UVfy

Hospital-acquired infections are the fifth leading cause of mortality in critical care hospitals. The threat to patients and frontline workers has also been aggravated by the current pandemic situation. Such infections lead to increased patient stays, absenteeism, and reduced productivity of healthcare workers. Studies have shown that surfaces within elevators such as the buttons and handrails are frequently touched and harbor pathogens. Some of these pathogens are infectious even at low doses and can survive several hours on non-porous surfaces. Evidence shows that disinfection of high touch surfaces decreases the risk of hospital-acquired infections. However, current surface disinfectants used in hospitals such as phenol are not effective against spore-forming pathogens like C.difficile, norovirus, etc. Even methods such as fumigation or fogging require patient evacuation and 2-3 hours of exposure. All such methods involving chemical disinfectants tend to impact the internal electronic circuits inside elevators.

Therefore, to prevent patients and healthcare workers from acquiring such infections, dVerse labs have developed UVfy, an AI-based sterilizer that can be assembled onto elevators in hospitals. It uses UV lights that turn on automatically after every patient visit, deactivating bacteria and viruses within just 5 minutes. Based on user feedback, we developed an app through which the hospital administration can keep a track of the sterilization cycles.

Having got our product certified by an ICMR impaneled lab, we have installed UVfy across 6 hospitals in Tamil Nadu. UVfy has been reducing the risk of acquiring infections for 300+ healthcare workers and 1000+ patients every day. In this way, we imagine more spaces such as elevators, labs, and consultation rooms to be made virus-free. Our long-term goal is to develop such a resilient healthcare infrastructure so that we could overcome any future outbreaks.