As advances in medicine continue to improve patient outcomes, more patients arrive at health care facilities with implanted devices, such as pacemakers, neurostimulators, infusion pumps and other technologies. At the same time, many instruments commonly used in surgical and procedural settings can generate electromagnetic fields that may interfere with these implants, creating potential safety risks.

DeviceWise addresses this challenge by providing clinicians with immediate access to device-specific guidance. Through a simple web-based application, users can select the type and model of an implanted device and quickly receive recommendations for patient management, along with facility-specific instructions, manufacturer contact information and other relevant resources.

The Ministrywide rollout reflects the commitment OSF HealthCare has to leveraging innovation to improve patient safety and support frontline caregivers with practical tools that fit seamlessly into clinical workflows.

"DeviceWise grew from a simple but important question: How can we make critical information easier for caregivers to access when they need it most?" said Becky Buchen, senior vice president, OSF Innovation and Transformation. "The answer came from the ingenuity of OSF Mission Partners who understood the challenge firsthand. Through the support of OSF Innovation Studio, those ideas were transformed into a scalable solution that can help clinicians make informed decisions and enhance safety for patients with implanted devices."

The technology behind DeviceWise originated from innovation developed by surgery nurses Jill Teubel, MSN, BSN, RN, and Mary Marvin, APRN, MSN, RN, and was supported through OSF Innovation Studio's ecosystem for advancing new ideas and startup ventures. OpenSurg Inc., the parent company, has licensed the intellectual property owned by OSF HealthCare to commercialize the technology.

OpenSurg CEO Jim Weldy says of reaching the milestone, "Getting this contract signed is a great capstone to this entire effort. It's a meaningful juncture to reflect on all it has taken to get to this point: initial concept from frontline OSF nurses, prototype build through OSF Innovation, proof of value in reducing cancellations and costs, rolling it out across all OSF hospitals, company launch, intellectual property licensing, commercial productization of the concept, and now getting through the rigorous contracting process."

The announcement also follows a significant intellectual property milestone. The United States Patent and Trademark Office recently granted a patent for CaseChat™, an innovation related to surgical and procedural workflows. OSF HealthCare owns the patent for the original product, DeviceTable, and underlying intellectual property. OpenSurg holds an exclusive license to further develop and commercialize the technology.

CaseChat represents a future product opportunity and remains under development.

"Every improvement that helps our teams identify risks and access information more efficiently has the potential to make a meaningful difference for patients," says Sherri Greenwood, DNP, MHA, RN, NEA-BC, vice president of Surgical & Procedural Services for OSF HealthCare. "Deploying DeviceWise across OSF HealthCare strengthens our ability to support caregivers with timely, reliable information and reinforces our commitment to delivering safe, high-quality care throughout every stage of the patient experience. Greenwood adds, “Having this information at our fingertips prevents potential delays in our patients’ care.”

Weldy says, “OpenSurg is working on ways to bring more of those efficiencies to other hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers around the country, so patients everywhere can benefit!"

OpenSurg is also a participant in the current gBETA Distillery Labs accelerator cohort, a program supported by OSF HealthCare that helps emerging companies accelerate growth and bring innovative solutions to market.

The deployment of DeviceWise across OSF HealthCare hospitals will begin this summer with implementation occurring throughout the Ministry.

Eric Martin, DO, chief of Vascular Surgery at OSF HealthCare Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria, Illinois, has received the OSF HealthCare 2025 Innovator of the Year award.

Dr. Martin is preventing amputations using regenerative reconstruction, a groundbreaking approach that promotes healing and tissue regeneration through advanced therapies including products made up of animal tissue (xenografts) and human tissue (allografts). This includes fish skin, pig intestine, pig bladder, cow tendon and tissue from human umbilical cords that come from women who have planned, elective C-sections.

Dr. Martin received the award during an OSF Innovation Showcase at Jump Trading Simulation & Education Center.

The Innovator of the Year award is an annual honor that recognizes individuals who are advancing our vision of transforming health care. These Mission Partners:

• Spearhead transformative change aligned with the Mission and Vision of OSF
• Bring forward new ideas and invest time in exploring novel approaches
• Demonstrate a proactive approach in fostering partnerships to revolutionize health care
• Solve complex challenges internally and within the broader community

“Dr. Martin last year provided the first-ever surgical treatment a patient with a rare autoimmune disease called pyoderma gangrenosum. He is saving limbs and lives because often he’s treating patients whose wounds have become so terrible, they are on the brink of dying from sepsis, a blood-borne infection,” explains Becky Buchen, senior vice president of Innovation, OSF HealthCare. “We have a remarkable innovator in Dr. Martin who has figured out how a wide variety of products can work together synergistically to help save limbs. And we’re proud that he’s teaching other surgeons around the world how to do the same.”

