As we begin a new year at OSF HealthCare, we’re reflecting on 2023 and the major strides achieved in embracing digital transformation for the betterment of patients, providers and the communities we serve. This past year, OSF continued leveraging technology and the emerging power of artificial intelligence to support our providers and patients but never replacing expertise, training and experience along with the personal, empathetic approach that is part of the OSF Mission to serve with the greatest care and love.

The efforts are highlighted here in our Top 10 Digital Health and Innovation stories of 2023 in no particular order.

1.    OSF HealthCare celebrating 10 years of Jump Simulation-As part of the 10-year anniversary, OSF HealthCare released a study by Bradley University showing over the 10-year period from 2013-2022, the activities of Jump Trading Simulation & Education Center enhanced economic activity by more than $103 million and created more than 600 full-time jobs. As part of the celebration, OSF HealthCare launched the first of what will be an annual Innovator of the Year Award.

2.    OSF named one of Most Innovative Companies by Fortune-Fortune and Statista, the world-leading statistics portal and industry ranking provider, selected the inaugural group of America’s Most Innovative Companies 2023 based on product innovation, process innovation and innovation culture, which includes the introduction of a corporate culture that promotes creativity and entrepreneurial spirit. OSF HealthCare was among 300 companies and the only health system in Illinois to make this first-time list.

3.    Medicaid Innovation Collaborative hits first-year milestones to improve health and wellness in underserved populations-The Medicaid Innovation Collaborative (MIC) – a partnership between Peoria-based OSF HealthCare and four Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), celebrated its one-year anniversary by highlighting milestones achieved. Some highlights include launching a pregnancy and postpartum digital support program, initiating remote patient monitoring for individuals with chronic conditions, training digital health navigators to promote education and understanding of digital care options, expanding breast cancer and social drivers of health screenings among other accomplishments.

4.    OSF HealthCare pilots virtual nursing to reduce burnout and improve patient experience-OSF launched a virtual nursing pilot on three medical surgical floors, covering about 75 patients at OSF HealthCare Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria in an effort to reduce the workload of bedside nurses and offer patients more streamlined care. The main focus is using virtual nurses for admissions and discharges, but the pilot is also exploring other duties that can be transferred to remote nurses.

5.    New AI developed at OSF HealthCare to help those who help cancer patients-AI-related news was everywhere in the second half of 2023, and OSF added to the mix with several novel uses created by OSF Innovation leaders and academic partners. Dr. Jonathan Handler led the way and created an artificial intelligence-based algorithm to better balance workloads by predicting upcoming work burdens for each cancer patient nurse navigator's existing patients and for new patients needing navigation. The models use data from electronic health records such as demographics, cancer type and prior health care visits. That work also likely prompted selection of Dr. Handler to serve on President Biden’s cancer panel advisory group regarding cancer caregiving.

6.    AI model prompts end of life care discussions for some hospitalized patients-OSF Innovation researchers developed and tested a new AI model to predict death after a hospital admission to identify patients who need to discuss and document their end-of-life care wishes. When tested, the model held up over time and identified more than half of those who died within five to 90 days after their inpatient admission. 

7.     OSF OnCall empowers patients and improves outcomes with 24/7 connection-Supplementing in-person care with digital support from OSF OnCall digital health is helping improve health outcomes for patients enrolled in new programs, designed to keep them engaged in between medical appointments. For example, OSF saw a 10% or greater reduction in hospital readmissions for those patients who are enrolled in a hospital discharge program. A new OSF OnCall Connect on the Go van in the Rockford region will also help individuals get digitally connected to additional support programs.

8.    OSF HealthCare and Illinois State University launch Connected Communities Initiative to expand research and development-The Connected Communities Initiative (CCI) program was announced in March to bring together clinicians, university faculty researchers, and students to focus on innovation in clinical and patient education, health care engineering, data science, and cybersecurity. Among the first round of jointly funded research projects is an effort to create new curriculum for future nurses and family medicine providers using a telehealth platform with attachable devices that allow for more robust exams in pop-up rural clinics using an off-site physician or advanced practice provider.

9.    Beating hearts pump up virtual reality for pre-surgery planning-Research involving academic collaborator Bradley University will advance the process of translating CT and MRIs into a format for viewing in virtual reality to help heart surgeons better prepare for complex surgeries. Dr. Mathew Bramlet and co-lead researcher Sam Hawkins of Bradley are using AI and machine learning to help automate a process to create a 4D image and advance an effort that once took months to possibly taking only a few hours to complete.

10.  Emergency Department crowding; Can AI, predictive modeling and simulation fix it?-Academic partner, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and OSF Innovation are using a $100,000 Jump ARCHES grant to use de-identified electronic medical records and other historical data to predict emergency demand and then test interventions and optimization techniques to reduce emergency department wait times. Dr. William Bond of OSF says the effort could identify ways to increase efficiencies and reduce provider burnout and patient dissatisfaction.

The Digital Health Most Wired survey and recognition program serves as a comprehensive “Digital Health Check-up” for health care organizations across the world. The annual survey assesses how effectively core and advanced technologies are applied to improve health care.

