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

创新伙伴关系-技术转化（PFI-TT）项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力旨在降低医疗保健相关感染率。每年约有170万美国人在医疗机构感染，估计其中10万人死于HAI引起的并发症。在全国范围内，它给医疗机构造成了350亿至450亿美元的财政负担，对保险公司也有影响。一般来说，感染传播：a)在医院和社区之间，b)在同一医院的病人病房之间。病房间的感染由医务人员和移动医疗设备（磅秤、膀胱扫描仪、听诊器等）转移。我们将开发一种用于移动/便携式医疗设备的消毒装置，可能会将HAI率降低约5%，每年挽救大约5000名美国人的生命。采用我们的消毒装置的医院平均每年可节省约30万元。拟议的项目描述了开发一个可折叠消毒站，用于对移动/便携式医疗设备进行消毒。耐化学消毒剂微生物的大量繁殖使得利用高能紫外线进行消毒是非常有前途的；微生物对深紫外线（DUV）没有抵抗力，因为它在DNA水平上起作用。高接触表面，如膀胱扫描仪、天平、听诊器、触摸屏等，容易被微生物污染，因此在下次使用前需要彻底消毒。目前移动设备的消毒程序依赖于用化学品擦拭，但有时这不是一个好的选择，因为：a)液体消毒剂会使电路短路（USB，视频和传感器端口），b)擦拭仪器的多个表面很耗时。我们将设计一种可折叠，易于部署的外壳，带有DUV光源，作为低劳动力，高效的灭菌单元。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.