In-Between-Patient Decontamination of CT Rooms and Equipment Following COVID-19 Exposure Using Pulsed Plasma Activated Fog

Current methods for disinfecting computed tomography (CT) scan rooms and equipment typically demand long turnaround times, resulting in the inability to reuse these instrumental tools during times of high stress. These disinfection cycles can last anywhere from one hour (ethylene oxide) to up to 24 hours (heat treatment). Our mentors at the Tower Health Emergency Rooms in Philadelphia currently clean the CT room by hand, leading to approximately 2 hours of CT scanner downtime in-between patients and possibility of human error (and the exposure of the healthcare personnel). To address this high demand for a rapid CT scan rooms/equipment disinfection process that includes COVID-19 contamination, AAPlasma LLC proposes the development of a “cold” plasma-activated fog-based system to achieve in-between- patient decontamination of CT scan rooms and equipment in under 30 minutes. This would allow for rapid reuse of these invaluable tools during the current COVID-19 challenge and potential future pandemics. This technology will also eliminate the possibility of human error. The technology proposed in this DOE SBIR project is based on plasma-fogging technology that has been successfully commercialized as a result of our Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) funded project (contract SP4701-20-C-0028), capable of disinfecting personal protective equipment (PPE) in 20 minutes. In the proposed project, AAPlasma will use our existing connection with the FDA to support rapid deployment of the CT scanner room disinfection system with proper classification of our technology, approved for future use. Beyond the immediate threat of COVID-19, the technology being developed throughout this project will be useful for the future events and can be used by the hospital personnel to keep the rooms clean in the future. To address the immediate issues surrounding long turnaround times for CT scanner room at numerous hospitals, AAPlasma will design, validate, and optimize a plasma system for a CT scanner disinfection prototype (Phase I), and will use results from Phase I to construct and test a hospital-ready prototype system to apply the full FDA application, with our manufacturing partner Xenex Disinfection Services (Phase II). These undertakings are further broken up into the following respective technical objectives for the Phase I period of performance: (1) 3D CFD modeling of CT room layout and air mixing with the equipment inside the room, (2) design the plasma-activated fog (PAF) disinfection process flow, (3) design the air scrubbing process following PAF disinfection, (4) system performance evaluation including power requirements and safety analysis, (5) perform material compatibility testing, and (6) Phase II planning and preparation. Successful implementation of our technology into hospitals affected with stressed demand on clean CT scanner rooms due to the COVID-19 outbreak will be able to effectively reuse this equipment and alleviate issues due to long turnaround times.