Participants receive certification based on their overall performance, with level 10 being the highest. This year OSF HealthCare is honored to be Level 9 certified in Ambulatory Care technology and Level 9 certified in Acute Care technology. This is a marked achievement; OSF has seen its certification levels rise across all 15 hospitals, advancing from a Level 7 in both categories in 2019 to today’s achievements of Level 9.

“We are elated to earn Digital Health Most Wired recognition for both our hospitals and clinics for the twelfth straight year. Achieving Level 9, across the entire continuum of care, places OSF in elite company,” said David Hall, MD, senior vice president of information systems and chief information officer for OSF HealthCare. “This honor highlights the hard work of our analysts, technicians, clinicians and innovators, and is a fitting recognition of OSF HealthCare’s commitment to rapid transformation in the digital health care space, allowing us to provide the greatest, most innovative care possible for our patients and those we serve.”

Each participating organization received a customized benchmarking report, an overall score and scores for individual levels in eight segments: infrastructure; security; business/disaster recovery; administrative/supply chain; analytics/data management; interoperability/population health; patient engagement; and clinical quality/safety.

For more information about the CHIME Digital Health Most Wired program, please go here.     

The “River City” - located in central Illinois along the Illinois River and established in 1691, boasts a rich history. The Choose Greater Peoria initiative looks to build upon that history and secure a strong future.

The Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis first called Peoria home in 1877, growing to a 15-hospital system across Illinois and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. As one of the leading employers in Peoria, OSF HealthCare attracts talent from around the world. Employing over 23,000 Mission Partners across the Ministry, around 10,000 are based in the Peoria area.

One Peoria transplant is Dave Fergus, the senior vice president (SVP) and Chief Supply Chain Officer at OSF HealthCare. Fergus and his family came to Peoria from Milwaukee, Wisconsin in March of 2023, where they had been for over 25 years. Fergus says the innovative spirit OSF has really attracted him to Peoria.

“OSF HealthCare is a system I’ve known about for decades; I’ve watched them closely. And understanding the leadership they’ve brought in and when you see innovations that are happening here and the size of this organization, it has a unique advantage,” Fergus says.

Before OSF, Fergus served in several leadership roles for another health system. He says the collaborative model OSF runs on sets it apart from others.

Fergus says before coming to Peoria, he didn’t know much about the city. But since moving from Wisconsin to Illinois, he says the area has been extremely welcoming.

“As we came down and started looking, the first thing that jumped out at us was how incredibly friendly the people are,” Fergus says. “The amount of engineering and brain talent that is in this market blew me away. Then once we arrived here, the park system has been something we’ve really come to enjoy.”

Fergus says from an employee standpoint, the atmosphere inside the workplace has been very welcoming.

“I see it in almost every meeting that I have. It’s tough not to see it here,” Fergus says.

He says it’s very similar for the entire Peoria community.

“It’s a community that’s open to people coming from outside. It’s not a closed community where you’re really trying to find your way into cliques. In our short months here, I feel like I’ve connected to the community and community leaders quickly,” Fergus adds.

Choose Greater Peoria is a regional talent attraction initiative for the Greater Peoria area. You can find out more information at choosegreaterpeoria.org. You can enter your professional information underneath the “Connect” tab, where it could then be shared with local employers.

B-Roll

Video Interview Clips

It seems almost everyone has a story about how long they had to wait to receive care in an emergency department due to overcrowding. In fact, research shows patient congestion is one of the main factors threatening efficiency, safety and quality of care.

The pressure is even greater following the COVID-19 pandemic, as more people feel comfortable returning to hospital emergency departments at the same time many health systems are dealing with a nursing shortage. William Bond, MD, is an emergency department (ED) physician at OSF HealthCare Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria, Illinois. He also directs simulation research at Jump Simulation, a collaborative effort between OSF and the University of Illinois College of Medicine Peoria (UICOMP).

Dr. Bond and fellow researchers, including co-lead Hyojung Kang, PhD, a visiting assistant professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), will use a nearly $100,000 Jump ARCHES grant to develop innovative models aimed at reducing ED wait times.

“To acknowledge that suffering (in the waiting room) to use compassion, which is part of us at OSF HealthCare, and to address those needs as quickly as we can; to acknowledge that timeliness is part of the quality of care and we really want to have as timely of care as we can for our emergency department patients."

Improving time to treatment

The project is called: STREAM-ED: Simulation to Refine, Enhance and Adapt Management of Emergency. Dr. Bond explains his team is creating models to predict short-term, mid-range and long-term demand using historic data in de-identified electronic medical records (EMR). The goal is to combine machine learning prediction, discrete event simulation (a method to test processes and interventions ideally prior to intervention) and optimization techniques to determine best possible operational changes in emergency department management.

“We can say that based on past and current data inputs, here's where we think we'll be in the next 12, 24, to 72 hours in the emergency department … and of course, the further out you go in time, just as with weather forecasting, the more the uncertainty grows.”