During 22 years in the U.S. Army, Dr. Martin spent time at Eisenhower Army Medical Center in Augusta, Georgia, a partner of the Veterans Administration. While there, he treated many veterans with tissue damage, gangrene or non-healing wounds from multi-level, chronic peripheral artery disease. So, he became immersed in vascular reconstructions as well as reconstruction of lower extremities for limb salvage.

In accepting the award, Dr. Martin emphasized that he’s thrilled to be able to be a source of hope for people.

“I feel fortunate to be at OSF HealthCare, which has invested a lot of time and resources to build up the most advanced regenerative reconstructive practice in the state of Illinois, to serve as a destination center and a tertiary care referral center for cases that other health systems don’t want to take,” Dr. Martin exclaims. “We can offer hope to people who have run out of hope.”

Dr. Martin points out OSF HealthCare is taking on patients with the worst medical co-morbidities including heart, kidney, liver and lung failure, complex peripheral artery disease and poorly controlled diabetes, which results in patients coming to OSF in septic shock, near death with a massively infected chronic wound. “We try to save their life and we’ve been pretty successful doing that.”

He also credited excellent wound care team members along with hospitalists, internal medicine physicians and many medical sub-specialists including endocrinologists, pulmonologists and cardiologists who provide care for these patients.

 “Because of the way OSF is structured, we have so many specialists in our hospital, we’re able to give these patients optimal, premium health care from all levels – not just treating the wound but treating the patient globally with comprehensive health care,” Dr. Martin stresses.                     

 To learn more about Dr. Martin's innovative surgical approach and hear from patients he's helped, listen to this OSF Health Accelerated podcast. 

Dr. Eric Martin and Becky Buchen

B-roll of Innovator of the Year and regenerative restoration surgery

As we begin a new year at OSF HealthCare, we’re reflecting on 2024 and the major strides in digital transformation to make access to care and health information seamless for our patients. At OSF, we continue to collaborate with our academic and business partners to leverage collective expertise and to responsibly use the power of artificial intelligence, always taking care to use guiding principles of what is fair, appropriate, valid, effective and safe (FAVES).

The efforts are highlighted here in our Top 10 Digital Health and Innovation stories of 2024 in no particular order.

1. OSF Unveils new 55+ primary care service in south suburban Chicago: Called OSF Complete Care 55+, this is a unique collaboration between OSF HealthCare Little Company of Mary Medical Center and OSF OnCall, the digital arm of the health care Ministry. When launched in early 2025, this primary care program will incorporate in-person visits, plus a mix of virtual care, digital health monitoring tools and 24/7 access to a care team focusing on those with chronic conditions.

2. Building an AI prepared workforce: OSF HealthCare leaders took just six weeks to develop mandatory training about generative AI for all 24,000 OSF Mission Partners (employees) because tools were already publicly available. Melissa Knuth, Vice President of Planning, outlines that to rise to the challenge, she worked with OSF Innovation to use mixed media to keep the content interesting and tapped generative AI tools to assist with the content creation.

3. OSF Digital Hospital patients in Rockford area say it’s the best medicine: OSF OnCall expands its digital hospital program to Rockford and receives rave reviews from some of its first patients. In addition, a well-known farm broadcaster shares her story about receiving acute-level care from the comfort of her own home and urges others who are eligible to consider the option.

4. OSF Innovation sets the table for solution to prevent cancelled surgeries: Two OSF HealthCare nurses turned to the OSF Innovation Studio team to help improve their Device Table software that serves as a database for implanted medical devices – offering information needed for surgical teams to reference for safety in surgery planning. We also reported on the creation of a spin-off company, OpenSurg, which will license and promote widespread sales of Device Table and related support features.

5. OSF HealthCare experts: ‘Establish guiding principles when developing digital care strategy’: OSF OnCall was a spotlight vendor and presenter at this year’s American Telemedicine Association’s annual Nexus conference in Phoenix, Arizona. OSF OnCall Senior Vice President Jennifer Junis advised during her presentation that health systems use guiding principles when developing their approach to digital health and to involve clinicians and patients when piloting new programs and digital tools. OSF HealthCare has also become a founding member of an ATA Digital Center of Excellence.

