Cleveland-based University Hospitals partnered with NASA to create technologies and methods to decontaminate personal protective equipment for aerospace applications and COVID-19 front-line workers.
University Hospitals' venture capital arm, UH Ventures, facilitated the partnership, which will develop two new approaches for sanitizing masks on site and reusing them. The methods tested include using atomic oxygen and peracetic acid to sterilize masks. The methods are promising and early results have been favorable for atomic oxygen decontamination, University Hospitals said. The peracetic acid method is under FDA review for emergency use authorization, it said
The technology may have aerospace applications as well, when traditional sterilization isn't available.
"NASA strives to ensure the technology we develop for space exploration and aeronautics is broadly available to benefit the public and the nation," said NASA's Glenn Research Center Director Marla Perez-Davis, PhD.
University Hospitals Chief Clinical and Scientific Officer Daniel Simon, MD, said the health system has sufficient PPE but aims to be proactive about the future need and potential shortage due to COVID-19 surges across the U.S.
"The opportunity to pool resources and quickly bring about PPE sterilization solutions for the benefit of our caregivers is truly remarkable," he said.
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