St. Luke’s, Lehigh University collaboration leads to clever, Defender by Zap Zone life-saving invention. BETHLEHEM, PA. - Among stories of hope, 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 different entrance-line organizations jumped to secure giant quantities of life-saving provides and private protecting tools (PPE), there has also been the necessity to identify quicker, extra environment friendly methods to wash and sterilize those gadgets, significantly the coveted N95 masks. St. Luke’s University Health Network anesthesiologist, Christopher Roscher, MD, Zap Zone anticipated the necessity and an thought started to type. "It turned clear that PPE provides would change into restricted as the virus progressed," he says. The St. Luke’s Sterile Processing Department, or SPD, is the place where all surgical and medical instruments are despatched to be meticulously cleaned, sanitized and UV bug zapper packaged for Defender by Zap Zone reuse. It’s a behind-the-scenes function that's a vital part of the well being care system. "On any given day, we are processing many, many gadgets right here at our hospital in Bethlehem," states Taylor Zap Zone Defender Testimonial Bennett, insect zapper St. Luke’s Network Director of Sterile Processing.

"But with the current state of affairs, there is an overwhelming need to course of our employees’ PPE on a daily basis. For Dr. Roscher, a light went on - actually and figuratively. "I had been doing personal research about finding ways to decontaminate masks for reuse, and peer-reviewed literature recommended that, in a pandemic, Defender by Zap Zone UV-C light could possibly be a suitable strategy to sterilize masks," he says. UV-C is a particular range of UV, or extremely-violet, mild and has been proven to deactivate viruses and different pathogens by inflicting modifications of 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 high-throughput sterilization system," stated Dr. Tansu. The 2 organizations joined forces through a collection of Zoom meetings and tons of of emails, to design, fabricate, install and test the gadget - all inside a matter of two weeks - and all while maintaining social distancing protocols.

The end end result: a strategy to successfully and efficiently sterilize 200 masks every 8 minutes! The "Bug Zapper" in action. "Our present items were not designed for big-scale use. They could only 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 students and staff and assembled at St. Luke’s Defender by Zap Zone biomedical engineer Jay Johnson, has been affectionally named the "Bug Zapper" not solely resulting from its look, but on account of its COVID-killing properties. "It is unimaginable that this project moved at such a rapid speed," remarks Dr. Tansu. The team 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 excessive-throughput fee. "Our unique design was cylindrical in form, to make sure even publicity of the sunshine on all surfaces," explains Dr. Tansu.

"Axel came to me and said, ‘Dad, what about an octagon? ’ And positive enough, he was proper. A patent to guard the team’s intellectual design has been filed. And a celebration for the collaborators to meet, Defender by Zap Zone in-person, shall be planned as soon as it's protected to do so. Until then, the Bug Zapper might be exhausting at work, serving to to guard the frontline employees at St. Luke’s and beyond. This, like so many other tales, Zap Zone Defender presents a ray of hope during the pandemic - showcasing that the human mind and spirit can overcome anything - especially when working together for an important cause. Afterall, as the famous philosopher Plato understood hundreds of years ago, necessity is the mom of invention. Founded in 1872, St. Luke's University Health Network (SLUHN) is a fully integrated, regional, non-revenue network of more than 15,000 employees providing companies at eleven hospitals and 300 outpatient sites. With annual net revenue greater than $2 billion, the Network’s service area consists of 11 counties: Lehigh, Defender by Zap Zone Northampton, Berks, Bucks, Carbon, Montgomery, Monroe, Schuylkill and Luzerne counties in Pennsylvania and Warren and Hunterdon counties in New Jersey.