Assistant professor Kang says the EMR information leveraged by researchers to create predictive models includes chief complaints, acuity levels, whether a patient was discharged, and timestamps collected throughout the patient’s time in the emergency department. They’ll also use data about physical resources and providers, including nurses and technicians who deliver assessments or care in different pods within the emergency department.

Kang specializes in discrete simulation, which provides a layered analysis of non-linear relationships among factors such as patient flow, availability of resources and operational policies that influence where patients are placed and for how long. The process provides a more comprehensive understanding of the way the system performs.

Dr. Bond says it also offers a way of testing interventions and timing without having to do it in real life. 

Dr. Bond adds, "Instead, we may find that staffing an area with a more balanced team is the thing to do, staffing the team earlier in the day or later in the day. These types of things may make significant changes in our ability to care for patients.”

Running those scenarios will help identify high-reward interventions that can make the biggest impact with the fewest resources to increase efficiencies that can also help providers from feeling burnt out.

There have been studies that use forecasting and modeling approaches in the past, but assistant professor Kang says their practical application and integration into real-world operations have been limited. The project should result in helping decision-makers understand feasible actions they can take to improve emergency department flow.

“Our research team aims to empower ED leaders with the necessary, data-informed tools to navigate the complexities of resource allocation, making a tangible difference in the daily functioning of the ED.”

Dr. Bond says time-to-treatment will be a key metric for success because it is such a critical indicator of patient and medical provider satisfaction.  

Interview Clips

Saint Francis Medical Center emergency department B-roll

The Jump Trading Simulation & Education Center, part of OSF HealthCare, is marking its 10-year anniversary. Since opening in 2013, Jump has grown into a world-class medical simulation and education center. Spread across 168,000 square feet on six floors, Jump is the largest specially built medical simulation and innovation center in the country, located on the campus of OSF HealthCare Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria.

Jump was made possible by a $25 million gift from the DiSomma Family Foundation to OSF and the University of Illinois College of Medicine Peoria. That combined with a $25 million match from OSF paved the way for construction of the state-of-the-art center which opened in 2013.

OSF HealthCare partnered with Bradley University on a study looking at the impact Jump has had over the last decade, both economically and non-economically, on the areas it serves.

The preliminary results of the study show the facility has generated income and spending throughout Illinois by creating jobs and commerce, providing medical education and training, and generating research and grant activity.

Over the ten-year period from 2013-2022, Jump's activities enhanced economic activity by over $103 million and created more than 600 full-time jobs.

“If we include the original 2012-2013 construction expenditures for the entire physical building into the analysis, the total economic impact is $180 million with more than 1,000 jobs created,” said Joshua Lewer, Bradley University Economics and Finance Department chair. “It is important to note that Jump has not yet approached its long-run full operating capacity. So these numbers will only continue to improve. We believe Jump has demonstrated its strength as an economic engine for the communities it serves.”

OSF HealthCare launched OSF Innovation within Jump in 2016. The idea was to bring multidisciplinary teams together to generate and adopt solutions to advance health care. Today, OSF Innovation is integrated across all 15 hospitals in the OSF HealthCare Ministry.

“I came to OSF HealthCare for the chance to build a one-of-a-kind center to not just train health workers of the future, but to re-create health care as we know it,” said John Vozenilek, MD, vice president and chief medical officer for Innovation at OSF HealthCare. “Jump was the catalyst for OSF to lead revolutionary change in health care through innovation and faith as we made it our vision to transform health care to improve the lives of those we serve.”

In the first decade of operation, Jump and OSF Innovation became one of about a dozen health care sites converting two-dimensional images of the heart into exact 3D printed replicas for surgical planning; partnered with the state of Illinois to create the Pandemic Health Worker program to digitally care for people with COVID-19 across the state. This included the launch of the OSF OnCall Digital Hospital; and, was awarded $66 million, along with OSF OnCall, over the next few years to improve access to health care and address the social needs of those living in underserved areas using digital solutions.

As part of the anniversary event, Jump Simulation was transformed to highlight of the accomplishments of the past decade as well as give a glimpse into what the future of health care might look like.

Highlights included:

• The future of health care exhibit highlighted the OSF vision for advances in technology, including smart mirrors that check your vital signs. The OSF SmartMirror is a tangible way to understand how health care may look or feel radically different in the future. OSF Innovation teams are actively involved in developing these new modes of care with a focus on better patient care simply by looking in the mirror.
• Engineering and Advanced Image Modeling (AIM) labs with 3D printed personalized organ replicas in plastic and resin. Surgeons immerse themselves via virtual reality (VR) goggles inside a vital organ, scanned from an actual patients and put into 3D for pre-surgical planning. Jump has completed 374 segmentations, including free services for larger hospitals across the country such as Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago.
• Experts showed how OSF HealthCare is using massive amounts of data for Artificial Intelligence (AI) to uncover patterns of behavior, medical history, and social conditions that put people at risk. Attendees could see and test a concussion detection app under development.
• OSF HealthCare has digitally transformed with a virtual hospital. OSF OnCall hospitalists, nurses, physicians, and advanced practice providers support the digital hospital with services such as virtual intensive care to serve as another set of eyes for providers, advance care at home and remote patient monitoring with more than 25,000 interactions a week. 

