St. Luke’s, Lehigh University collaboration leads to clever, fly zapper 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 “cordless bug zapper Zapper” to sterilize masks. As hospitals and summer mosquito protection other front-line organizations jumped to secure large quantities of life-saving provides and personal protecting gear (PPE), there has additionally been the need to identify quicker, more efficient methods to clean and sterilize those objects, particularly the coveted N95 masks. St. Luke’s University Health Network anesthesiologist, Christopher Roscher, MD, anticipated the need and summer mosquito protection an thought started to type. “It became clear that PPE supplies would turn out to be restricted as 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 despatched to be meticulously cleaned, sanitized and packaged for reuse. It’s a behind-the-scenes function that’s an important a part of the health 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 of Sterile Processing.

“But with the present state of affairs, there is an overwhelming must course of our employees’ PPE every day. For Dr. Roscher, a mild went on - actually and figuratively. “I had been doing non-public analysis about discovering methods to decontaminate masks for reuse, and peer-reviewed literature instructed that, in a pandemic, UV-C gentle could possibly be an acceptable technique to sterilize masks,” he says. UV-C is a particular range of UV, or ultra-violet, mild and has been proven to deactivate viruses and different pathogens by causing adjustments in their DNA. Through a mutual contact, Dr. Roscher bought 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,” said Dr. Tansu. The two organizations joined forces by means of a series of Zoom conferences and a whole lot of emails, to design, fabricate, install and check the gadget - all inside a matter of two weeks - and all while sustaining social distancing protocols.

The end outcome: a solution to successfully and efficiently sterilize 200 masks every eight minutes! The “outdoor bug zapper Zapper” in motion. “Our current items weren’t designed for large-scale use. They could solely sterilize about 30 masks at a time,” acknowledged Eric Tesoriero, DO, anesthesiologist for St. Luke’s and a collaborator on the project. 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 “bug zapper sale Zapper” not solely as a consequence of its look, but due to its COVID-killing properties. “It is incredible that this undertaking 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. Actually, it was Axel’s contribution that allowed the unit to have such a high-throughput rate. “Our original design was cylindrical in shape, to ensure even publicity of the light on all surfaces,” explains Dr. Tansu.

“Axel got here to me and mentioned, ‘Dad, what about an octagon? ’ And certain enough, he was right. A patent to protect the team’s mental design has been filed. And a celebration for summer mosquito protection the collaborators to satisfy, in-individual, will be planned once it’s protected to do so. Until then, ZappifyBug.com the best bug zapper Zapper will likely be arduous at work, serving to to protect the frontline workers at St. Luke’s and summer mosquito protection past. This, like so many different tales, presents a ray of hope throughout the pandemic - showcasing that the human mind and spirit can overcome anything - particularly when working together for an awesome trigger. 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 totally integrated, regional, non-revenue community of greater than 15,000 employees providing providers at 11 hospitals and 300 outpatient websites. With annual net income higher than $2 billion, the Network’s service space contains eleven counties: Lehigh, Northampton, Berks, Bucks, Carbon, summer mosquito protection Montgomery, Monroe, Schuylkill and electric bug zapper Luzerne counties in Pennsylvania and Warren and summer mosquito protection Hunterdon counties in New Jersey.