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Crain earns American Public Health Association research award

By Roman Petrowski, McGovern Communications
McGovern Medical School Students from the Health in Your Hands foundation

McGovern Medical School students formed Health in Your Hands, to help coordinate low-cost global health efforts.

The American Public Health Association awarded Caroline Crain, MPH, third-year medical student, with the Public Health Education Student Award for Excellence in Research at its annual meeting.

Crain also presented research at the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene’s annual meeting alongside fellow student Simon Birk, where the duo earned Honorable Mention (third place).

“I am deeply honored to receive these awards. More importantly, however, I am grateful that this recognition has elevated a broader conversation about the structural inequities that continue to shape medicine and global health,” Crain said. “We are uniquely privileged to study and work at the cutting edge of technology, and I see it as an ethical responsibility that we use that privilege to support and empower those who the medical field has historically left behind.”

The team’s research focuses on low-cost diagnostic approaches developed and deployed during a summer 2025 field study addressing schistosomiasis, a neglected tropical disease affecting more than 250 million people worldwide. Crain and Birk, along with fellow students Rakesh Kathiresan and William McCarthy, founded Health in Your Hands, a nonprofit, international, student-led research collaborative using ultra-low-cost, accessible innovation to address pressing global health challenges.

Working alongside Nigerian public health expert Tope Olubodun, MD, MPH, with support from Soneye Islamiat, director of Ogun State’s Neglected Tropical Disease Office, the team conducted urine screening clinics in five remote fishing villages in July and August 2025. The effort resulted in treatment distribution to 404 residents in underserved communities where access to diagnostic services and medication is often limited.

With local ethical approval and UTHealth Houston Institutional Review Board approval, the team piloted new point-of-care diagnostic tests, including the SchistoFilter (external link), a low-cost, reusable device designed by McGovern Medical School students for schistosomiasis screening.

The fieldwork in Nigeria was funded through $10,000 raised via a peer-reviewed crowdfunding campaign as well as support from Manu Prakash, PhD, associate professor at Stanford University, and Kristina Tebo, MD, assistant dean of Global Health at McGovern Medical School.

“It has been such a privilege to pursue this work alongside an incredible group of peers and collaborators,” Crain said. “What makes this group particularly special is our collective drive to make the world a more equitable place and the belief that, even as students, we can make a meaningful impact on the world.”

Health in Your Hands will continue to coordinate global health efforts, expanding its accessible diagnostics model to cervical cancer screening, neurodiagnostics, and health education, with early stage global health projects in South America, Central Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa in 2026.

“I am thankful to UTHealth Houston for their dedicated support of our work, in particular Dr. Kristina Tebo with the Office of Global Health Initiatives, and Dr. Jayhun Lee, a schistosoma researcher within the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics,” Crain said. “We have an exciting year ahead of us, and we couldn’t

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