“With the foundation we’ve laid this past decade and leadership of The Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis, we are in a position to lead change, handle new challenges and care for patients in ways we’ve never done before,” explained Becky Buchen, senior vice president of OSF Innovation. “The seeds have already been planted for concepts to become a reality that currently might seem hard to imagine.”

Among them:

• A number of studies suggest that AI can perform as well as or better than humans at diagnosing diseases.
• OSF Innovation is exploring predictive models that will better locate the location of lung metastasis that will result in better outcomes for our patients.
• OSF is investigating the use of precision medicine technologies that will provide personalized and targeted treatments for our patients.

You can learn more about the endless possibilities and exciting work taking place at OSF Innovation and Jump Simulation by visiting their websites.

Dr. John Vozenilek interview clips

Becky Buchen interview clips

B-roll

“It’s about pushing ourselves to meet them (patients) where we can, but setting realistic expectations that telehealth can’t be all things to all patients," OSF Vice President of Digital Care Brandi Clark told health leaders during a virtual online summit focused on how technology can help people with chronic diseases. 

Clark emphasized that specially trained community health workers provide the human touch in communities, paired with technology, to help patients manage conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure and heart failure.  During a Technology NOW with HealthLeaders! virtual summit panelists, including Clark, envision a future where patients will knowingly share data from wearables or in-home technology to prevent chronic disease and to help  providers spot potential trends managing an existing medical condition. 

Watch  the entire HealthLeaders session.

Like many of us, Kelli Ballard, a Washington, Illinois, school administrator was hoping after a tumultuous 2020, that 2021 would be a better year. It didn’t quite turn out that way. In January  of last year, just as the new school semester was beginning at her K-8 school, the then 42-year-old Ballard received a phone call that would change everything.

Ballard was told she had three tumors in her breasts.  Tests showed she had stage 1a invasive ductile breast cancer.

“They weren’t bringing people in because of COVID and so that was really hard. I actually had a co-worker who had had breast cancer the year before and she was there with me that day when I found out and she was just my huge support system.” 

It was quite a blow. Ballard’s cancer journey began when after a few years of taking a CancerIQ assessment before every mammogram, she finally decided to talk to someone about her high risk score. The five-minute online tool from the Chicago-based startup flags patients with a hereditary cancer risk, based on the personal and family history questionnaire.

Ballard consulted with Michele Settelmyer, an advanced practice registered nurse with OSF HealthCare and a CancerIQ champion specializing in genetics. Ballard pursued genetic testing based on her “high risk” result.

“I want to live a long life and enjoy my family. That just really set in and I thought, ‘OK, I need to figure this out and get through it.’” 

Her results did not show mutations for the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, which could indicate risk for breast or ovarian cancer. But Ballard’s results indicated she had a 50% higher risk for developing breast cancer based on her family history, which included her mother, paternal grandmother, two paternal aunts and one maternal aunt, all of whom had breast cancer. With that higher risk, Ballard was given a more aggressive screening plan that added a breast MRI six months following every mammogram.

“I didn’t realize they actually put together a whole plan of preventive steps or ways to monitor throughout the years so I wasn’t really done, but I was glad; I was happy about that, because that risk was so much higher.” 

Ballard’s mother was in her 50s when she was diagnosed with breast cancer at Stage 0, indicating the cancer is noninvasive or contained within the milk ducts but  could spread without treatment. A survivor following radiation, her mother’s successful journey inspired Ballard to remain vigilant, although she was thankful to receive an OSF reminder call in December of 2020.

It was that MRI that revealed Ballard had the tumors and a biopsy revealed one in her left breast was cancerous. With support from her husband, her then nine-year-old daughter, and many other family and friends, Ballard had a lumpectomy and 21 sessions of radiation, which she received five days a week for a month. It was a tough time, but Ballard is so thankful for the increased screening plan developed for her.

Cancer Free and Enjoying Life

“Finding out of course that it was small and that we caught it early, just made me grateful that I did this. You know if I had waited six more months until my regular mammogram, it (the tumor) could have been much larger by then or it could have been much more significant, so I was really grateful for the plan that was put in place.”

Ballard was officially declared a survivor last summer!  While she remains cancer-free following her most recent mammogram, she’ll continue following the more rigorous screening plan.

CancerIQ is among the strategies OSF Innovation is deploying as it looks to expand the use of precision medicine to improve patient care, including prevention and treatment outcomes. 

More than 75,600 OSF HealthCare patients have taken a CancerIQ assessment since 2015 when it was first initiated as part of an OSF Innovation pilot at OSF Centers for Breast Health in Peoria. Among patients taking the evaluation, 30% were found to have an elevated cancer risk and were given the opportunity for additional screening and to see a clinician trained in genetic cancer risk assessment. That translated to more than 3,100 changes in care plans.

Ryan Luginbuhl (pronounced loo-gun-BEWL), director of Oncology Services for OSF HealthCare, says those changes can range from MRIs, prophylactic surgeries and vaccinations, to at-home screening kits, multi-cancer early detection (MCED) tests, along with possible lifestyle interventions, education and connection to social resources.

