OSF HealthCare has partners with the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Tata Elxsi, a global leader in design and technology services to address critical health care challenges in rural America. Historically, digital health innovations have concentrated on urban populations, leaving rural communities underserved. This pioneering initiative combines advanced technology with academic research from Gies College of Business and Carle Illinois College of Medicine, leveraging real-time OSF HealthCare data to deploy hyper-localized digital health kiosks funded by Jump ARCHES. These kiosks aim to improve healthcare accessibility and outcomes in underserved regions.

Rural areas face steep barriers to health care access, including limited technology awareness, long distances to doctors, poor network connectivity, low population density, and inadequate payer coverage. A detailed OSF-based analysis by the Gies College of Business found that extending access to primary and preventive care in remote and rural areas significantly reduces avoidable emergency care visits among these populations. The initiative focuses on chronic and behavioral diseases and addresses four key challenges: Hospital re-admission and post-acute care health monitoring, geographic and access barriers, health care education and preventive measures, and chronic disease management.

At the core of this initiative is Tata Elxsi’s TEngage platform, a scalable, effective and comprehensive digital health solution designed to deliver seamless health care in rural areas through the kiosks. These kiosks run on Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud infrastructure and incorporate technologies such as Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) for vital sign collection, Hospital Information System (HIS) integration, telehealth services, and secure data workflows. Discussions are underway to incorporate IoT-based remote monitoring, further enhancing the platform's capacity to deliver proactive, continuous care to rural communities.

Beginning in Illinois, the initiative will expand to many counties over three years through a phased approach that allows kiosks to adapt based on community usage and feedback. The kiosks will have advanced features, including telehealth integration, health monitoring, and AI analytics for epidemic tracking and predictive health care insights. Additionally, the devices offer cloud-based management, electronic health record connectivity, automated workflow, and telecom infrastructure that enhances connectivity. The TEngage platform ensures rapid deployment and scalability, establishing a foundation for broader adoption in the future.

Ann M. Willemsen-Dunlap, OSF HealthCare, said, “The computer interface that Tata Elxsi has developed will help community health workers as they bring health screenings and health connectivity to rural Illinois. This will strengthen OSF HealthCare’s ability to meet patients where they are, even if that is miles away from a hospital or clinic.”

Telecom service providers play a vital role in enabling this project by providing the critical last-mile connectivity required for seamless health care access in remote and rural communities. This collaboration demonstrates how partnerships between technology innovators, research institutions, and health care providers can effectively address societal challenges.  The initiative encourages community partners, clinicians, funders, and policymakers to participate in expanding this innovative model across the United States, creating a transformative, technology-driven blueprint for the future of rural healthcare.

Prof. Ujjal Kumar Mukherjee, Gies College of Business and Carle Illinois College of Medicine, added, “For people in remote and underserved areas, basic health care often means traveling long distances or having no access to care at all. But when health services are connected through a hub-and-spoke system—from hospitals to regional clinics, to mobile rural clinics, and finally to local health kiosks—we can bring care step-by-step closer to where people live. A simple kiosk at the last mile becomes more than a device; it’s the final link in a larger network that helps ensure no one is left out.”

Sreevatsa Sahasranaman, Sr. Vice President & Head of Healthcare Business at Tata Elxsi, said, “This partnership demonstrates our commitment to driving health care innovation and showcases how technology can make quality care accessible to all. By combining the University of Illinois’ research insights with our expertise, we are delivering hyper-customized care and impactful solutions that touch rural communities and elevate healthcare delivery to new milestones.”

Even with insurance, facing the cost of cancer treatment can be daunting. Insurance broker and cancer survivor Paul Barbary of Alton, featured in an earlier OSF Newsroom story about immunotherapy, said he’s thankful he had great insurance because the cost of each of his treatments was as much as $50,000. Barbary is doing well both physically and financially, but not all patients receiving treatment for cancer are in that position.

Maria Rodriguez, a financial navigator with OSF HealthCare, remembers the fear her family felt when her father was diagnosed with cancer. There was worry about his physical health but also his financial circumstances.

“My father is a cancer survivor and my motivation is him. I sat on the other side, so I know how patients feel – the devastation they’re going through, anxieties, nervousness … they go through it all. It’s a personal privilege to be able to help these patients.” 

Financial navigators like Rodriguez not only help patients who are being treated for cancer, they also help patients with cardiovascular and chronic diseases, in addition to patients with costly copays for orthopedic procedures. And they’ve been able to help more patients in the past year with the use of TailorMed, a secure, web-based financial assistance platform.

TailorMed says its platform accesses more than 6,000 resources for support including copay cards, foundations, free drugs, social drivers of health and government plans. Social drivers can include costs for transportation, housing, childcare and food assistance.

Rodriguez says the TailorMed software is easy to use. Patients with a care plan in their electronic medical record automatically populate the platform.

“We are able to see the potential savings for that particular patient, what programs they would qualify for, and they (TailorMed) give us an overview of the patient’s insurance.” 

