2017 Jump ARCHES Endowment Grant Recipients Announced

Jump ARCHES-VR-Online Newsroom

Nine research projects are sharing $700,000 in funding through the Jump ARCHES program. The $62.5 million endowment is a partnership between OSF HealthCare through Jump Simulation and the Health Care Engineering Systems Center (HCESC) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. It supports projects between clinicians and engineers developing technologies and devices that could revolutionize medical training and health care delivery.

Since its inception, the Jump ARCHES program has funded nearly 25 projects, some of which have gone on to receive national funding from the National Science Foundation and the Carver Charitable Trust.

The next round of applicants should focus their efforts on projects to improve the undergraduate medical education experience. A request for proposals and deadline will be announced soon.

Below are the most recent winners of the grants.

KneeVIEW: A Virtual Education Window for Musculoskeletal Training

Collaborators: Mariana Kersh, PhD (UIUC); Scott Barrows, MA, FAMI (Jump); Dr. Thomas Santoro (UICOMP/OSF HealthCare); David Dominguese, PhD (UICOMP); Anthony Dwyer (UICOMP); Joel Baber, DO (OSF HealthCare) Grace I-Hsuan Hsu, BSc, ALM, MS (Jump) Meenakshy Aiyer, MD, FACP (OSF HealthCare/UICOMP)

This project aims to advance musculoskeletal training by developing a realistic knee simulation model, supported by virtual reality and augmented reality educational modules. The goal is to enhance clinician training and improve patient outcomes. The biomechanically accurate model will replicate the stiffness of each individual component of the human knee to simulate both normal and pathological cases.

Multi-Modal Skin Lesion Identification and Education Simulator

Collaborators: Scott Barrows, MA, FAMI (Jump); Stephen A. Boppart, MD, PhD (UIUC); Thomas Golemon, MD (UICOMP); Brent Cross, BS, MS (Jump)

Winners of the grant will create simulated skin and models of skin lesions with lifelike appearance and texture. In the project’s first phase, the model will consist of 2D surface images of skin lesions displayed on a tablet computer with a translucent elastomer overlay replicating the surface topography of the lesion. Future efforts will seek to extend the model to 3D and incorporate additional features.

Interactive Technology Support for Patient Medication Self-Management (continued funding)

Collaborators: Dan Morrow, PhD (UIUC); Suma Pallathadka Bhat, PhD (UIUC); Mark Hasegawa-Johnson, PhD (UIUC); Thomas Huang, BS, MS, ScD (UIUC); James Graumlich, MD (OSF HealthCare/UICOMP); Ann Willemsen-Dunlap, PhD (Jump/OSF HealthCare); Don Halpin, EMBA, MS (Jump)

This team is developing natural language processing software that simplifies prescription instructions and communicates those directions to patients using an avatar. Goals for further development are refinement and expansion of the translation tool and avatar capabilities, including making the avatar interactive and able to ask and respond to questions.

AirwayVR Virtual Reality-Based Trainer for Endotracheal Intubation

Collaborators: Pavithra Rajeswaran (UIUC); Praveen Kumar, MBBS, DCH, MD (OSF HealthCare); Eric Bugaieski, MD (OSF HealthCare); Priti Jani, MD, MPH (University of Chicago Medical Center)

This project seeks to develop a stable, immersive, high quality, low-cost virtual reality simulation trainer for learning and practicing intubation. It will create a curriculum for intubation training that uses a VR trainer featuring 3D models of the head and neck and other interactive learning tools. Validation studies will be performed to assess the impact of the VR trainer in intubation training.

Simulation Training for Mechanical Circulatory Support using Extra-Corporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) in Adult Patients (continued funding)

Collaborators: Pramod Chembrammel, PhD (UIUC); Matt Bramlet, MD (OSF HealthCare/Jump); Pavithra Rajeswaran (UIUC)

Collaborators on this project have developed a physical simulator for training Extra-Corporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO), a technique that provides mechanical support to a failing heart and/or lungs using a pump to circulate blood through an artificial lung back into the bloodstream of a patient. Simulation experts and ECMO-experienced surgeons will evaluate the simulator’s performance.

A Natural Language Powered Platform for Post-Operative Care for Long Distance Caregiving

Collaborators: Ramavarapu Sreenivas, MS, PhD (UIUC); Sarah De Ramirez, MD, MSc (OSF HealthCare/UICOMP); Kesh T. Kesavadas, PhD (UIUC)

This group is using a natural language powered platform that patients can verbally interface with in hopes of reducing postoperative complications. The project consists of three phases: coding voice-commands to fulfill postoperative protocols and test it in a virtual reality environment, connecting the platform to sensors to see if it can process motion assessments and testing these in the VR environment and conducting studies with test patients at OSF HealthCare.

Heart Failure and Behavior Change: Patient/Provider Interactive Clinical Education App for Mobile Devices

Collaborators: Scott Barrows, MA, FAMI (Jump); Wawrzyniec, Dobrucki, MS, PhD (UIUC); Barry Clemson, MD (OSF HealthCare); Kyle Formella (Jump); Don Halpin, EMBA, MS (Jump); Ann Willemsen-Dunlap, PhD (OSF HealthCare/Jump)

This project aims to enhance a mobile app to improve communication and understanding of heart failure for patients and improved adherence to treatment. The app will include interactive 3D visual assets, a repository of information on heart failure and an avatar that can interact with patients.

Flexible, Low-cost, Single Port Minimally Invasive Robotic Surgical Platform

Collaborators: Placid Ferreira, PhD (UIUC); Kesh T. Kesavadas, PhD (UIUC); Nicholas Toombs (UIUC); Fanxin Wang (UIUC); Xiao Li (UIUC); Jorge Correa (UIUC)

The goal of this project is to improve upon minimally invasive robotic Single Port Laparoscopic Surgery (SPLS) prototypes to make them cheaper, portable and more flexible. Three advancements in the field with the prototype have been demonstrated. Adding three more improvements will increase the adaptivity of the device and lower the price to an affordable point for middle-class hospitals.

Interactive Mixed Reality (IMR)-Based Medical Curriculum for Medical Education

Collaborators: Kesh T. Kesavadas, PhD (UIUC); David Crawford, MD (OSF HealthCare/UICOMP); Meenakshy Aiyer, MD, FACP (OSF HealthCare/UICOMP); Jessica Hanks, MD (OSF HealthCare/UICOMP); John Vozenilek, MD (Jump/UICOMP)

This group combines the strengths of Jump and HCESC to develop a highly interactive platform for learning that uses Interactive Mixed Reality, a combination of Virtual Reality and 360-degree video. The hope is to eliminate the barrier of the simulation technical skillset so that instructors can easily develop educational content. Future goals of the platform are to provide an easy, immersive and portable method for adult professional learners to maintain, acquire and improve current knowledge while maintaining communication between them and health care education centers.