海角社区

 

 

Frontline Safety: 海角社区 Group Creates Mobile Decontamination Unit for Hospitals to Decontaminate Masks

04/17/2020
BATON ROUGE 鈥� In addition to 海角社区鈥檚 announcement of large-scale production of personal protective gowns in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center, or PMAC, another group of 海角社区 innovators worked together to develop a solution to a critical challenge facing health care providers in the COVID-19 crisis: how to increase the usability of their limited personal protective equipment, or PPE. To solve that problem, the 海角社区 team developed an ultraviolet light-powered mobile decontamination unit, or MDU, from a food warmer. The tall metal box typically keeps food warm at restaurants, bakeries and other food service providers in their commercial kitchens.

鈥淩eusing PPE that is designed to be disposable goes against every health and safety practice known to those in the medical community. This decontamination unit could provide some peace of mind for those on the front line of this fight,鈥� said Michael Hooks, director of 海角社区鈥檚 Office of Environmental Health and Safety.

The team, comprised of members of 海角社区鈥檚 College of Agriculture, College of the Coast & Environment, College of Science, and the Office of Environmental Health and Safety reconfigured the metal box with racks, equipment, electronics and specialized lamps in a specific configuration to generate the energy necessary to deactivate the COVID-19 and other viruses.

鈥淲e are adapting that equipment to hold and sanitize PPE masks through the use of ultraviolet, or UVC, light,鈥� said Bill Gibson, the coordinator of the Field Services Group for the 海角社区 Coastal Studies Institute. 鈥淭he ultraviolet light allows medical staff to decontaminate the equipment quickly and effectively before reusing it.鈥�

Like the gown production efforts in the PMAC, this project was identified early as a promising product by 海角社区鈥檚 COVID-19 Quick Response Team, and supported by the Office of Research & Economic Development, or ORED. The prototype unit was built at Gibson鈥檚 home, with parts and equipment sourced and provisioned by Andrew Cox, director of Financial Operations for ORED. Once parts were delivered and the layout designed, unit production moved to the 海角社区 Coastal Studies Institute鈥檚 Field Services Group and Louisiana Sea Grant mechanical shops on 海角社区鈥檚 campus.

To construct the unit, Gibson reconfigured the structure, fabricated and assembled the electrical parts, and installed the UVC bulbs and sockets inside of a six-and-a-half foot tall food warmer. The warmer belonged to Mark Miller, field support field manager for the 海角社区 College of the Coast & Environment. Miller also added the door to the unit. Chris Cleaver, research specialist in the Field Services Group, fabricated all of the needed parts and created a slide mechanism that allows the masks to hang inside.

"海角社区 faculty, staff and students are focusing their great ingenuity, creativity, expertise and stakeholder partnerships to help solve the critical shortage of personal protective gear for our front-line health professionals and patients. This is one shining example of our total commitment to 海角社区鈥檚 mission. We are here for the people, industries and State of Louisiana,鈥� said 海角社区 Vice President of Research & Economic Development Sam Bentley.

Once Gibson assembled and installed the parts into the unit, it was tested by members of 海角社区鈥檚 Office of Environmental Health and Safety.

鈥淥ur task was to come up with a testing and use protocol to make sure that it works, and that it is used properly by hospital staff,鈥� Hooks said.

Gibson said the concept had been previously proven effective by the University of Nebraska, but said the 海角社区-created unit is smaller and mobile.

鈥淔ollowing their design and improving on their designs, we took the initial concept and looked for an effective way to adapt it to what we had on hand. We decided to scale the size of it down to allow for this to be set up in a smaller room that would be away from patients and medical staff. The idea was to make it portable and easier to use and setup,鈥� Gibson said.

The group plans to manufacture additional units and will start by working with partners at 海角社区 Health New Orleans. This allows the unit to be tested for effectiveness and ease of use.

The project, nicknamed the 鈥淪aniTiger,鈥� was funded by 海角社区鈥檚 Office of Research and Economic Development, or ORED. ORED has been helping to fund other COVID-related research and development projects, which have included health care workers鈥� gown production, face shields and hand sanitizer. The 海角社区-designed MDU has also received the attention of the U.S. Department of Defense. The agency has offered feedback on design and decontamination approaches.

To learn more about 海角社区鈥檚 fight against COVID-19, visit /coronavirus/response/.

Beyond the creation of mobile decontamination units, 海角社区鈥檚 collective COVID-related efforts to date have been wide-ranging and extensive, including:

• Establishing coronavirus testing facilities at 海角社区 Health Sciences Center in Shreveport, 海角社区鈥檚 School of Veterinary Medicine鈥檚 River Road Laboratory and 海角社区 Health Sciences Center in New Orleans.
• Initiating clinical trials measuring the safety and efficacy of drugs like hydroxychloroquine and potential treatments like inhaled nitric oxide against the virus;
• Coordinating PPE collection and donation from 海角社区A, 海角社区E, and 海角社区S;
• Facilitating extension, outreach and education through 海角社区鈥檚 Pennington Biomedical Research Center and the 海角社区 AgCenter; and
• Funding and managing rapid innovation in gown and shield PPE design, and large-scale hand sanitizer production in Baton Rouge.

 

Note: Media interested in viewing the 鈥淪aniTiger鈥� can do so Friday, April 17, 2020, at the PPE production media tour and Governor John Bel Edwards media briefing inside the PMAC.

 

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Contact Rachel Holland
海角社区 Media Relations
rachelsp@lsu.edu 
225-978-8277