A Nurse Got Tired of Central Line Dressings Getting Ruined. So, He Invented a Fix

If you have ever taken care of a patient with a central line, you probably know how quickly a clean, dry, intact dressing can become a problem. Sweat, secretions, bathing, patient movement, and everyday snags can leave a dressing damp, loose, or soiled well before its scheduled change.

For Brett Garcia, BSN, RN, RRNA, seeing that happen over and over while working in the pediatric ICU led him to ask whether there was a better way to protect the dressing already in place. That bedside problem eventually became MudFlap, a transparent protective overlay designed to sit over an existing central line dressing.

The nurse-created invention recently earned Garcia first place and a $15,000 prize at the American Association of Nurse Anesthesiology’s 2026 Rm8 iNoV8 Pitch Competition.

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Garcia is a second-year nurse anesthesia student at Texas Christian University. Before anesthesia school, he worked as a pediatric intensive care nurse at Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth, Texas, where he frequently encountered central line dressings that became wet, soiled, loose, or disrupted before their planned change date.

Any nurse who has changed a central line dressing knows it involves more than grabbing another dressing kit. The procedure requires sterile technique and careful handling of a catheter site that provides direct access to the bloodstream. It also takes time, supplies, and sometimes another set of hands, particularly when caring for pediatric patients, patients with fragile skin, or anyone who does not tolerate having the site repeatedly manipulated.

According to Texas Christian University, Garcia began thinking about why so much innovation had focused on improving the central line dressing itself rather than finding a way to protect it once it was in place. That observation became the basis for MudFlap, which Garcia has been developing independently while completing his nurse anesthesiology education, without a larger product-development team behind him, according to AANA.

On August 23, 2026, Garcia presented the device at AANA’s Rm8 iNoV8 Pitch Competition during the organization’s Annual Congress in Boston. Five finalists presented healthcare innovations aimed at improving patient safety, patient outcomes, or the provider experience. Garcia was selected as the first-place winner and received $15,000, along with continued development support through Rm8, AANA’s healthcare innovation lab.

The award gives Garcia additional resources to continue developing and testing an idea that began with a recurring problem he encountered at the bedside.

MudFlap is not a replacement central line dressing. Instead, it is a separate, transparent, non-sterile protective overlay designed to be placed over the existing sterile dressing.

According to AANA, the device has a non-adhesive center intended to prevent it from sticking to or disturbing the primary dressing when the overlay is removed. It is designed to shield the dressing from moisture, secretions, snags, and bumps. If the outer layer becomes soiled, the goal is for it to be replaced without automatically requiring the sterile dressing underneath it to be changed.

Rather than changing the dressing itself, MudFlap is designed to add another layer of protection over it. The product remains investigational and has not yet been evaluated for clinical outcomes.

Maintaining an intact central line dressing is an established part of central line care. Current CDC guidance recommends replacing a catheter-site dressing when it becomes damp, loosened, or visibly soiled. For short-term central venous catheters, transparent dressings should generally be replaced at least every seven days, with an exception for pediatric patients when the risk of dislodging the catheter may outweigh the benefit of changing the dressing.

Research has also linked dressing disruption with catheter-related infection risk. In a multicenter study published in Critical Care Medicine, researchers analyzed 1,419 patients with 3,275 arterial or central venous catheters. Of 11,036 dressing changes, 7,347, or 67%, occurred before the planned change date because the dressing had become soiled or disrupted.

The study also found that repeated dressing disruption was associated with an increased risk of catheter-related infection. Those findings help explain why maintaining dressing integrity matters, but they do not establish that MudFlap itself prevents infection. The research evaluated dressing disruption as a risk factor and did not involve the MudFlap device.

At this point, there is no evidence that MudFlap prevents central line-associated bloodstream infections, or CLABSIs.

MudFlap remains an investigational product. According to the company’s website, it is not FDA cleared or approved, is not currently available for sale, and its developer is not making a claim that the device prevents or reduces infection. There are currently no published clinical trials showing that patients using MudFlap have lower rates of CLABSI or other catheter-related bloodstream infections.

What MudFlap is designed to do is more specific: help protect the existing dressing from moisture, contamination, and disruption. If future testing shows that the device reduces unplanned dressing changes, researchers could then evaluate whether that has any effect on infection-related outcomes. That connection has not yet been established.

The distinction is particularly important when discussing CLABSI. For short-term, non-tunneled central lines in patients 18 and older, the CDC recommends certain chlorhexidine-impregnated dressings when those products carry an FDA-cleared indication specifically for reducing catheter-related or catheter-associated bloodstream infection.

MudFlap does not currently have that type of indication.

For now, MudFlap should be described as a device designed to protect dressing integrity, not as an infection-prevention product.

Garcia plans to use the $15,000 award to continue developing and testing the device. According to AANA, his next steps include fluid-challenge testing, durability testing, another round of prototypes, and consultation with regulatory counsel about the appropriate FDA pathway.

The MudFlap website states that the product remains investigational and requires further evaluation before it could reach the bedside. Future testing will need to determine whether the overlay reliably protects the underlying dressing as intended and, separately, whether that protection produces any measurable clinical benefit.

Until those questions are answered, MudFlap remains an early-stage medical device rather than an established central line or infection-prevention product.

Garcia’s story reflects how a recurring bedside problem can become the starting point for a healthcare innovation.

Nurses work directly with the equipment, supplies, procedures, and workflows involved in patient care, which can put them in a position to identify practical problems that may be less obvious outside day-to-day clinical practice. In Garcia’s case, repeated experience with disrupted central line dressings led to a device concept that is now moving into further testing and development.

Whether MudFlap ultimately reaches the bedside or demonstrates measurable clinical benefits will depend on what future testing and regulatory review show. For now, its progression from a recurring PICU problem to a nationally recognized medical-device concept is a concrete example of how an observation made during routine nursing care can move into formal product development.

🤔 Nurses, what everyday bedside problem do you wish someone would finally invent a solution for?