St. Luke’s, Lehigh University collaboration leads to intelligent, Zap Zone Defender life-saving invention. BETHLEHEM, PA. - Among tales of hope, generosity and togetherness, the COVID-19 pandemic has additionally given rise to an unbelievable feat of ingenuity - the invention of the "Bug Zapper" to sterilize masks. As hospitals and different front-line organizations jumped to secure giant quantities of life-saving supplies and personal protective tools (PPE), there has also been the necessity to determine quicker, extra efficient methods to scrub and sterilize those objects, particularly the coveted N95 masks. St. Luke’s University Health Network anesthesiologist, Christopher Roscher, MD, anticipated the necessity and an idea began to type. "It became clear that PPE provides would grow to be restricted because the virus progressed," he says. The St. Luke’s Sterile Processing Department, or SPD, is the place where all surgical and medical instruments are despatched to be meticulously cleaned, sanitized and packaged for reuse. It’s a behind-the-scenes function that is a necessary part of the health care system. "On any given day, we are processing many, many gadgets here at our hospital in Bethlehem," states Taylor Zap Zone Defender Experience Bennett, St. Luke’s Network Director of Sterile Processing.

"But with the present situation, there is an overwhelming must process our employees’ PPE on a daily basis. For Dr. Roscher, a gentle went on - literally and figuratively. "I had been doing personal analysis about discovering ways to decontaminate masks for reuse, and peer-reviewed literature urged that, in a pandemic, UV-C mild may very well be an acceptable technique to sterilize masks," he says. UV-C is a specific range of UV, or extremely-violet, mild and has been proven to deactivate viruses and different pathogens by causing adjustments in 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 looking for was a high-throughput sterilization system," mentioned Dr. Tansu. The 2 organizations joined forces by means of a series of Zoom meetings and hundreds of emails, to design, fabricate, set up and test the system - all inside a matter of two weeks - and all whereas sustaining social distancing protocols.

The top end result: a technique to successfully and effectively sterilize 200 masks each 8 minutes! The "Bug Zapper" in motion. "Our current models weren't designed for large-scale use. They might solely sterilize about 30 masks at a time," said Eric Tesoriero, DO, anesthesiologist for St. Luke’s and a collaborator on the undertaking. The unit, engineered by Lehigh students and employees and assembled at St. Luke’s by biomedical engineer Jay Johnson, has been affectionally named the "Bug Zapper" not solely because of its appearance, however because of its COVID-killing properties. "It is unimaginable that this venture moved at such a speedy 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 reality, it was Axel’s contribution that allowed the unit to have such a high-throughput price. "Our original design was cylindrical in form, to ensure even publicity of the sunshine on all surfaces," explains Dr. Tansu.

"Axel came to me and stated, ‘Dad, what about an octagon? ’ And sure enough, he was proper. A patent to protect the team’s mental design has been filed. And a celebration for the collaborators to satisfy, in-individual, will be deliberate once it is secure to take action. Until then, the Bug Zapper can be hard at work, helping to guard the frontline staff 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 - especially when working together for an amazing cause. Afterall, because the famous philosopher Plato understood thousands of years ago, necessity is the mom of invention. Founded in 1872, St. Luke's University Health Network (SLUHN) is a completely built-in, regional, Zap Zone Defender Review non-profit network of more than 15,000 staff providing services at 11 hospitals and 300 outpatient sites. With annual net income better 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 Zap Zone Defender Experience Hunterdon counties in New Jersey.