Jacque Doerman, director of Patient Access at OSF HealthCare, says arming financial navigators with TailorMed has allowed them to do more to support patients. It has replaced Excel spread sheets, calendar reminders and other labor-intensive approaches to tracking available grants and prescription drug assistance.

“It really took out the manual work and it was able to automate, make us more efficient, more effective and get to a lot more patients than we were able to before,” she says. 

OSF HealthCare has been able to help nearly 350 patients with copay and drug assistance in the past 12 months using the TailorMed platform. Doerman says that represents $367,000 in help for patients.

“So, it could have ended up where the patient has this extremely large bill. It could have ended up where it even went to bad debt. The dollars that have come to OSF, that $367,000 would have otherwise been some type of patient responsibility and burden that the patient would have had.” 

The National Institutes of Health says cancer care costs have risen from $57 billion in 2001 to more than $200 billion today, placing an increasingly unsustainable burden on patients, families, employers and payers. Stephanie Wilfong, who oversees financial navigators as a Financial Services manager at OSF, says patients too often consider avoiding treatment or abandoning it because of concerns about going into debt.

“The first thing that goes through their mind is they’re going to drain their savings or retirement trying to pay for this and survive and they choose not to,” Wilfong shares. “They choose not to drain it, and they choose not to deal with the diagnosis and that is the saddest piece (because) we can be helping them, and they don’t realize we are here to help, and they don’t have to make that decision at all.”

Can help those with insurance

The Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) reports that those with health insurance and those with higher incomes are not immune to the high cost of medical care, but Wilfong says many insured patients who have cancer, or another high-cost diagnosis don’t realize how quickly they can go into debt.

“You may have great insurance, but it may be a non-covered drug or a non-covered procedure or we just don’t know, we just don’t know so the first thing you should do is always at least have that contact because you don’t know what’s going to come up and we’re there and happy to help.” 

According to KFF, about 1 in 12 adults or 20 million people in the United States have medical debt. For patients with cancer, prescription drugs account for about 20%of the total costs according to President Biden’s cancer panel. The drugs can be transformative and extend life, but they can be prohibitively expensive. That’s why TailorMed has a pharmacy module being piloted with financial navigators at OSF HealthCare Saint Anthony Medical Center in Rockford.

Enrollment processes, for example for free drug programs, have also been fully streamlined or digitized, where possible, to reduce tedious manual form-fills, faxes and outreach for status updates. Wilfong says it helps with coordinating refills and making sure patients who qualify are continuously receiving the medications they need, often for life-saving treatment.

“It prevents any missed dosages so patients will not be waiting and it’s really nice to see those claims coming in, how much the free drug was approved for. It just allows better site across the board and better communication between all teams.” 

Rodriguez says TailorMed allows the pharmacy team to manage ordering, tracking and keep inventory up to date on the free and replacement drugs. It also enables her to provide more help to people such as a patient who recently unexpectedly lost his job and was helped by Maria and TailorMed. His wife wrote a grateful patient note that read, in part, “We are in her debt and truly grateful for her dedication and compassion during a time of isolation and struggle. We thank God for her and for the OSF staff.”

Maria Rodriguez and Jacque Doerman

Stephanie Wilfong

TailorMed demo B-roll

The new care model is focused on individuals who are looking for a more personalized way to stay on top of their own health. We understand adults may be juggling the care of aging parents or grandchildren or both, managing work schedules or just generally navigating busy daily calendars, that often result in deprioritizing their own office visit. The service focuses on easy communication, self-scheduling, navigation and 24/7 support. During a construction update for the 6,300-square-foot building at 9858 S. Western Ave., in Evergreen Park, leaders outlined specifics about the modern look and feel of the clinic, along with what patients can expect from this new primary care model designed specifically to meet the needs of 55+ health consumers.

The unique service will include:

• The ability to choose how you access the care – whether that’s in person at the clinic, virtual or in your home
•  A care navigator who will be available to help guide care across the continuum with things like insurance questions or specialty care coordination
•  Remote patient monitoring which provides blood pressure cuff, scales, oxygen monitoring, and much more in your home that integrates into our medical records to ensure our care team can provide more consistent monitoring to proactively manage the chronic condition
• Group visit to provide education and support around chronic conditions as we know having support is key to success

The new clinic will feature:

• Lobby area with coffee bar, fireplace and USB plug-ins
• A Connect Bar for education where navigators will help patients set up Bluetooth wearables or communication device
• 10 exam and treatment rooms equipped for virtual visits
• Education room for group visits for education, device training, condition tracking and management
• Family consult room for private discussions that can include extended family or support individuals

“Many people 55+ are beginning to manage chronic conditions – such as diabetes, heart problems, or arthritis - and often more than one. For people in this phase of their life, OSF is excited to bring a new, proactive approach to care that gives patients multiple opportunities to access treatment and support,” OSF HealthCare Little Company of Mary Medical Center President Kathleen Kinsella stressed. She added, “While this building will be the physical location, this primary care program will extend beyond these walls by incorporating a mix of virtual care, digital health monitoring tools and 24/7 access to your care team.”

