Unproven cleaning processes and wasteful hygiene solutions have no place in the medical industry. As hospitals increase the use of augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) units for staff education and patient pain management, cleaning methods must evolve to match. Cleanbox UVC sanitizer boxes offer an innovative, scientifically proven way to clean shared technology without sacrificing time or physical resources.
Keeping Hospital Staff and Patients Safe While Using VR/AR for Training and Pain Management
Both care providers and patients benefit from using UVC sanitizer boxes in the healthcare setting. Cleanbox systems offer an innovative, eco-friendly method of cleaning shared technology, such as the headsets used for VR and AR systems.
In addition, UVC sanitization eliminates the need for the wasteful and ineffective disposable wipes frequently used for disinfection, providing complete pathogen elimination without using chemicals. As the issue of microbial contamination is ever-present in the medical field, cleaning solutions must be feasible long-term and offer no adverse effects to the users.
Technology for the Future
VR and AR (or collectively XR) technology enable medical practitioners to understand the human body better and practice their clinical skills. In addition to providing ongoing education to practitioners, virtual and artificial reality devices also benefit patients. The use of XR technology for patients suffering from chronic pain is becoming more mainstream and has the potential to become a standard treatment for numerous issues.
Incorporating this novel technology alongside traditional pain management therapies improves patients’ quality of life and is an excellent way to manage pain without using opiates. As running XR technology for training and pain management continues to increase in the medical field, hospitals will need to adapt their standard cleaning practices to accommodate the challenges posed by adding headsets, eyewear, and headphones.
Solutions for the Present
Maintaining hygiene standards is essential for the safety of practitioners and patients, especially when items are shared between multiple people. While XR devices bring enormous benefits, they require continuous cleaning to guarantee user safety. The adjustable components and various crevices in headsets aren’t compatible with traditional cleaning methods, and the device’s proximity to the user’s face makes it a prime vector for contagious disease.
Cleanboxe’s globally patented UVC light engineering offers targeted, medical-grade disinfection of VR equipment. The Cleanbox CX series is designed to destroy 99.999% of all pathogens in just 60 seconds and is available in numerous sizes to allow for the disinfection of multiple headsets in the same cycle.
Discard Obsolete Options
Despite the prevalence of their use, disposable wipes are a wasteful and inferior cleaning method that can pose a health risk. For wipes to be effective, the individual performing disinfection must be diligent in ensuring every surface of the headset is cleaned. Not only is proper cleaning time-consuming, but the disinfection quality cannot be verified, which poses a significant danger, and liability, in the medical sector.
Using wipes to clean XR devices also creates excessive waste. From an environmental standpoint, disposable wipes pile up in dumps and landfills where the chemical solution they contain seeps into the ground. From a financial perspective, it is a poor allocation of resources to continually purchase expensive wipes that are thrown out after one use.
Embrace Tomorrow
Hospitals using disposable wipes to bridge the gap between implementing XR technology and establishing a practical sanitizing protocol can welcome a more realistic option: Cleanbox UVC sanitizer boxes. UVC hygiene technology accomplishes what conventional cleaning methods cannot: a simple, cost-effective, and time-efficient way to destroy 99.999% of contagions on XR equipment every single time.
Ensuring a headset is sanitized is a streamlined process with Cleanbox. When a headset needs cleaning, the user will open the unit, place the headset inside, press the start button, and retrieve the headset when prompted. In only 60 seconds, the headset will be disinfected without wasteful products and with no risk of user error. Also, in addition to being used to sanitize headsets and other XR devices, UVC units are suited for cleaning non-invasive surgical instruments.
The Science of UVC Sanitizer Boxes
Ultraviolet light is a form of electromagnetic radiation that ranges in wavelengths from 100-400 nanometers. There are three categories of ultraviolet wavelengths: ultraviolet A, ultraviolet B, and ultraviolet C. Ultraviolet C rays cannot permeate the Earth’s atmosphere, and as a result, these rays do not occur organically in nature; they must be created through artificial means.
As UVC light does not naturally occur inside the Earth’s atmosphere, viruses and bacteria cannot build up a resistance or immunity to the rays. The cell’s genetic components are destroyed when the DNA and RNA inside a contagion become exposed to UVC rays. This destruction eliminates the pathogen’s replication abilities, which neutralizes any threat.
Outdated Offerings: Lamps and Bulbs
Traditionally, mercury lamps were the primary source of UVC light in the medical sector. However, there are numerous disadvantages to using mercury lamps, many of which were significant enough to call for an alternative UVC method.
UVC LEDs improve disinfection practices by eliminating the wait time mercury lamps require to warm up. LEDs are also small and unobtrusive, making them easy to incorporate into user-friendly hygiene devices. Finally, LEDs provide a wavelength specificity that mercury lamps and conventional bulbs cannot match.
Ensure Your UVC Unit Is Effective
Several components are critical to determining a hygiene unit’s effectiveness. There are numerous UVC products on the market, but they are not created equally. A disinfection device must meet the following parameters to ensure satisfactory levels of sanitization:
Distance
Light intensity is an essential aspect of UVC disinfection, and the proximity of the item being sanitized to the UVC light cannot be overlooked when evaluating a product. The item being sanitized must be located at the ideal distance from the UVC light, as placing the item too close can cause premature material degradation over time. Alternatively, thorough disinfection cannot be guaranteed if the item is outside the target range for disinfection.
Cleanbox units prevent improper placement and ensure accurate light intensity. In addition, the Cleanbox CX series for head-mounted displays contains a stand to support headgear during the sanitization process. This feature removes the opportunity for user error by only allowing the item to be placed at the appropriate distance from the LED.
Exposure
UVC rays must adequately contact every surface for decontamination to be effective. The appropriate light intensity must reach all crevices and planes on a device to ensure care provider and patient safety.
Cleanboxe’s OmniClean system provides 360-degree UVC exposure that decontaminates any object placed inside the unit. Over 30 UVC LEDs reflect off specialized reflective panels and a rotating quartz plate, ensuring there are no shadows where contagions could linger.
Efficacy
LEDs allow for precise wavelength selection when using UVC light to disinfect shared equipment. For UVC rays to optimally destroy microbes, they must resonate in the 265-270nm range. Cleanboxe’s patented LED engineering produces UVC light that is highly targeted and at peak output levels. This targeting sets Cleanbox apart from other methods of UVC sanitization, as it allows the system to provide a complete clean in only a minute.
LED UVC light disinfection is the ideal choice for sanitizing XR technology, and Cleanboxe’s LEDs exceed the performance of conventional products by producing highly targeted rays. In addition, the medical sector requires science-proven hygiene practices, and Cleanbox products have been independently lab-tested to ensure their efficiency. For more information about this revolutionary, waste-free system, contact Cleanbox Technology.
