High UV-C Dose Eliminates Pathogens in 60 Seconds
ENGLEWOOD, Colo., July 20, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- UV-Concepts, Inc., a leading provider of ultraviolet light disinfection solutions, announced today the launch and worldwide availability of the UV-C Enclosure (UVE™), the first and only 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. We’re very pleased to make the UVE™ available for healthcare institutions globally to help protect patients, healthcare workers, and visitors from harmful bacteria and viruses.”
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimated about 700,000 patients are diagnosed with a healthcare-associated infection (HAI) each year in the United States, and of those, 70,000 die during their acute care hospitalization. While progress has been made to reduce, and in some cases eliminate HAIs, the market is constantly seeking new and improved disinfection solutions.
“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. This is the right piece of equipment at the right time to help healthcare personnel have one more tool to stop the spread of infectious diseases in a hospital setting.”
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.
About UVE™
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. In addition, UV-Concepts spent years developing an ecosystem solution comprised of digital tags and a cloud-based process management program to give institutions the new ability to track and monitor disinfection of PME.
The Company’s solution is ideal for everyday use in the healthcare environment, and as importantly, ideal in a crisis environment such as the COVID-19 pandemic due to the broad applications and ability to maximize utilization by any healthcare worker and across many healthcare specialties. The UVE™ is registered with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA, Product Registration No. 92890-DV-1).
About UV-Concepts, Inc.
UV-Concepts, an infection control and prevention company, is focused on collaborating with healthcare institutions willing to challenge existing paradigms with regards to the cleaning and disinfecting of PME. For more information, please visit www.uvconcepts.com.
U.S. Media Contact:
Erich Sandoval
FINN Partners
Tel: +1-917-497-2867
E-mail: erich.sandoval@finnpartners.com