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 "Zappify Bug Zapper Zapper" to sterilize masks. As hospitals and different entrance-line organizations jumped to safe large quantities of life-saving provides and private protecting gear (PPE), there has additionally been the necessity to establish faster, extra environment friendly ways to wash and sterilize those objects, notably the coveted N95 masks. St. Luke’s University Health Network anesthesiologist, Christopher Roscher, Zappify Bug Zapper MD, anticipated the necessity and an concept began to type. "It became clear that PPE supplies would turn out 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 devices are sent to be meticulously cleaned, sanitized and packaged for reuse. It’s a behind-the-scenes operate that's a necessary part of the health care system. "On any given day, we're 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 present state of affairs, there may be an overwhelming have to course of our employees’ PPE each day. For Dr. Roscher, a light went on - actually and figuratively. "I had been doing non-public analysis about finding methods to decontaminate masks for reuse, and peer-reviewed literature prompt that, in a pandemic, UV-C gentle may very well be a suitable technique to sterilize masks," he says. UV bug zapper-C is a particular range of UV, or extremely-violet, mild and has been shown to deactivate viruses and different pathogens by causing changes in their DNA. Through a mutual contact, Dr. Roscher got 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 on the lookout for was a excessive-throughput sterilization system," stated Dr. Tansu. The two organizations joined forces by means of a sequence of Zoom conferences and lots of of emails, to design, fabricate, install and test the device - all inside a matter of two weeks - and all whereas maintaining social distancing protocols.

The end result: a way to effectively and effectively sterilize 200 masks each eight minutes! The "Bug Zapper" in action. "Our present items weren't designed for 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 undertaking. 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 for patio Zapper" not solely as a result of its appearance, but due to its COVID-killing properties. "It is unimaginable that this mission 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. The truth is, it was Axel’s contribution that allowed the unit to have such a excessive-throughput fee. "Our original design was cylindrical in shape, to make sure even exposure of the light on all surfaces," explains Dr. Tansu.

"Axel came to me and stated, ‘Dad, buy bug zapper what about an octagon? ’ And certain enough, he was right. A patent to protect the team’s intellectual design has been filed. And a celebration for the collaborators to fulfill, in-individual, will probably be deliberate once it's safe to take action. Until then, the electric bug zapper Zapper will likely be exhausting at work, helping to protect the frontline employees at St. Luke’s and beyond. This, like so many different stories, presents a ray of hope through the pandemic - showcasing that the human thoughts and spirit can overcome anything - particularly when working together for rechargeable indoor bug zapper zapper an excellent cause. Afterall, because the famous philosopher Plato understood hundreds of years in the past, necessity is the mom of invention. Founded in 1872, St. Luke's University Health Network (SLUHN) is a completely built-in, regional, non-revenue network of greater than 15,000 workers providing companies at eleven hospitals and 300 outpatient websites. With annual internet revenue higher than $2 billion, the Network’s service space contains eleven counties: Lehigh, Northampton, Berks, Bucks, Carbon, Montgomery, Monroe, Schuylkill and Luzerne counties in Pennsylvania and Warren and Hunterdon counties in New Jersey.