The most chilling news in January 2020 was naturally the rapid spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. As nations across the world shifted to battle the onslaught of this pandemic, “national anti-pandemic capabilities” have become the most important national indicator.

This time around, Taiwan’s efforts against the pandemic have earned public trust. In addition to the proper coordination of the “Central Epidemic Command Center”, the professionalism shown by medical institutes of all levels and frontline medical personnel have been equally important. Taiwan’s experience with SARS in 2003 was tragic, but the reflecting upon the tragic event led to the highest levels of protection against nosocomial infection which was aimed at enhancing the quality and control against infections within hospitals while also protecting the public and frontline medical personnel.

Tungs’ Taichung MetroHarbor Hospital has long emphasized “control of nosocomial infection” as one of the key aspects of medical quality; however, the numerous germs and viruses that constantly surround us in addition to the large number of patients who are weak or have poor immune systems in hospitals has made controlling infections even more important. Tungs’ Taichung MetroHarbor Hospital conducted clinical trials with the deployment of a mobile, fully autonomous UVD Robot. This self-walking UVD Robot developed by a Danish-based company was the very 1st model imported in Taiwan by Unison Healthcare Group. Human-machine collaborative itinerary was applied to  the “autonomous disinfection project’sdelivery. Test results showed the infection rate dropped significantly in OR and ICU being disinfected by the UVD Robot. 

Autonomous Solution for Pain Points, Complete Disinfection in 14 minutes, Bacteria Decreased by up to 83.5% in Testing

In addition to manual disinfection, hospitals in the past used “fixed UV disinfection machines”which spread out UV light to destroy bacterial gene chains and inhibit activity to achieve disinfection. However, the energy accumulation of fixed UV disinfection machines  is very often disrupted by distance.  As soon as Tungs’ Taichung MetroHarbor Hospital found that Unison Healthcare Group had imported the world’s only smart autonomous UV disinfection robot from Denmark, a partnership was quickly formed to launch the testing project. By drawing paths through human-machine collaboration, this negates the weakness of fixed disinfection methods and their inability to provide effective coverage of UV energy. A 4-month clinical trial was conducted in the operating theater and intensive care ward of the hospital.

Director Kao Chih-Chuan of the Department of Infectious Disease at Tungs’ Taichung MetroHarbor Hospital expressed that in order to test the UV energy coverage rate of the robot, the hospital placed energy patches at the anesthesia machine and electrosurgical units in the operating theater as well as at both ends of hospital beds. After 14 minutes of UV ray exposure by the autonomous robot, it was found that UV accumulation achieved 1000(J/m2) which is capable of destroying the gene chains of pathogens such as candida albicans(920J/m2) and coronavirus(84J/m2) to achieve a 99.99% disinfection rate. Additionally, testing of bacterial cultures were reduced by 77%; intensive care wards which were disinfected for the same period of time exhibited a decrease in testing rate by as much as 83.5%. (remarks 1~3)

The COVID-19 Pandemic has Reached a Global Scale, Taiwan Requires Highly Effective Measures Against the Pandemic to Protect Frontline Medical Personnel and the Public

The COVID-19 pandemic has grown in severity and since Taiwan’s first domestic death on February 15, infection control measures at all hospitals have been escalated to the highest standards. Director Kao Chih-Chuan of the Department of Infectious Disease at Tungs’ Taichung MetroHarbor Hospital stated that controlling nosocomial infections has always been a focus of their hospital when improving healthcare quality. Research and reports on COVID-19 have pointed out that Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University and Saiseikai Wakayama Hospital has shown signs of nosocomial infection. When this occurs in a hospital, medical personnel will decrease drastically and increase the severity of the pandemic, possibly even leading to the collapse of healthcare systems. The partnership between Tungs’ Taichung MetroHarbor Hospital and Unison Healthcare Group to test the autonomous disinfection robot provides a solution to the disadvantage of fixed disinfection units by providing comprehensive 360 degree disinfection that allows patients and frontline medical personnel to enjoy a safer and cleaner medical environment. Even in “negative pressure quarantine wards” used to house COVID-19 patients, empirical evidence has confirmed that  UVD Robot can destroy viruses and bacteria that cause disease; naturally, this bolsters our confidence.

Unison Healthcare Group stated that their study results with Tungs’ Taichung MetroHarbor Hospital is highly encouraging in a period where many nations are balancing on a knife’s edge due to the pandemic. The UVD Robots has 2 advantages against the super infectious capabilities of COVID-19. The first is “high performance mobility” as the robot is the only product with autonomous mobility on the market; the built in chargeable lithium ion battery provides convenient mobility and provides 120 minutes of operation or approximately disinfecting 8~10 rooms on a single charge by utilizing UV equipment that is 5 times more powerful than other products found in the market. The second advantage is “the customized pathing through human-machine collaboration” which allows the robot to automatically move along a set of arranged path and provide dynamic stationing. This solves the restrictions of fixed machines and can effectively achieve the goal of disinfection by maximizing UVC exposure coverage of the dynamic light source. The properties of this type of disinfection is highly beneficial for frontline efforts against the pandemic as it prevents exposure of personnel to environments with bacteria and harmful viruses while also allowing hospitals to reach JCI accreditation standards.

Vice Superintendent Wu Chao-Hsin of Tungs’ Taichung MetroHarbor Hospital expressed that fighting the pandemic is a highly challenging battle against an unseen enemy (virus). “Smart pandemic measures” is a key aspect of the high quality medical services at Tungs’ Taichung MetroHarbor Hospital. When faced with the cunning virus, our study provides empirical evidence: “death by light” is the deadly weakness of COVID-19. “UVD Robots 3rd Generation Model C” eliminates any dead zones and spares no enemies by disinfecting with a UV light that is 5 times more powerful. We are confident that the use of bleeding edge technology in Taiwan’s healthcare systems will allow us to reign in victory over the pandemic as well as stand high above the world!