PFI-TT: Station consisting of ultra-violet, range C, light emitting diodes and mercury lamps for complete disinfection of mobile medical equipment

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The broader impact/commercial potential of this Partnerships for Innovation - Technology Translation (PFI-TT) project aims to reduce the rate of healthcare-associated infections (HAI). Every year approximately 1.7 million Americans get infected in medical institutions and an estimated 100,000 of them die from complications caused by HAI. Nationally, it causes $35-45 billion financial burden for medical institutions, with implications for insurance companies. In general, infections spread: a) between hospitals and the neighborhood, and b) between patients' rooms within the same hospital. The room-to-room infections are transferred by medical personnel and by mobile medical devices (scales, bladder scanners, stethoscopes, etc). We will develop a disinfection unit for mobile/portable medical devices that could potentially reduce the HAI rate by ~5%, saving roughly 5,000 American lives annually. The average annual savings for a hospital implementing our disinfection unit is an estimated $300,000. The proposed project describes development of a foldable disinfection station for sterilization of mobile/portable medical devices. The proliferation of microbes resistant to chemical disinfectant makes the use of high energy ultraviolet light for disinfection very promising; microbes do not develop resistance to deep ultraviolet (DUV) light because it operates at the level of DNA. High-touch surfaces, such as bladder scanners, scales, stethoscopes, touch screens, etc. are prone for contamination with microbes and thus need to be thoroughly disinfected before next use. Current disinfection procedures for mobile equipment rely on wiping them with chemicals but sometimes it is not a good option because: a) liquid disinfectant can short electrical circuits (USB, video, and sensor ports) and b) it is time-consuming to wipe multiple surfaces of instruments. We will engineer a foldable, easily deployable enclosure with a DUV light source as a low-labor, highly effective sterilization unit.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.