“So, they might have a blood test that will identify the genetic risks for cancer, and then they might say, ‘Instead of getting your mammogram one time a year, you’re going to get it twice.’ So it really allows a clinician to tailor a screening and prevention plan.” 

The ultimate goal is to expand use of CancerIQ throughout OSF hospitals and clinics, including a new OSF Healthcare Cancer Institute under construction in Peoria that will provide all services and support under one roof. It will house additional personnel to help individuals who learn they carry a higher cancer risk.

Luginbuhl says CancerIQ can be as important as mammograms, colonoscopies, low-dose CT scans and other cancer screenings.

“It’s a validated tool and I think it’s a very important tool that we need to be pushing just as much as the traditional screenings we think of when it comes to cancer.” 

Tom Cox, director of Medical Imaging and Outpatient Oncology Services at OSF HealthCare Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria, says administering CancerIQ regularly and early – well before typical screenings are suggested – is important because family history can dictate earlier-than-recommended screenings since a person’s family health history can change over time.

“The overall strategy of OSF HealthCare is that we want to start getting the screening done at many entry points at a variety of ages so that we can start designing that risk mitigation plan where you’ll understand what you’re more at risk for and what you can do to prevent it.” 

Because CancerIQ is cleared by the Food and Drug Administration as a tool to identify hereditary cancer risks, Cox says genetic testing that follows the assessment is often covered by insurance. If you have a concern about cancer because of your family history, make sure to talk to your medical provider about next steps.

Video clips with cancer survivor Kelli Ballard

Video clips with Ryan Luginbuhl , director of Oncology Services for OSF HealthCare

Video clip of Tom Cox, director of Medical Imaging and Outpatient Oncology Services at OSF HealthCare Saint Francis Medical Center

Michelle Conger, Chief Strategy Officer and CEO of OSF OnCall Digital Health, is among Modern Healthcare’s 2022 class of Top 25 Innovators in the nation.

Modern Healthcare, the leader in health care business news, research and data, annually recognizes leaders who are instituting innovation and leading transformative programs that improve care by achieving measurable results and contribute to the clinical and financial goals of their organization.

Conger has nearly 25 years of health care leadership experience and has been the Chief Strategy Officer for OSF HealthCare since 2010. She was named CEO of OSF OnCall Digital Health in 2019. Throughout her career, Conger has been a champion for innovative solutions to problems facing the health care industry and the communities served by OSF HealthCare.

OSF HealthCare is an integrated health system owned and operated by The Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis, headquartered in Peoria, Illinois. OSF employs nearly 24,000 Mission Partners in 150 locations, including 15 hospitals throughout Illinois and Michigan.

“We are very lucky to be part of this Mission and this organization. And so I think it's befitting and an honor to be with all of the other organizations (being recognized) and contributing to the transformation of health care,” said Conger when told of the recognition. “That is our vision and our vision statement.”

Conger has led the creation of the OSF Innovation agenda including health technology incubation, usability and simulation strategies, and the approach for venture capital investments. Her teams developed a long-term digital health strategy that was accelerated when the COVID-19 pandemic hit and continues to grow.

While honored to be recognized as a Top 25 Innovator, Conger gives credit to the teams around her and the partnerships formed with other organizations for helping lay the path to this point and for what lies ahead.

“Achieving this is really a reflection of those partnerships, honestly, whether that's with the University of Illinois, the University of Illinois College Of Medicine Peoria and many others; it’s all of the partners that have contributed to where we are today. And I think it'll be a huge part of that in the future as well,” Conger said.

“It is my hope that every physician, every clinician and every Mission Partner at OSF sees their handprint in the creation of the future because that's really what it takes to be an innovative organization. And I think people are starting to notice all of the fruits of our labor. I think it just becomes a natural part of how we care for people.”

“The health care industry is undergoing rapid transformation, driven by innovations in digital health technology and demand for alternative care models. This year’s Top 25 Innovators not only have the courage to try new ideas and approaches, but they also have the vision to turn them into tangible improvements in patient outcomes and experiences, population health, efficiency and cost-effectiveness,” said Fawn Lopez, Publisher of Modern Healthcare.

This year’s honorees are profiled in the April 4 issue of Modern Healthcare magazine and online at Modernhealthcare.com/awards/top-25-innovators-2022.

Michelle Conger, OSF Digital Health CEO interview clips

CancerIQ’s precision health platform includes an innovative online risk assessment that makes it easy to determine an individual’s cancer risk based on family history, genetics, behavior and other factors and then connects them to the best and most innovative approaches to prevention and care.

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in an estimated 9.5 million missed screenings and has led to an increase in late-stage cancer diagnoses that are more costly and have a greater impact on quality of life and outcomes than early-stage diagnoses. With that, the company believes its tool can help providers prioritize patients for fast-tracked screening and timely follow-up care.

CancerIQ’s precision health platform is being used by clinicians at more than 180 locations across the country, including at OSF Centers for Breast Health in Peoria and Rockford, and it will soon be implemented for screening Gastroenterology patients in Peoria. The ultimate goal is to expand use throughout OSF hospitals and clinics, including a new comprehensive cancer institute under construction in Peoria that will provide all services and support under one roof.

