The Magic Wand Initiative (MWI) is an academic initiative designed by clinicians for clinicians to solve medical problems through innovation. Established by Lilit Garibyan, MD, PhD, and R. Rox Anderson, MD, from the Wellman Center for Photomedicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, the goal of the MWI and its virtual counterpart, the Virtual Magic Wand Program (VMW), is to empower and educate clinicians to become leaders in biomedical innovation around the world.

During a special combined session of the VMW Program earlier this fall, the scholars heard from three previous participants about their success in co-founding companies since going through the program. The session was attended by 48 participants from US and Europe. The insights of the first two speakers were covered in a previous post. Here’s a brief recap of the presentation by the day’s third and final speaker.

Dr. Aditi Sharma- Dermatologist & Co-Founder of Recyclablu

Aditi Sharma MD, a Micrographic Surgery and Dermatologic Oncology Fellow at UC San Francisco, spoke about the origin of her nonprofit, Recyclablu. Many of our scholars have expressed interest in problems around reducing environmental waste, and she has paved the way to implement reusable equipment in medicine during COVID. She noticed the immense PPE shortages during the pandemic, the waste created by single-use items and the need for innovation.

She found out that she could collect sterilization wrap from operating rooms and outpatient clinics and recreate them into masks. She noted that the community came together and worked on this project collaboratively and enthusiastically.

Her team partnered with engineers at MIT to validate the filtration efficiency of the masks and to determine the best sterilization procedure. The team approached local seamstresses who were eager to help to assemble the masks.

Dr. Sharma emphasized how this project was innovative on multiple fronts, from the reuse of a commonly discarded medical supply, to the machine that made the metal wire in the masks, to the community cooperation for a common goal. They even got to present the prototype at the WHO compendium of innovative health technologies for low resource settings.

Dr. Sharma noted that this technique could be replicated across the world, even in countries without as much capital and supplies as the USA. They also went to Skid Row in Los Angeles to provide individuals experiencing homelessness with masks. They are continuing to work on expanding the movement for sustainability in the medical field.