APMG Member Stories
From Si Nguyen, MD
At my hospital, we have an extra cryostat in the storage room, away from grossing room and use the machine's UV-C light to sterilize the used N95 masks. Only temporarily until supplies catch up. Hopefully soon. The hospital ran out of masks and is telling people to recycle and reuse them somehow. Our procedure is 30 minutes on one side, then flip over for another 30 minutes. Nobody touches the machine except one person. The used masks have to be bagged individually and labeled and held in Micro until we are ready to load. These Leica UV-C sterilizers are very effective against viruses, per company's literature. UV-C is known to be very effective against single-stranded RNA viruses. 30 minutes is enough to kill 99.99% of viruses that are in direct path of the UV radiation. Our cryostat has a 30-minute and a 180-minute timer for the UV cycle. If you want to use it for other hospital departments, then I would suggest you move your cryostat outside the lab and into a safer place, to maximize isolation. We will do this for our ED soon because they have a lot more need than us.
Our lab have stopped outside people from coming in for about 3 weeks now, like specimen drop-offs and nurses and janitors and couriers; and that is very helpful in reducing fear. I suggest you do the same for your labs, if not already.
Good luck, and stay safe everybody.
———Reply from Meredith Peak, MD———
You could also try using your biosafety hood which has a UV light.
At my hospital, we have an extra cryostat in the storage room, away from grossing room and use the machine's UV-C light to sterilize the used N95 masks. Only temporarily until supplies catch up. Hopefully soon. The hospital ran out of masks and is telling people to recycle and reuse them somehow. Our procedure is 30 minutes on one side, then flip over for another 30 minutes. Nobody touches the machine except one person. The used masks have to be bagged individually and labeled and held in Micro until we are ready to load. These Leica UV-C sterilizers are very effective against viruses, per company's literature. UV-C is known to be very effective against single-stranded RNA viruses. 30 minutes is enough to kill 99.99% of viruses that are in direct path of the UV radiation. Our cryostat has a 30-minute and a 180-minute timer for the UV cycle. If you want to use it for other hospital departments, then I would suggest you move your cryostat outside the lab and into a safer place, to maximize isolation. We will do this for our ED soon because they have a lot more need than us.
Our lab have stopped outside people from coming in for about 3 weeks now, like specimen drop-offs and nurses and janitors and couriers; and that is very helpful in reducing fear. I suggest you do the same for your labs, if not already.
Good luck, and stay safe everybody.
———Reply from Meredith Peak, MD———
You could also try using your biosafety hood which has a UV light.
From Richard Ellis, MD
I gave advice to a friend recently that the CPAP for apnea should not be used as a ventilator substitute as it can spread the virus.
Also a reminder video on hand washing would be very good. There are several videos by CDC, WHO and others. Below is a good one from the WHO. Another version is HERE and the purple paint version HERE.
Stay safe.
I gave advice to a friend recently that the CPAP for apnea should not be used as a ventilator substitute as it can spread the virus.
Also a reminder video on hand washing would be very good. There are several videos by CDC, WHO and others. Below is a good one from the WHO. Another version is HERE and the purple paint version HERE.
Stay safe.
From Diane Tam, MD
One of our very own medical heroes, Lindsey Burrell, an ICU registered nurse at our Providence of Little Company of Mary Medical Center, Torrance was featured in this powerful ABC 20/20 episode – America Rising: Fighting the Pandemic. The YouTube video is below.
One of our very own medical heroes, Lindsey Burrell, an ICU registered nurse at our Providence of Little Company of Mary Medical Center, Torrance was featured in this powerful ABC 20/20 episode – America Rising: Fighting the Pandemic. The YouTube video is below.
Curated Links
- One of the best COVID-19 websites is curated by the University of Washington Pathology Society. Here
- University of Washington's Geoffrey Baird, MD talks about COVID-19 testing (video at bottom of page). Here
- Excellent article by a non-medical writer about the complexity of the virus. Here
- Excellent post on infection curves from March 10 and then updated on March 19. Here
- This second post— the Hammer and the Dance— by the same author is even more pertinent. Here
- The epidemic calculator to which the above article refers. Here
- A list of total infections, new infections, deaths etc. It is updated daily. Here
- COVID-19 tracking app Here and Here and Here (by State)
- COVID-19 Rt measurements (effective reproduction rate. Estimates how many secondary infections will occur from a single infection). Here
- Research Papers on COVID-19. Here
- Medscape Corona Virus page. Here
- Weekly Clinical Zoom meetings with the CDC on Corona Virus. Here
- Elsevier Corona Virus Toolkit. Here
Excellent Interview on March 18 with Dr. Anthony Fauci, NIH, Head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease.
Interview with Karen Kaul, MD, PhD who is a molecular expert. She talks about issues with COVID19 testing.
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