Ryan Luginbuhl, director of Oncology Services for OSF HealthCare says the new center, scheduled to open next year, will be able to house the additional equipment and personnel for expanded use of CancerIQ and follow-up services. Luginbuhl stresses its deployment fits with the goal of extending cancer screening and prevention to more patients.

Luginbuhl adds, “The company leadership in managing growth has been excellent. As we’ve interacted more with members of the team, they continue to impress us. The vision of the leadership in the company is strong, the rollouts of the product in other locations has been strong, and they’ve consistently delivered and continue to innovate in developing their platform.”

OSF HealthCare was the first hospital system to embrace CancerIQ as the best solution for early identification of individuals at high risk for cancer. Mayank Taneja, director of Venture Investments for OSF Healthcare also sees CancerIQ as a leader for offering a robust platform to manage patients from diagnosis to treatment.

“The company's platform also offers predictive analytics and clinical guidance with proven outcomes, a digital genetic test ordering platform, and patient management and education tools, enabling clinicians to save time, reduce the cost of care, and improve outcomes by detecting cancer at an early stage.” Taneja explains.

Co-founder and CEO Feyi Olopade Ayodele says, “To have continued support and engagement at the highest level from OSF is a testament to how it supports investment partners. We look forward to continued collaboration to ensure we are always evolving and improving the patient and provider experience. Together, we are innovating to advance health equity, expand access among marginalized populations, and ultimately end cancer as we know it.”

Nearly $66 million in funding is on its way to improve access to health care for people across many communities in central and northern Illinois living at lower income levels.

The Illinois Department of Health and Family Services (HFS) is providing the funding over the next five years to Peoria-based OSF HealthCare and several Federally Qualified Health Centers (HQHCs) that have formed the Medicaid Innovation Collaborative (MIC), which will address social factors that impact health such as financial strain, housing, and food insecurity among others. 

The MIC includes OSF HealthCare, OSF Medical Group, and Heartland Health Services (Peoria, IL), Chestnut Health Systems, Inc. (Bloomington, IL), Eagle View Community Health System, Inc. (Oquawka, IL), and Aunt Martha’s Health & Wellness (Danville, IL). Through this partnership, the MIC will engage with community-based organizations to address social determinants of health needs. Additionally, the MIC has partnered with Illinois Central College in East Peoria to develop education for community health workers.

MIC’s action plan aims to meet patients where they are; combining technology with trusted community health workers, making it easier to schedule and access care in-person or virtually, whatever best meets patients’ needs.

High Tech, High Touch

MIC will improve access to care through the combined resources of OSF OnCall and of the federally qualified health centers that make up the Collaborative.

OSF OnCall is an always-available digital care platform that lets patients navigate health and wellness from anywhere and at any time. It serves as a single point of contact for patients to manage their care, schedule appointments and services, and request information. Communty health workers at the partner entities will be the face of the Collaborative and provide the human touch in communities throughout the state. Each partner operates a FQHC which is community-based, serves people living at or below the federal poverty level, and provides a variety of primary and behavioral health care services for people of all ages.

“We learned during the pandemic that virtual care was a game-changer for patients, and the new funding will help us implement the latest technologies to expand access to care for underserved communities and vulnerable populations,” said Michelle Conger, CEO of OSF OnCall Digital Health.

How it will work

OSF OnCall will equip community health workers and medical care teams with digital technology so that the workers can provide care for more patients facing a broader range of health concerns. Offerings will include apps and remote monitoring for patients with chronic health conditions. A clinical team in Peoria will remotely monitor and support the health workers’ efforts in their communities.

Digitally-enabled community health workers and medical care teams will regularly engage with patients to assess their conditions, provide education, and refer them to a provider when needed. MIC will focus on the following:

•        Stress, anxiety, and depression management
•        Improved maternal and child health
•        Health literacy and wellness
•        Chronic disease management
•        Cancer screening outreach
•        Dental clinic expansions or staffing increases
•        Implementation of the Epic electronic medical record system to enhance care coordination and communication
•        Tech-enabled vans to deliver care in areas where the population is at risk
•         Addressing digital connectivity in rural or underserved areas

MIC could create nearly 100 health care jobs across the service area, potentially covering up to one-third of the state. There will be a significant emphasis on employment opportunities for communities of color to ensure a workforce that reflects the population being served. The target is to provide 1 million episodes of care for Medicaid patients over five years in some of the most vulnerable and marginalized communities in the state.

The US Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), recently announced 20 winners of the Promoting Pediatric Primary Prevention (P4) Challenge, a nationwide competition to increase pediatric vaccination rates and well-child visits.

Design Lab Director Scott Barrows says teams at OSF Jump Simulation and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) are using machine learning algorithms to build artificial intelligence (AI) models to accurately identify geographic locations with the biggest need for childhood vaccinations and mobile clinics. The University of Illinois College of Medicine in Peoria (UICOMP) is supporting community outreach while Illinois State University’s School of Information Technology is building a vaccine management system that will help expand vaccination efforts for children in underserved communities.

