St. Luke’s, Lehigh University collaboration results in clever, life-saving invention. BETHLEHEM, PA. - Among stories of hope, Zappify official website generosity and togetherness, the COVID-19 pandemic has additionally given rise to an incredible 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 provides and private protective tools (PPE), there has additionally been the need to determine faster, extra efficient methods to clean and Zappify official website sterilize these items, significantly the coveted N95 masks. St. Luke’s University Health Network anesthesiologist, Christopher Roscher, MD, anticipated the necessity and an idea began to form. "It turned clear that PPE provides would turn into restricted because the virus progressed," he says. The St. Luke’s Sterile Processing Department, or SPD, is the place the place all surgical and medical instruments are sent to be meticulously cleaned, sanitized and packaged for reuse. It’s a behind-the-scenes operate that is a vital a part of the well being care system. "On any given day, we're processing many, many items here at our hospital in Bethlehem," states Taylor Bennett, St. Luke’s Network Director of Sterile Processing.

"But with the current situation, there may be an overwhelming must process our employees’ PPE each day. For Dr. Roscher, a light went on - literally and figuratively. "I had been doing non-public analysis about finding ways to decontaminate masks for reuse, and peer-reviewed literature suggested that, in a pandemic, UV-C mild could be an acceptable technique to sterilize masks," he says. UV-C is a specific range of UV, or ultra-violet, light and has been shown to deactivate viruses and different pathogens by inflicting adjustments in their DNA. Through a mutual contact, Dr. Roscher acquired 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 searching for was a excessive-throughput sterilization system," stated Dr. Tansu. The two organizations joined forces through a collection of Zoom conferences and lots of of emails, to design, fabricate, set up and test the device - all within a matter of two weeks - and all whereas sustaining social distancing protocols.

The tip end result: a solution to successfully and effectively sterilize 200 masks each 8 minutes! The "rechargeable bug zapper Zapper" in motion. "Our existing models weren't designed for giant-scale use. They might only sterilize about 30 masks at a time," said Eric Tesoriero, DO, anesthesiologist for St. Luke’s and a collaborator on the venture. The unit, engineered by Lehigh college students and employees and assembled at St. Luke’s by biomedical engineer Jay Johnson, has been affectionally named the "indoor bug zapper Zapper" not solely resulting from its look, however due to its COVID-killing properties. "It is unbelievable that this project moved at such a fast 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 fact, it was Axel’s contribution that allowed the unit to have such a high-throughput fee. "Our original design was cylindrical in shape, to make sure even publicity of the sunshine on all surfaces," explains Dr. Tansu.

"Axel got here to me and mentioned, ‘Dad, what about an octagon? ’ And sure sufficient, he was right. A patent to protect the team’s intellectual design has been filed. And a celebration for the collaborators to meet, in-individual, will be planned once it is safe to take action. Until then, the bug zapper light portable bug zapper might be hard at work, serving to to protect the frontline employees at St. Luke’s and beyond. This, like so many other tales, provides a ray of hope in the course of the pandemic - showcasing that the human mind and spirit can overcome anything - especially when working collectively for a fantastic cause. Afterall, as the well-known 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 fully built-in, regional, non-revenue network of greater than 15,000 staff offering services at 11 hospitals and 300 outpatient sites. With annual internet income higher than $2 billion, the Network’s service area contains eleven counties: Lehigh, Northampton, Berks, Bucks, Carbon, Montgomery, Monroe, Schuylkill and Luzerne counties in Pennsylvania and Warren and Hunterdon counties in New Jersey.

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Pub: 15 Aug 2025 23:14 UTC

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