UV-Concepts announces launch of UV-C Enclosure UV light disinfection solution for PME
UV-Concepts, Inc., a provider of ultraviolet light disinfection solutions, announced the availability of the UV-C Enclosure (UVE), an automated no-touch UV-C enclosure designed to improve upon the existing standard of manual cleaning and disinfection of large portable medical equipment (PME). The UVE is one component of a three-pronged ecosystem solution that includes digital tags and a cloud-based process management system to enable improved tracking and monitoring of PME disinfection in the healthcare setting.
Research shows high-touch surfaces on PME, such as wheelchairs, intravenous poles, computer workstations, and infusion pumps, are a potential vector for transmission of bacteria and viruses, including MRSA, C.Diff, and SARS-CoV-2. UV-Concepts developed a novel platform using short-wavelength ultraviolet light (UV-C, 254nm) in an enclosed structure to optimize the inactivation of disease-causing microorganisms. Ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UVGI) has been shown to be an effective method of disinfection in healthcare over the past decade.
“The concern for the cleaning and disinfection of high-touch surfaces in the healthcare environment has grown exponentially due to COVID-19,” said Jeremy Starkweather, President & Co-Founder, UV-Concepts Inc. “The UVE completely surrounds an item with high intensity germicidal UV-C light resulting in the fastest and most powerful UV-C disinfection solution available to healthcare providers.”
“With use of the UVE, we have been able to process over 5,200 N95 masks, which allows us to get five uses per N95 mask. It has been a lifesaver when no new N95 masks were available,” said John P. Ostdiek, Director of Transportation, Aramark at Saint Joseph Hospital of SCL Health in Denver, Colorado. “We also run all portable medical equipment that can fit in the enclosure for treatment and have physicians request to use the unit for their own equipment..”
Developed over several years for the infection control healthcare community to address disinfection deficiencies of PME and personal protective equipment (PPE), the Company sees broad clinical applications for the easy-to-use UVE with a surge in interest coming from non-healthcare sectors, such as the first responder market, corporate environments, airports, professional sports, and entertainment industries.
The UVE is unlike other UV-C based technologies designed to optimize the key principles of UV-C light disinfection effectiveness (intensity, proximity, and line-of-sight) by surrounding items inside of a fully-enclosed, highly-reflective space. This produces a high UV-C dose in a short time interval (60 seconds) in a controlled environment leading to consistent results.
The UVE requires no set-up by the operator. Users simply walk-up, wave an authorized RFID badge, and run a disinfection cycle. This allows hundreds of healthcare personnel to consistently utilize the UVE the same way every time for the disinfection of PME and PPE.