“To be selected as one of the top 25 pediatric vaccination innovations in the U.S. is a testament to the commitment and collaboration of our Mission Partners working to improve community health,” said Barrows. 

OSF Innovation has also developed digital tools to systematically collect information during mobile clinics to help address social determinants of health – barriers outside of a medical office that affect access to care and vaccinations including food, transportation, and income among others.

Barrows says the additional funding will help provide refrigerators for vans supporting mobile clinics, helping boost the number of vaccinations that can be given. Additionally, the new federal funding can supplement support for a vaccine coordinator position based at OSF HealthCare Children’s Hospital of Illinois

As OSF HealthCare looks to transform health care by tapping its own Mission Partners (employees), it has chosen an outside partner, High Alpha Innovation, to help rapidly advance ideas from exploration to implementation or commercialization within and outside the health system.

High Alpha Innovation, an Indianapolis, Indiana-based venture studio, has years of experience in partnering to build startup companies around new software ideas and products. The partnership will speed development of new health tech companies with solutions that can help OSF HealthCare and other health care systems. The OSF Innovation Studio will collaborate with High Alpha Innovation on ideas that are endorsed by OSF HealthCare leaders as those that can transform health care by solving some of its most complex problems.

The OSF Innovation Studio already has 20 ideas in various stages of the development phase, including an app to help pre-surgical planning for patients with medical implants.

“We chose High Alpha Innovation because their approach allows us to benefit from the speed and learning agility of a startup, the knowledge and scale of a large organization, and the experience of a high-growth organization in creating companies,” explained Brent Cross, director of Transformational Innovation & Commercialization at OSF Innovation. “

 “With High Alpha Innovation’s venture studio playbook, we can launch new companies and products that can be scaled to meet the needs of OSF HealthCare and deliver value to the broader health care ecosystem.”

“The OSF team is leading the charge to innovate in health care and ultimately creating value both community-wide and around the world. As we approach focus areas together, like talent scarcity, patient navigation, health care in the home and modernizing enterprise tools, we believe that a ‘shark-tank’ approach to building new companies allows us to optimize resources, explore new markets and pursue transformative ideas,” said High Alpha Innovation Managing Director Matt Brady.  “By launching startups, OSF can drive the largest amount of value in the shortest amount of time."

High Alpha Innovation uses a 12-week ideation process — culminating in a Sprint Week— to select the best ideas to present to OSF leaders for investment to further develop and scale, ultimately gaining conviction to launch a startup that could also attract outside investors. 

How many times at work have you declared, “There has got to be a better way!”

Knowing that Mission Partners (employees) have great ideas to create a better way, OSF HealthCare launched the OSF Innovation Studio – to take those ideas from exploration to commercialization. A couple of ideas that have been rapidly advanced include an app to improve surgical safety of patients with medical implants and a new type of heart stent.

Kip McCoy, vice president of Innovation Studio for OSF HealthCare, says his team looks for ideas that have the potential to transform health care, are associated areas of expertise at OSF or are aligned with the OSF Innovation focus areas. Those areas include pediatrics, neurology, medical technology, big data and the social determinants of health, among others. But the Innovation Studio will also embrace random opportunities in a particular setting to improve processes, safety, recovery, treatment or even the patient’s overall experience.

“We see Mission Partners who identify gaps in care or things that need to be addressed within their own positions, and they come up with novel solutions or novel ideas for being able to treat patients or to make their job a little easier or more effective.”

McCoy explains that as ideas are vetted, the OSF Innovation Studio team members are kinder, gentler “sharks” than what people are used to seeing on the popular TV show. They evaluate the scope of the problem and help the would-be inventor consider practical matters, including figuring out development costs and pricing based on the perceived value of the innovation.

Evaluating a Viable Invention

“Working with inventors using a business model canvas and value proposition canvas to say, ‘What are some of those pains and gains?’ So, instead of necessarily focusing on the solution, it’s ‘What are people doing now to try to solve that problem, and how are we approaching that in a different way?’”

OSF created the Office of Innovation Management in 2018 and has received more than 160 ideas, some through Trailblazer challenges, with some moving on to initial disclosure for a potential patent or the commercialization process. Nearly 20 are progressing through the product development phase.

McCoy explains that the OSF Innovation Studio is able to pull from experience in data analytics, product development, sales, early-stage investment and academic and commercial partnerships as they work with OSF entrepreneurs.

“We’re looking at things like what level of expertise we might have to bring, the size of the market if we’re looking at commercialization. Can this be protected via a patent or otherwise that might bring additional value? Do we have the ability to have a partner who could help bring this to market for us?”

Those external partners might include other health care organizations that might be early adopters or more formal collaborators if they see enough value in a prospective product. McCoy says getting feedback from other medical providers is valuable.

“It’s important to have those connections and to be able to talk to other health care systems to get their feedback on a product or device as a potential early customer, and we can do that and play that role for other systems as well.”

OSF Innovation is working with an established startup studio, High Alpha Innovation, with years of experience in partnering to build startup companies around new software ideas and products. The partnership will speed development of new health tech companies with solutions that can help OSF HealthCare and other health care systems.

