by way of a sequence of Zoom meetings and lots of of emails, to design, fabricate, install and check the system - all within a matter of two weeks - and all whereas maintaining social distancing protocols.
The tip result: a method to effectively and effectively sterilize 200 masks each eight minutes! The "garden bug protection Zapper" in action. "Our present units were not designed for big-scale use. They may solely sterilize about 30 masks at a time," stated Eric Tesoriero, DO, anesthesiologist for St. Luke’s and a collaborator on the project. The unit, engineered by Lehigh college students and staff and assembled at St. Luke’s by biomedical engineer Jay Johnson, has been affectionally named the "Bug Zapper" not solely resulting from its look, however due to its COVID-killing properties. "It is unimaginable that this mission moved at such a rapid pace," remarks Dr. Tansu. The team ranged from PhDs to MDs and even included an unexpected contributor - Axel Tansu, Dr. Tansu’s adolescent son. In reality, it was Axel’s contribution that allowed the unit to have such a excessive-throughput rate. "Our authentic design was cylindrical in form, to ensure even publicity of the sunshine on all surfaces," explains Dr. Tansu.
"Axel came to me and said, ‘Dad, what about an octagon? ’ And sure sufficient, garden bug protection he was proper. A patent to guard the team’s intellectual design has been filed. And a celebration for the collaborators to fulfill, in-person, shall be planned as soon as it is secure to do so. Until then, the bug zapper light Zapper will probably be laborious at work, serving to to protect the frontline employees at St. Luke’s and past. This, like so many other tales, presents a ray of hope throughout the pandemic - showcasing that the human mind and spirit can overcome something - particularly when working together for an incredible cause. Afterall, as the well-known 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 fully built-in, regional, non-profit community of more than 15,000 workers offering companies at 11 hospitals and 300 outpatient websites. With annual web income greater than $2 billion, the Network’s service space includes 11 counties: Lehigh, Northampton, Berks, Bucks, Carbon, Montgomery, Monroe, Schuylkill and Luzerne counties in Pennsylvania and Warren and Hunterdon counties in New Jersey.