St. Luke’s, Lehigh University collaboration results in intelligent, life-saving invention. BETHLEHEM, PA. - Among tales of hope, generosity and togetherness, the COVID-19 pandemic has also given rise to an incredible feat of ingenuity - the invention of the "bug zapper for backyard insect zapper" to sterilize masks. As hospitals and different front-line organizations jumped to safe massive quantities of life-saving supplies and private protective gear (PPE), there has also been the necessity to determine faster, extra environment friendly methods to wash and sterilize those objects, significantly the coveted N95 masks. St. Luke’s University Health Network anesthesiologist, Christopher Roscher, MD, anticipated the need and an thought began to form. "It grew to become clear that PPE supplies would change into limited because the virus progressed," he says. The St. Luke’s Sterile Processing Department, or SPD, is the place the place all surgical and medical devices are despatched to be meticulously cleaned, summer mosquito protection sanitized and packaged for reuse. It’s a behind-the-scenes perform that is a vital part of the well being 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 current state of affairs, there may be an overwhelming must course of our employees’ PPE each day. For Dr. Roscher, a light went on - actually and figuratively. "I had been doing private research about finding methods to decontaminate masks for reuse, and peer-reviewed literature steered that, in a pandemic, summer mosquito protection UV-C mild could be an acceptable technique to sterilize masks," he says. UV-C is a selected vary of UV, or extremely-violet, gentle and has been proven to deactivate viruses and different pathogens by inflicting adjustments in their DNA. Through a mutual contact, Dr. Roscher obtained 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 on the lookout for was a excessive-throughput sterilization system," mentioned Dr. Tansu. The 2 organizations joined forces by means of a sequence of Zoom meetings and a whole bunch of emails, to design, fabricate, set up and check the system - all inside a matter of two weeks - and all while sustaining social distancing protocols.

The top result: a way to effectively and efficiently sterilize 200 masks each 8 minutes! The "Bug Zapper" in action. "Our current units weren't designed for giant-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 venture. 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 Zapper" not only because of its appearance, but due to its COVID-killing properties. "It is unimaginable that this project moved at such a fast speed," remarks Dr. Tansu. The team ranged from PhDs to MDs and even included an unexpected contributor - Axel Tansu, Dr. Tansu’s adolescent son. In actual fact, it was Axel’s contribution that allowed the unit to have such a excessive-throughput charge. "Our authentic design was cylindrical in shape, to make sure even exposure of the sunshine on all surfaces," explains Dr. Tansu.

"Axel came to me and stated, electric bug zapper ‘Dad, what about an octagon? ’ And summer mosquito protection certain sufficient, he was proper. A patent to protect the team’s intellectual design has been filed. And a celebration for summer mosquito protection the collaborators to fulfill, in-individual, will be planned once it's safe to take action. Until then, summer mosquito protection the buy bug zapper Zapper will be onerous at work, serving to to protect the frontline employees at St. Luke’s and beyond. This, like so many other stories, provides a ray of hope in the course of the pandemic - showcasing that the human mind and rechargeable bug zapper spirit can overcome something - especially when working together for an awesome trigger. Afterall, as the famous philosopher Plato understood thousands of years in the past, necessity is the mom of invention. Founded in 1872, St. Luke's University Health Network (SLUHN) is a completely integrated, regional, non-profit community of more than 15,000 staff offering providers at eleven hospitals and 300 outpatient sites. With annual web income higher than $2 billion, the Network’s service space includes eleven counties: Lehigh, Northampton, Berks, Bucks, Carbon, Montgomery, Monroe, summer mosquito protection Schuylkill and Luzerne counties in Pennsylvania and Warren and Hunterdon counties in New Jersey.