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 unbelievable feat of ingenuity - the invention of the "Bug Zapper" to sterilize masks. As hospitals and different front-line organizations jumped to secure large quantities of life-saving provides and private protective gear (PPE), there has additionally been the need to establish quicker, more environment friendly ways to scrub and sterilize those gadgets, significantly the coveted N95 masks. St. Luke’s University Health Network anesthesiologist, Christopher Roscher, MD, anticipated the need and an thought began to type. "It grew to become clear that PPE provides would turn out to be limited as the virus progressed," he says. The St. Luke’s Sterile Processing Department, or chemical-free bug control SPD, is the place the place all surgical and medical instruments are despatched to be meticulously cleaned, sanitized and packaged for Zap Zone Defender System reuse. It’s a behind-the-scenes operate that is an important a part of the health care system. "On any given day, we're processing many, many items here at our hospital in Bethlehem," states Taylor Bennett, Zap Zone Defender St. Luke’s Network Director of Sterile Processing.

"But with the current scenario, there is an overwhelming need to process our employees’ PPE on a daily basis. For Dr. Roscher, a mild went on - actually and figuratively. "I had been doing private research about finding ways to decontaminate masks for reuse, and peer-reviewed literature recommended that, Zap Zone Defender System in a pandemic, UV-C light could possibly be a suitable technique to sterilize masks," he says. UV-C is a specific range of UV, or extremely-violet, light and has been proven to deactivate viruses and different pathogens by causing modifications of 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 high-throughput sterilization Zap Zone Defender System," stated Dr. Tansu. The two organizations joined forces through a collection of Zoom meetings and a whole bunch of emails, to design, fabricate, set up and check the gadget - all within a matter of two weeks - and all while maintaining social distancing protocols.

The tip outcome: a technique to effectively and efficiently sterilize 200 masks every 8 minutes! The "Bug Zapper" in action. "Our present models weren't designed for big-scale use. They may solely sterilize about 30 masks at a time," stated Eric Tesoriero, DO, anesthesiologist for St. Luke’s and a collaborator on the undertaking. 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 because of its look, but as a result of its COVID-killing properties. "It is unimaginable that this challenge moved at such a rapid speed," remarks Dr. Tansu. The crew 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 original design was cylindrical in form, to make sure even publicity of the light on all surfaces," explains Dr. Tansu.

"Axel got here to me and said, ‘Dad, Zap Zone Defender Setup what about an octagon? ’ And Zap Zone Defender System sure enough, he was right. A patent to guard the team’s mental design has been filed. And a celebration for the collaborators to meet, in-particular person, shall be planned once it's safe to take action. Until then, the Bug Zapper can be laborious at work, serving to to guard the frontline workers at St. Luke’s and beyond. This, like so many different stories, provides a ray of hope through the pandemic - showcasing that the human mind and spirit can overcome something - particularly when working collectively for an excellent cause. Afterall, as the well-known philosopher Plato understood thousands of years in the past, necessity is the mother of invention. Founded in 1872, St. Luke's University Health Network (SLUHN) is a completely built-in, Zap Zone Defender System regional, non-revenue network of more than 15,000 workers providing companies at eleven hospitals and 300 outpatient websites. With annual net income larger than $2 billion, the Network’s service area includes eleven counties: Lehigh, Northampton, mosquito zapper Berks, Bucks, Carbon, Montgomery, Monroe, Schuylkill and Luzerne counties in Pennsylvania and Warren and Hunterdon counties in New Jersey.