Technopath Clinical Diagnostics today announced that Northwell Health, New York State’s largest healthcare provider with 23 hospitals and nearly 800 outpatient facilities, is minimizing the risk of spreading COVID-19 by adopting Technopath’s technology platform that safely neutralizes infectious medical waste. Northwell is the first health system worldwide to implement Technopath’s pioneering technology.
“According to a recent study by the National Institutes of Health, coronavirus survives on plastic and stainless steel surfaces for up to three days. As Northwell Health significantly ramps up COVID-19 testing to over 1,600 samples daily, there is an urgent need to quickly and reliably minimize the risk of spreading disease from infected medical waste,” said Malcolm Bell, CEO and founder of Technopath. “Partnering with Northwell to provide the most advanced, environmentally friendly, and cost-effective technology for the treatment of medical waste infected with coronavirus is allowing us to respond to what the World Health Organization has characterized as a global pandemic.”
Developed by Irish-based Technopath Clinical Diagnostics, the Envetec 200 system simultaneously shreds and disinfects infectious medical waste using a patented destruction and disinfection process that kills COVID-19 viruses along with all bacteria, spores and other pathogens that pose a danger to human health. The technology requires no heat in the process, and no dangerous chemicals emanate from the system at the end of each 20-minute treatment cycle. The resulting confetti-like solid residue is categorized as regular trash, entirely safe to handle, and can be used in a number of waste to energy and other recycling applications.
“For the past several weeks, Northwell has continued to take on the health and safety challenges posed by COVID-19,” said Michael Dowling, Northwell president and CEO. “This new technology allows us to remove the unknown risk exposure when disposing of medical waste while avoiding the need for the costly and carbon-inefficient transportation and disposal by third-party handlers. It’s a positive light during a unique time.”
One of the unknown risk exposures to public health safety from COVID-19 is the treatment and disposal of infectious medical waste. Traditional disposal methods that are widely employed include road-hauling untreated infectious waste from labs and other health care facilities to treatment sites followed by environmentally detrimental thermal treatment and landfilling.
Implementing the Envetec 200 technology comes as Northwell continues to ramp up COVID-19 testing. Northwell Labs is one of 89 public health laboratories in the US testing for the novel coronavirus and recently advanced to fully automated testing capabilities, which allows the health system to test more than 1,600 potential COVID-19 samples daily.
“The Envetec 200 technology exemplifies Northwell’s dedication and constant search for the very latest and innovative technologies available in healthcare,” said Dwayne Breining, MD, executive director of Northwell Labs. “We have carefully evaluated our options to eliminate any potential risks associated with the new large-scale testing for COVID-19 being performed at Northwell Labs.”
Dr. Breining continued, “We are extremely confident that the Envetec system provides us with the best-in-class technology solution for treating hazardous health care waste at source and also eliminates any unknown risk of infection to the wider community.”