Hospital infections due to resistant pathogens have been a ‘silent pandemic’ in healthcare for a long time. Infection prevention is becoming an increasingly pressing agenda item for hospitals as a result. Cleaning hospital spaces manually with cloths and chemicals is difficult, time consuming, inconsistent and is only 25-50% effective, exposing patients in European hospitals to a 7% chance of hospital infection to this day. The COVID-19 pandemic has only increased the urgency for an alternative to effective and rapid final disinfection of hospital rooms. Loop Robots considered this an opportunity to add value with their SAM-UVC Robot. UVC radiation has been known for its disinfecting properties for some time and applications vary from disinfecting drinking water to medical devices. But until recently, UVC radiation was not being deployed for the final disinfection of rooms such as patient wards, because shaded areas are more difficult to disinfect and because UVC light is unhealthy to bystanders. Mark van de Vrede, CCO and founder of Loop Robots explains: “The initial goal was to help hospitals combat the COVID-19 pandemic using UVC radiation, but the SAM-UVC robot is now being deployed more broadly in the battle against MRSA, VRE, Norovirus, Acinetobacter and other types of pathogens”.
