Design Award Honors Three-Tower Hospital Disinfection Technology That Improves on Single Emitters

WAUKESHA, Wis., July 14, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Surfacide announced that its Helios UV-C healthcare disinfection system was named a finalist for a prestigious 2016 International Design Excellence Award (IDEA). The IDEA awards are a national competition sponsored annually by the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) and judged by renowned design experts from around the world. The Surfacide system was nominated in the Commercial & Industrial Products category.

"Being nominated for an IDSA award speaks to a product's excellence in several areas including, innovativeness, ease-of-use, aesthetics, affordability and societal benefits," said Gunner Lyslo, Surfacide founder and CEO. "These were our goals when we conceived the Helios system, and it's gratifying to have an esteemed organization like IDSA acknowledge our success."

Surfacide's Helios UV-C disinfection system uses three light-emitting towers in hospital patient environments to help eradicate drug-resistant organisms including superbugs such as: C. Diff, MRSA, VRE, CRE and acinetobacter.

Other competing systems use just one tower, which is a less effective approach. Single emitter systems, including pulsed xenon gas systems, cannot reach all high-touch surfaces in a single disinfection cycle.

Surfacide's three-tower technology more quickly and effectively disinfects an entire room, including the bathroom and other hard-to-reach areas. The Helios emitters are positioned closer to hard surfaces, which cuts down cleaning time and improves overall efficacy. The Surfacide system was designed with assistance from MINIMAL (MNML), an industrial design firm with offices in Chicago and San Francisco.
 
In addition to traditional cleaning methods, healthcare providers are turning to UV-C technology to combat healthcare-associated infections (HAIs). UV-C light has been used for decades to kill organisms in water supplies. Now it is being used to kill organisms on hard surfaces including bed rails, TV remotes, patient tray tables, guest chairs, countertops, and bathrooms.
 
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Infection (CDC), roughly one in every 20 hospitalized patients acquires an infection during the course of receiving treatment for another condition. HAIs create significant health risks and cost the healthcare industry billions of dollars each year. That toll has placed a high priority on innovative technologies such as UV-C disinfection.
 
Each of the three towers of Surfacide's system comes equipped with laser validation to ensure the room is completely covered during the disinfection process. Once validation is completed, the towers are activated. The disinfection process lasts roughly 30 minutes and has been shown in clinical studies to significantly reduce the risk of HAIs and lower hospital infection rates.
 
About IDSA

Founded in 1965, the nonprofit IDSA is one of the oldest and largest membership associations for industrial design professionals, with thousands of members in dozens of professional, student and special interest chapters in the U.S. and internationally. IDSA sponsors IDEA®, the world's most prestigious and rigorous design competition. The Society hosts events including an annual International Design Conference, five District Design Conferences and a Medical Design Conference—bringing together some of the biggest names and brightest minds in industrial design and related fields.
 
About Surfacide

Surfacide, LLC designs and manufactures UV-C disinfection systems. Surfacide's mission is to help minimize healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) by developing effective technological solutions for hard-surface disinfection. The company's evidence-based solutions target the reduction of pathogens and other causative agents of infectious diseases in healthcare settings, with a primary focus on the control of "superbugs" such as C. diff, CRE, MRSA, VRE, and acinetobacter. For more information, call 844-390-3538 or access www.surfacide.com.

A photo accompanying this release is available at: http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=40841

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