St. Luke’s, Lehigh University collaboration leads to clever, life-saving invention. BETHLEHEM, PA. - Among stories of hope, generosity and togetherness, Zap Zone Defender Review 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 other front-line organizations jumped to safe giant portions of life-saving supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE), there has also been the need to identify faster, more efficient methods to wash and sterilize those objects, notably the coveted N95 masks. St. Luke’s University Health Network anesthesiologist, Christopher Roscher, MD, anticipated the need and an thought started to kind. "It grew to become clear that PPE provides would turn out to be limited because the virus progressed," he says. The St. Luke’s Sterile Processing Department, Zap Zone Defender or SPD, is the place the place all surgical and medical instruments are despatched to be meticulously cleaned, sanitized and packaged for reuse. It’s a behind-the-scenes operate that's an important a part of the health care system. "On any given day, we are processing many, many gadgets here at our hospital in Bethlehem," states Taylor Bennett, St. Luke’s Network Director of Sterile Processing.

"But with the present situation, there's an overwhelming need to process our employees’ PPE every day. For Dr. Roscher, a light went on - actually and figuratively. "I had been doing private analysis about discovering ways to decontaminate masks for reuse, Zap Zone Defender and peer-reviewed literature instructed that, in a pandemic, UV-C light could be an acceptable technique to sterilize masks," he says. UV-C is a specific vary of UV, or ultra-violet, mild and has been shown to deactivate viruses and other pathogens by inflicting 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 Zap Zone Defender was a excessive-throughput sterilization system," mentioned Dr. Tansu. The 2 organizations joined forces through a series of Zoom meetings and hundreds of emails, to design, fabricate, set up and test the system - all within a matter of two weeks - and all while maintaining social distancing protocols.

The end outcome: a method to effectively and effectively sterilize 200 masks every 8 minutes! The "Bug Zapper" in action. "Our current items weren't designed for Zap Zone Defender big-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 college students and staff and assembled at St. Luke’s by biomedical engineer Jay Johnson, has been affectionally named the "Bug Zapper" not solely due to its appearance, but resulting from its COVID-killing properties. "It is incredible that this project moved at such a fast speed," remarks Dr. Tansu. The workforce 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 charge. "Our original design was cylindrical in form, to make sure even publicity of the sunshine on all surfaces," explains Dr. Tansu.

"Axel came to me and said, Zap Zone Defender Testimonial ‘Dad, what about an octagon? ’ And certain sufficient, he was proper. A patent to guard the team’s intellectual design has been filed. And a celebration for the collaborators to fulfill, in-individual, might be deliberate once it is protected to do so. Until then, Zap Zone Defender the Bug Zapper will likely be exhausting at work, helping to guard the frontline workers at St. Luke’s and beyond. This, like so many other stories, gives a ray of hope through the pandemic - showcasing that the human thoughts and spirit can overcome anything - especially when working together for an ideal cause. 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 built-in, regional, Zap Zone Defender non-revenue community of more than 15,000 employees providing providers at 11 hospitals and 300 outpatient sites. With annual net income larger than $2 billion, the Network’s service space consists of eleven counties: Zap Zone Defender Lehigh, Northampton, Berks, Bucks, Carbon, Zap Zone Defender Montgomery, Monroe, Schuylkill and Luzerne counties in Pennsylvania and Warren and Zap Zone Hunterdon counties in New Jersey.