National Institutes of Health Research shows more than one-third of caregivers continue to provide intense care to others while suffering from poor health themselves. This highlights the importance of providing easier options for staying on top of chronic conditions for this 55+ population.

This new program is a unique collaboration between OSF HealthCare Little Company of Mary Medical Center and OSF OnCall, the digital arm of OSF HealthCare which has delivered convenient and custom digital health solutions to individuals for more than 10 years. 

 “At the forefront of this model are our care navigators who offer a genuine point of contact for patients, helping to coordinate all the patients’ health needs,” said Kate Barth, chief nursing officer and vice president, On-Demand Services, OSF OnCall. “Navigators pull in resources from a multidisciplinary care team to personalize the care experience and help patients choose the care that best fits their lifestyle, whether it be a virtual visit with a specialist, a primary care appointment right here in this building or setting up remote monitoring tools in a patient’s home to regularly check vitals.”

The clinic construction will take several months with a planned opening in spring of 2025.

Video clips with Kate Barth and Kathleen Kinsella

More than 1.5 million rural Illinois residents face significant health care access barriers due to a lack of resources and limited infrastructure. OSF HealthCare serves many rural communities in Illinois and Michigan and leaders are looking at telehealth and digital health tools and platforms to bridge those gaps.

Part of the strategy involves collaborating with academic partners such as Illinois State University in Normal. A team made up of faculty at ISU and clinicians from OSF is working on a project to educate the future workforce on using a telehealth platform that can allow real-time assessments, consultations, diagnosis and creation of care plans, along with providing health education for people with chronic conditions in rural, medically underserved communities with aging populations.

The project called STARTED – Simulation to Address Rural Telehealth Education Development is funded by a joint OSF-ISU Connected Communities grant as part of an ongoing collaboration.

Associate Dean for Academics, Susie Watkins, PhD, RN, Mennonite College of Nursing at Illinois State says the platform will allow nurses to hold pop up clinics in homeless shelters or other community sites.

“This would help us provide some care in a community like that where they don't otherwise have access to health care, and that could potentially avoid them having to use the emergency room for things like ear infections and strep throat,” Watkins says. 

The platform also has attachments that can be used for physical exams performed by a nurse. Data and video from the exam could then be sent back to a provider at a distant hospital or clinic to review and offer a diagnosis and treatment recommendations, including prescriptions or referrals to a specialist.

Watkins holds up attachments as she explains, “It has an attachable otoscope that would record a full ear exam to determine if the ears are inflamed, and then also has an oral tongue depressor feature that one could examine the back of the throat for potential tonsillitis. 

There are other devices that can connect to the platform to provide assessments on heartbeat, lung sounds, blood pressure and other tests such as blood glucose levels that can be sent to the off-site provider via the platform.

The Director of Interprofessional Education at Jump Simulation, Ann Willemsen-Dunlap, CRNA, PhD, is co-lead on the collaboration for the first year of training 120 Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) and 24 Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) graduate students. She’s supporting the development of web-based learning modules that use patient scenarios, video vignettes and telehealth simulations using standardized participants.

Trained actors will be used

Standardized participants are specially trained actors who portray patients from rural communities with various health challenges. The actors also provide an assessment with standardized metrics that measure competency in various areas including wellness screening, disease specific illness-related triage, disease self-management support using motivational interviewing and person-centered goal planning techniques. Willemsen-Dunlap says the standardized participants also give verbal feedback once the simulation is over.

“They’re going to be talking with their learners about how the interaction made them, as patients, feel from a first-person perspective.” 

Willemsen-Dunlap says eventually community health workers, as trusted advisors, can be trained to go into homes within medically underserved communities to help patients get comfortable with the portable technology that allow for in-home exams, rather than requiring patients to travel long distances for care.

“I think that having a community health worker present in the home to facilitate the interaction and nurses who are skilled and comfortable working in the digital environment, as well as providers who had similar training is going to be the key to success,” Willemsen-Dunlap stresses. 

Other funding sources are being sought from governmental or non-governmental organizations to support additional work to implement a rural health mobile clinic that uses this training and technology to deliver exams and health-related care within underserved communities.

In areas of so-called connectivity deserts, where the internet is not available or is unreliable, OSF OnCall, the health system’s digital care arm, could use an OSF OnCall Connect On the Go van for exams using the enhanced virtual platform and on-site connectivity.

Watkins says one-third of older adults in rural communities have two or more chronic diseases so its important patients continue to stay on track in managing them.  

“This technology would allow nurses to connect with patients on an ongoing basis between provider visits and do that condition specific assessment and also the self-care assessment and make sure that the patient is staying on target with their goals and all of the treatment recommendations made by their provider at the previous visit.” 

In the future, training could also involve behavioral health or dietary students who could be brought in on a telehealth visit to receive training on how to address additional concerns that are influencing a patient’s overall health and wellbeing.

Video clips with Susie Watkins

Video clips with Ann Willemsen-Dunlap

B-roll of robust telehealth platform