New Hyde Park, N.Y.-based Northwell Health invested approximately $3 million into a startup project for a device that disinfects operating rooms and stretchers by using ultraviolet rays, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Luis Romo, founder and CEO of the startup, called "PurpleSun," started developing the healthcare technology in 2011 during his time as a biomedical engineering graduate student at Syracuse (N.Y.) University.
PurpleSun works in 90-second intervals and can eliminate almost all germs on a surface by using modular panels to enclose medical equipment, including stretchers.
Mr. Romo recently demonstrated the device in an operating room at a New York City-based Northwell Health facility. The device disinfects equipment and sections of the OR while cleaning crews are working, which can cut the time it takes staff to clean and disinfect an OR by half, Mr. Romo said.
Northwell Health plans to test PurpleSun in clinical trials across the system's 23 hospitals.