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St. Luke’s, Lehigh University collaboration leads to clever, life-saving invention. BETHLEHEM, PA. - Among tales of hope, generosity and togetherness, the COVID-19 pandemic has also given rise to an unimaginable feat of ingenuity - the invention of the "Bug Zapper" to sterilize masks. As hospitals and different front-line organizations jumped to safe giant portions of life-saving supplies and private protecting tools (PPE), Zap Zone there has additionally been the need to establish faster, more efficient methods to scrub and sterilize these objects, notably the coveted N95 masks. St. Luke’s University Health Network anesthesiologist, patio insect zapper Christopher Roscher, MD, anticipated the need and an idea began to kind. "It became clear that PPE supplies would become 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 sent to be meticulously cleaned, sanitized and packaged for reuse. It’s a behind-the-scenes function that is a necessary a part of the well being care system. "On any given day, we're processing many, many objects here at our hospital in Bethlehem," states Taylor Bennett, St. Luke’s Network Director Zap Zone of Sterile Processing.

"But with the present state of affairs, there may be an overwhelming need to course of our employees’ PPE every day. For Dr. Roscher, a mild went on - actually and figuratively. "I had been doing personal analysis about discovering methods to decontaminate masks for reuse, Zap Zone Defender and peer-reviewed literature suggested that, in a pandemic, UV-C mild might be an appropriate technique to sterilize masks," he says. UV-C is a selected vary of UV, or ultra-violet, gentle and has been shown to deactivate viruses and other pathogens by causing adjustments in their DNA. Through a mutual contact, Dr. Roscher received 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," stated Dr. Tansu. The 2 organizations joined forces through a collection of Zoom conferences and hundreds of emails, to design, fabricate, set up and test the system - all within a matter of two weeks - and all while sustaining social distancing protocols.

The end outcome: a technique to successfully and efficiently sterilize 200 masks each 8 minutes! The "Bug Zapper" in action. "Our present units were not designed for giant-scale use. They could solely sterilize about 30 masks at a time," stated Eric Tesoriero, DO, anesthesiologist for St. Luke’s and a collaborator on the venture. 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 on account of its look, however on account of its COVID-killing properties. "It is incredible that this venture moved at such a rapid speed," remarks Dr. Tansu. The team 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 excessive-throughput charge. "Our authentic design was cylindrical in shape, Zap Zone to make sure even exposure of the sunshine on all surfaces," explains Dr. Tansu.

"Axel got here to me and said, ‘Dad, Zap Zone what about an octagon? ’ And sure sufficient, he was proper. A patent to protect the team’s mental design has been filed. And a celebration for the collaborators to satisfy, in-person, will be planned as soon as it is protected to take action. Until then, the Bug Zapper shall be onerous at work, serving to to protect the frontline staff at St. Luke’s and beyond. This, like so many different tales, gives a ray of hope in the course of the pandemic - showcasing that the human mind and Zap Zone Defender spirit can overcome anything - especially when working collectively for a terrific cause. Afterall, as the well-known 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 fully built-in, regional, non-revenue network of greater than 15,000 employees providing providers at 11 hospitals and 300 outpatient sites. With annual web revenue higher than $2 billion, the Network’s service space includes 11 counties: Lehigh, Northampton, Zap Zone Berks, Bucks, Zap Zone Defender Setup Carbon, Montgomery, Monroe, Schuylkill and Luzerne counties in Pennsylvania and Warren and Hunterdon counties in New Jersey.