Recent M.P.H. graduate Falasha Mahadevia and her interdisciplinary team received a $1,000 award to continue development of “Wrap Star,” an innovation designed to improve wound and burn care management by helping clinicians monitor wound moisture levels without repeatedly disturbing the healing site.

The project focuses on a major challenge in wound and burn care, particularly in split-thickness skin graft and donor site healing, where maintaining a moist wound environment is critical for recovery. Currently, providers often have no external way to assess wound saturation beneath dressings, requiring repeated dressing removal that can disrupt healing and increase infection risk.

“Our team was especially interested in solving the issue that providers are often forced to rely on estimation rather than real-time visualization when monitoring wound moisture,” Mahadevia said.

Wrap Star functions as an external visual indicator that signals when a dressing may need rehydration while preserving the protective healing environment underneath.

For Mahadevia, the project grew from a shared interest in innovation, patient care and interdisciplinary collaboration.

“As we learned more about the challenges clinicians face with wound monitoring and dressing changes, we realized there was a meaningful gap in care that had the potential to impact both patient outcomes and clinical workflow,” she said.

Mahadevia worked on the project alongside a team of students from medicine, public health and biomedical innovation programs. The innovation was first introduced during the 2025 Bench 2 Bedside competition, where the team earned first place and a $10,000 award to continue development. This year, the group returned to the competition as a legacy team and received the competition’s People’s Choice Award 2 years in a row.

“Receiving the People’s Choice Award again was especially meaningful because it reinforced that the need for this product resonates not only with clinicians and innovators, but also with the broader community,” Mahadevia said.

Mahadevia’s experience in the M.P.H. program strengthened her interest in developing healthcare solutions through both clinical and public health perspectives.

“The curriculum encourages creativity not only in identifying problems within healthcare systems, but also in developing realistic and impactful solutions,” she said. “Being in that environment reinforced my belief that even small improvements within healthcare systems can ultimately translate into lives impacted.”

The award funding will support the team’s next phase of development, including building a minimum viable product and continuing prototype refinement. The team currently has a provisional patent filed for the innovation and plans to continue advancing the technology toward future clinical testing.

The project was guided by physician mentor Deepak Ozhathil, M.D., a burn surgeon at Akron Children’s Hospital specializing in burn surgery, wound healing and reconstructive burn care.

Mahadevia also recognized the University Student Startup Accelerator (USTAAR) program and the Department of Public Health Sciences for supporting the project’s continued growth and her participation in the national competition.

Mahadevia, who recently graduated from the M.P.H. program, plans to attend medical school and continue pursuing work at the intersection of medicine, public health and healthcare innovation.

Written by Deycha Torres Hernández, published May 15, 2026.