As part of the five-year agreement, OSF HealthCare will provide Illinois State University athletes with access to athletic trainers, sports medicine providers, orthopedic surgeons and behavioral health professionals.

“We are excited to continue building our partnership with ISU and proud to be part of the Redbird fan club in an official capacity as the health care provider of Illinois State University Athletics. This new partnership reinforces our dedication to providing high quality health care to the Bloomington-Normal communities and extends that to the ISU athletes,” said Lynn Fulton, president, OSF HealthCare St. Joseph Medical Center.   

Robert Seidl, MD, will serve as the medical director of the ISU program and will work closely with Karan Rai, MD, a sports medicine physician with OSF HealthCare.

“Continuing to care for Illinois State Redbirds year after year is a passion of mine,” said Dr. Seidl. “I enjoy working with the athletes and supporting their ongoing health and wellness. The partnership with OSF HealthCare is a great addition and will elevate the breadth and depth of services for the student athletes.”

Illinois State University Interim President Dr. Aondover Tarhule is pleased that the partnership with OSF HealthCare continues to grow.

“Illinois State is proud of its student athletes and their remarkable achievements in the classroom and in competition. They put in long hours and great effort to excel in their studies and in their sports,” said Dr. Tarhule. “Supporting our student athletes in their pursuit of excellence is vitally important. This new partnership with OSF ensures that they have a team of dedicated and caring healthcare professionals in their corner as they study, train, and compete.”

OSF Healthcare and ISU both have a long history of being embedded in this area. ISU was founded in 1857, and the sisters of the Order of St. Francis opened what is now OSF St. Joseph Medical Center in 1880. Throughout the years, the two long-standing organizations have worked together for the good of the community. The two organizations in March launched a joint research partnership, the Connected Communities Initiative (CCI) to bring together clinicians, university faculty researchers and students to explore innovative ideas to improve health care with a focus on medical engineering, data science and cybersecurity.

“The health and safety of our student-athletes is the top priority for our department, and our partnership with OSF HealthCare will help us fulfill that mission,” said ISU Interim Director of Athletics Dr. Jeri Beggs. “OSF brings to the table a comprehensive, compassionate approach to physical and mental health care that aligns perfectly with our goals.  Also, it’s exciting for our athletics programs to join in on the collaboration of an academic partnership that the University announced with OSF HealthCare earlier this year.”

The athletic partnership launches with the first home football game when the ISU Redbirds take on Dayton on Saturday, September 2.                                               

Video clips with OSF Orthopedic Surgeon Dr. Robert Seidl and ISU Interim Athletic Director Jerri Beggs

The program is a formalization of the partnership between these two anchor institutions in Bloomington-Normal and the broader OSF HealthCare system. Illinois State and OSF HealthCare are lead hub members of the Illinois Innovation Network (IIN). The collaborative work in the Connected Communities Initiative has the potential to generate intellectual property that the two institutions can share and advance the IIN mission of driving inclusive and integrated research, innovation, and economic development across the state.

The agreement also provides a financial foundation for the work with both organizations providing $500,000 each, to contribute a total of $1 million annually for research and development of strategic solutions to improve health care delivery, and patient and provider experience.

“We believe expanding academic collaborations can help us create innovative solutions and new care models that provide more access, particularly to underserved populations,” said CEO of OSF HealthCare Bob Sehring.

“Working with OSF HealthCare on the CCI Program reflects Illinois State’s core values of Collaboration, Learning and Scholarship, and Civic Engagement,” said Illinois State Interim President Aondover Tarhule. “This partnership will provide many opportunities for Illinois State faculty and students to work with our partners at OSF on a wide range of innovative projects that address real-world needs. This is truly an exciting project that will have wide-ranging benefits for all involved.”

The partnership will initially build on Illinois State’s expertise in education, health, cybersecurity, biomedical science, visualization, and process improvement. There will be opportunities for Illinois State’s academic colleges to collaborate on projects with OSF Healthcare. The broad range of faculty expertise and the engagement from the student body will lead to exciting new solutions to complex problems facing society.

“There is a long tradition of partnership between OSF and Illinois State, perhaps most clearly with students in clinical placements and in clinical situations,” said Craig C. McLauchlan, PhD, Illinois State’s associate vice president for Research and Graduate Studies. “The CCI expands that relationship in the area of research and provides an institutional framework that will allow us to build on already existing collaborations more easily. The partnership will provide students and persons in our community opportunities to contribute to innovation and growth that will benefit many.”

OSF Healthcare and Illinois State University have a tradition of collaboration on research, including a recent project to improve low childhood vaccination rates. 

Joint projects can include testing solutions in clinical spaces, such as OSF HealthCare St. Joseph Medical Center and medical offices. The efforts will take place both virtually and in-person in a variety of settings including ISU labs and computer centers, along with Jump Trading Simulation & Education Center in Peoria, a world-class building with labs focused on advanced imaging and modeling, blockchain, children’s innovation, genomics and precision medicine, interprofessional education, neuro health, and STEAM.

“For OSF HealthCare, the expanded partnership will support the needs of researchers, medical educators, clinicians and most importantly, patients,” added John Vozenilek, MD, vice president and chief medical officer, OSF Innovation and Digital Health. “The brightest minds at Illinois State University can help us develop novel solutions with enhanced security and business processes to improve patient care and health outcomes, along with optimizing the use of resources using data.” Vozenilek adds, “That will become increasingly important as care continues to move from hospital settings to home and as we expand access to patients across all of the regions OSF serves.”

The CCI is built upon successful models that OSF Healthcare has developed and maintains with the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, University of Illinois-Chicago, and Bradley University.

Video clips with Bob Sehring, Dr. John Vozenilek, Lynn Fulton, Aondover Tarhule, and Craig McLauchlan

B-roll from OSF-ISU partnership announcement