6. Mapping the future for early diagnosis of rare diseases: A Jump ARCHES grant-funded project with the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is using generative AI and knowledge graphs that map symptoms to detect rare diseases. Adam Cross, MD, who leads the OSF Children's Innovation Lab in Peoria, Illinois, wants to create a point-of-care tool for primary care providers to help patients get an early diagnosis of a rare disease.

7. Health economist: Connectivity and trust can expand telehealth: OSF OnCall hosted its first-ever digital health symposium which drew nearly 150 clinicians and vendors. Keynote speaker health economist and advisor Jane Sarasohn-Kahn stressed evidence-based digital technologies can improve health outcomes, but health systems need to build trust and expand community partnerships to increase engagements.

8. Fast-Tracking Hope: Rapid Intake at the OSF Cancer Institute: OSF HealthCare began 2024 with the opening of its new comprehensive Cancer Institute, offering advanced radiation therapy such as brachytherapy and proton beam therapy.  It also launched a new rapid intake system, developed by OSF OnCall and OSF Innovation to offer a single point of contact through OSF-HOPE (844- 673-4467) so cancer patients can be immediately connected to treatment and support services.

9. Piloting a smarter colonoscopy: OSF HealthCare St. Joseph Medical Center piloted artificial intelligence-backed colonoscopies, using a company called GI Genius, to improve detection of precancerous polyps. During the pilot, the adenoma detection rate (ADR) averages increased among all patients involved to as high as 12%, while individual physician ADR increased as high as 32.8%. The technology is now being implemented across the OSF Ministry.

10. Testing the path to better concussion diagnosis: An OSF Innovation lab-designed FlightPath app is now being tested by athletes at Illinois State, Bradley and Illinois Wesleyan Universities. The app only takes about two minutes to collect more than a million data points as a person tries to catch a hummingbird within a 3D space on a screen. The clinical trial could last two years. 

AVIA, the nation’s leading market intelligence and advisory services firm advancing digital transformation in health care, has added several additional health systems, including OSF HealthCare, to its national Generative AI Strategic Collaborative. OSF is among the new additions which include industry leaders and some of the largest health systems in the country.

AVIA has rallied nearly 30 health systems, key industry associations, and government leaders—including a recently announced slate of 10 expert advisors—to join its collaborative to identify risks, opportunities, and actionable steps for responsible, impactful, and ethical AI adoption for the health care industry.  In addition to OSF HealthCare, the new additions include:

●          Banner Health
●          Boston Children’s Hospital
●          Children’s Mercy Kansas City
●          Cottage Health
●          Novant Health
●          UVA Health

OSF HealthCare has developed large language models to identify unique needs for our patients so we can be proactive in helping diagnose or provide decision support for our medical providers to promote screenings and prevention, or potential clinical interventions.

“Generative AI has the potential to make an enormous impact on health systems and patients. We’re proud to be collaborating with such an impressive group of health system leaders, as well as industry associations and expert advisors who will help shape this important initiative. AVIA has always been on the forefront of what is next in healthcare transformation, and we believe this collaborative will help ensure the potential of generative AI in our industry is fulfilled, ushering in a transformative era in healthcare delivery,” said Dr. Scott Cullen, EVP and Chief Clinical Officer at AVIA and leader of the collaborative.

Other health care leaders expanded on the importance of becoming part of a collaborative.

"By joining with nearly 30 health systems, we have a unique opportunity to shape the future of health care AI, ensuring it meets the needs of patients and communities, said Tom Maddox, Vice President of Digital Products and Innovation and BJC HealthCare and Executive Director of the Healthcare Innovation Lab at BJC HealthCare and the Washington University School of Medicine. “Together, we will navigate the challenges and opportunities of responsible and ethical AI adoption, revolutionizing the way healthcare is delivered,”

“Children's hospitals have unique challenges when it comes to generative AI and other new technology – such as gaining consent from our patients and families – so we look forward to working with other systems, experts, and technology firms to ensure peds needs are incorporated. By joining AVIA’s Generative AI Collaborative, Children’s Mercy Kansas City is getting ahead of these challenges using a co-created action plan from the country’s best and brightest,” said Rob Steele, MD, MBA, Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer at Children’s Mercy.   

Although pioneering research has already begun, there is still time for additional organizations to join the collaborative. Interested health systems, industry or professional organizations can attend an AVIA briefing on its Generative AI Collaborative Monday, October 9th from 4:00-5:30pm at the Encore at Wynn Las Vegas during HLTH 2023. To learn more, contact AVIA at genai@avia.health.