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 additionally given rise to an unbelievable feat of ingenuity - the invention of the "Bug Zapper" to sterilize masks. As hospitals and other entrance-line organizations jumped to secure giant quantities of life-saving supplies and Zap Zone private protecting tools (PPE), there has also been the need to establish faster, more efficient methods to clean and sterilize these objects, notably the coveted N95 masks. St. Luke’s University Health Network anesthesiologist, Christopher Roscher, Zap Zone Defender MD, anticipated the necessity and an concept started to type. "It turned clear that PPE provides would become restricted because the virus progressed," he says. The St. Luke’s Sterile Processing Department, or SPD, chemical-free bug control is the place where all surgical and medical devices are sent to be meticulously cleaned, sanitized and Zap Zone Defender packaged for Zap Zone reuse. It’s a behind-the-scenes perform that is a necessary a part of the well being care system. "On any given day, we're processing many, many objects right here at our hospital in Bethlehem," states Taylor Bennett, Zap Zone St. Luke’s Network Director of Sterile Processing.

"But with the present situation, there may be an overwhelming need to process our employees’ PPE every day. For Dr. Roscher, a light went on - literally and figuratively. "I had been doing private analysis about finding ways to decontaminate masks for reuse, and Zap Zone peer-reviewed literature urged that, in a pandemic, UV-C light may very well be a suitable strategy to sterilize masks," he says. UV-C is a particular vary of UV, or extremely-violet, mild and has been proven to deactivate viruses and different pathogens by inflicting changes 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 series of Zoom meetings and a whole bunch of emails, to design, fabricate, set up and take a look at the machine - all inside a matter of two weeks - and all while maintaining social distancing protocols.

The top end result: a solution to effectively and effectively sterilize 200 masks every 8 minutes! The "Bug Zapper" in action. "Our present items were not designed for large-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 venture. The unit, engineered by Lehigh students and employees and assembled at St. Luke’s by biomedical engineer Jay Johnson, has been affectionally named the "Bug Zapper" not solely resulting from its look, however on account of its COVID-killing properties. "It is unimaginable that this challenge moved at such a fast pace," remarks Dr. Tansu. The workforce ranged from PhDs to MDs and even included an unexpected contributor - Axel Tansu, Dr. Tansu’s adolescent son. In reality, it was Axel’s contribution that allowed the unit to have such a high-throughput fee. "Our unique design was cylindrical in form, to ensure even publicity of the sunshine on all surfaces," explains Dr. Tansu.

"Axel came to me and said, ‘Dad, UV bug zapper what about an octagon? ’ And positive enough, he was proper. A patent to protect the team’s intellectual design has been filed. And a celebration for the collaborators to satisfy, in-person, might be planned once it is safe to do so. Until then, Zap Zone the Bug Zapper shall be laborious at work, helping to guard the frontline employees at St. Luke’s and past. This, like so many other tales, presents a ray of hope during the pandemic - showcasing that the human mind and spirit can overcome anything - especially when working together for an ideal cause. Afterall, Official Zap Zone Defender as the well-known philosopher Plato understood thousands of years ago, necessity is the mom of invention. Founded in 1872, St. Luke's University Health Network (SLUHN) is a completely built-in, regional, non-revenue community of greater than 15,000 employees providing providers at 11 hospitals and 300 outpatient websites. With annual net revenue greater than $2 billion, the Network’s service space consists of eleven counties: Zap Zone 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: 30 Oct 2025 19:05 UTC

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