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