Bug Zapper Kills COVID-19 Virus
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 incredible feat of ingenuity - the invention of the "Bug Zapper" to sterilize masks. As hospitals and different front-line organizations jumped to secure massive quantities of life-saving supplies and private protecting equipment (PPE), there has also been the necessity to determine faster, extra environment friendly ways to scrub and sterilize those gadgets, notably the coveted N95 masks. St. Luke’s University Health Network anesthesiologist, Christopher Roscher, MD, anticipated the need and an concept began to form. "It turned clear that PPE provides would change into 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 despatched to be meticulously cleaned, sanitized and packaged for reuse. It’s a behind-the-scenes function that's an essential a 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 of Sterile Processing.
"But with the current state of affairs, there may be an overwhelming must course of our employees’ PPE on a daily basis. 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, UV-C gentle might be an appropriate technique 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 changes in their DNA. Through a mutual contact, Dr. Roscher acquired in contact 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," stated Dr. Tansu. The 2 organizations joined forces by a sequence of Zoom meetings and a whole lot of emails, to design, fabricate, install and check the machine - all within a matter of two weeks - and all whereas maintaining social distancing protocols.
The top consequence: a technique to effectively and effectively sterilize 200 masks each 8 minutes! The "Bug Zapper" in action. "Our existing models were not designed for giant-scale use. They may only sterilize about 30 masks at a time," said Eric Tesoriero, DO, anesthesiologist for St. Luke’s and a collaborator on the challenge. 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 patio insect zapper" not solely resulting from its appearance, but as a consequence of its COVID-killing properties. "It is unimaginable that this undertaking moved at such a rapid pace," remarks Dr. Tansu. The workforce 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 high-throughput price. "Our unique design was cylindrical in shape, to ensure even publicity of the sunshine on all surfaces," explains Dr. Tansu.
"Axel came to me and patio insect zapper mentioned, ‘Dad, what about an octagon? ’ And sure sufficient, he was right. A patent to guard the team’s intellectual design has been filed. And a celebration for the collaborators to meet, in-individual, can be planned as soon as it's protected to take action. Until then, the Bug Zapper will probably be laborious at work, serving to to guard the frontline employees at St. Luke’s and past. This, like so many other tales, presents a ray of hope during the pandemic - showcasing that the human thoughts and spirit can overcome anything - particularly when working collectively for a terrific trigger. Afterall, because 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 totally integrated, regional, non-profit community of more than 15,000 employees providing providers at 11 hospitals and 300 outpatient sites. With annual internet income better than $2 billion, the Network’s service area consists of 11 counties: Lehigh, Northampton, Berks, Bucks, Carbon, Montgomery, Monroe, Schuylkill and Luzerne counties in Pennsylvania and Warren and Hunterdon counties in New Jersey.