Daylight Medical Launches SKY 6Xi Disinfection Technology For Healthcare

New technology provides safe, fast, and effective disinfection of mobile computing devices in effort to reduce prevalence of hospital-acquired infections

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Daylight Medical

Apr 15, 2014, 08:30 ET

CLEVELAND, April 15, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Daylight Medical, manufacturer and provider of innovative medical products, is pleased to announce its rollout of SKY 6Xi, disinfection technology for mobile devices. SKY 6Xi uses high intensity (254 nanometer wavelength) ultraviolet light in the "C" spectrum (UVC) at close proximity to thoroughly disinfect a mobile device. The unique power of SKY reduces the risk that Hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) are transmitted to patients while improving safety for healthcare workers.

Daylight Medical logo (PRNewsFoto/Daylight Medical)

The prevalence of HAIs remains a serious problem for caregivers. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reports that one in 25 patients in U.S. hospitals acquires a HAI as part of his or her care, and reflects only modest progress in controlling pathogens in medical facilities.

With the increased prevalence of mobile devices in healthcare, there is a need for hospitals to address the pathogens that can live or be transported on them. Whether hospitals provide mobile devices or staffs bring their own device (BYOD), they are vectors of contamination requiring careful disinfection to be used safely in the healthcare setting. SKY 6Xi provides safe, effective disinfection of phones and tablet PCs in seconds, protecting patients and healthcare staff from harmful pathogens that can be transmitted from these high-touch surfaces.

"SKY was designed with the busy healthcare provider in mind. It's easy to use and can thoroughly disinfect a mobile device within 30 seconds, phones within 10 seconds. SKY can be used in any area of the hospital and takes the guesswork out of whether or not a device is contaminated," says Rick Dayton, President of Daylight Medical. "This is important when you consider the risk of transmission from mobile devices, not only to patients, but also to hospital staff."

SKY was designed to address harmful pathogens such as MRSA, VRE, MDR-gram negatives, Norovirus and C. diff spores using high intensity UVC to penetrate the cells of pathogens, viruses, bacteria and spores. SKY breaks the DNA strand of the pathogen at the point responsible for cell replication, rendering the organism inactive and achieving a 3 to 6 log reduction (99.9% to 99.9999%).

SKY's market release is timely. Last month, the CDC reported that atop the list of pathogens acquired in hospitals is the bacterium clostridium difficile (commonly know as C. diff), which can cause gastroenterological illnesses so severe that removal of a patient's colon is sometimes required. It was responsible for 12.1 percent of the infections turned up by the survey. SKY 6Xi has been proven to reduce C. diff by just under 4 log.

Unique to SKY, Daylight Medical offers sleeve technology enabling mobile devices to be taken into critical care environments while protecting the device and eliminating pathogen accumulation in the recess (charging jack, earphone inputs). SKY sleeves, which are specially manufactured allowing maximum UV light transmittance, can be purchased with photochromic markers. When a mobile device is placed in a SKY photochromic sleeve, a checkmark is revealed when it is exposed to high intensity UVC light during the disinfection process. The marker is a visual notification the device has been successfully processed. Device disinfection can be done as often as required by hospital protocol and in accord with Infection Control mandates.

*All results based on independent testing. C. difficile was tested directly and, for safety and equivalence, challenge organisms of greater irradiation resistance replaced other pathogens noted. Tests conducted with Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, and Bacillus atrophaeus.