High Alpha will be utilizing its 12-week startup studio process that will wind up with a Sprint Week in which the two or three top ideas will be formally pitched to OSF leaders.

McCoy says if leaders endorse the solution, it would result in High Alpha and OSF partnering on the launch of a startup company that would be funded to scale the innovation and likely attract additional investors. 

Video clips with Kip McCoy,  vice president Innovation Studio, OSF HealthCare

Elemeno Health, the developer of a proprietary cloud-based solution for frontline health care teams, and OSF HealthCare, one of the largest health systems in Illinois, today announced a partnership to initiate a pilot using a customizable, just-in-time best practices app for nurses.

The Peoria, Illinois-based integrated health system operates 15 hospitals in Illinois and Michigan with a robust innovation division. Cross-functional collaboration is an organizational priority and OSF Innovation regularly seeks to understand the pain points and experiences of our frontline care givers, including nurses who care deeply about quality patient outcomes and providing the best patient experience. By understanding the voice of our frontline caregivers and partnering with them, OSF Innovation is able to serve the Ministry through identification and implementation of solutions that support them in the work they do each day and create a better Mission Partner (employee) experience.

With emerging variants, vaccine approvals, and shifting guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention during the COVID-19 pandemic, it became clear that nurses busy caring for patients needed an easy way to ensure they had the latest information. OSF Innovation saw the potential in Elemeno as a tool to provide OSF nurses with point of care education that is easy to access, relevant and timely, and worked closely with nursing leadership to help define potential use cases and value. Elemeno’s mobile-friendly platform allows for real-time updates on changes in practice, implementation of new treatments, products, even specific notifications based on information learned during team huddles.

Elemeno will be piloted in several specific departments within the OSF HealthCare system, including at OSF HealthCare Saint Francis Medical Center, a Level 1 trauma center in Peoria, with a goal of full implementation within hospitals and clinics.

Wiegand added, "OSF Innovation and its performance improvement teams consistently help advance novel approaches to problems, including efforts to pilot leading-edge technology to provide the highest quality care possible to our patients.”

“Elemeno is designed to meet nurses where they are, so they have access to easy-to-digest content, including how-to videos and interactive decision guides, in a way that supports every type of learner,” said Jill Williamson, director of Education at OSF HealthCare. “Site-specific, data-informed details can be shared, along with evidence-based standards, policies and procedures.”

With many hospital systems, including OSF, having to hire travel nurses to supplement care during COVID-19 surges, the Elemeno platform helps streamline onboarding and training to drive system-wide consistency with workflows, policies and procedures. The easy-to-use platform can reinforce a safety-first mentality that is critically important as clinicians manage the heavy burden of caring for patients, many of whom require complex care if they are hospitalized with COVID-19.

“We need to make nurses’ lives simpler,” noted Arup Roy-Burman, CEO and co-founder of Elemeno Health. “As a playbook in your pocket, Elemeno equips frontline nursing staff with the bite-sized information they need to easily deliver consistent and safe care to every patient.”

Initial success will be measured through metrics around engagement and adoption, as well as feedback from users.

Peoria, Illinois-based OSF HealthCare is partnering with the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) to award eight grants totally more than $700,000 to support projects that remove barriers to care, particularly in low-income, under-resourced communities; enhance health and wellness education, and leverage technology to improve training and community outreach.

These are the first-ever grants awarded under the Community Health Advocacy (CHA) program. OSF HealthCare has committed $1 million for each of the next five years and UIC will match the OSF gift with a mix of royalty income and in-kind contributions to provide about $2 million in grants annually to support multidisciplinary projects.

The efforts will leverage grants and additional resources available from local, state and federal dollars focused on improving health equity.

“These programs are under development to provide new prototypes to do better outreach to our communities; to serve people where they are with their current medical conditions and to really advance that care,” said Dr. John Vozenilek, vice president and chief medical officer, OSF Innovation and Digital Health.

“We were thrilled to see so many impressive projects proposed by the teams of UIC researchers and OSF clinicians,” said UIC Vice Chancellor for Innovation, TJ Augustine. “This first round of CHA funding is just the start of an impactful partnership between UIC and OSF that will help improve the health and wellness of urban communities.”

Highlight Project-Using iPads at Homeless Shelters in Chicago

This project will use tablets embedded in kiosks at three homeless shelters to easily assess the social barriers that are leading to poor health for the homeless population in the Chicago metro area. The kiosks will help shelter residents with prescription drug management as well as offer connections to local resources. Read the full story here.

Here are summaries of the full list of grant awards and projects.  

Video clips with Dr. John Vozenilek, vice president and chief medical officer, OSF Innovation and Digital Health

More than 58,000 people in Chicago experience homelessness, and with that, comes an increased likelihood of premature death because of a lack of connection to ongoing medical care.

A grant-funded project through the inaugural Community Health Advocacy (CHA) program, a partnership with OSF HealthCare and the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC), will offer a digital connection for those living in homeless shelters. Initially, the pilot will place kiosks with iPads at two south Chicago homeless shelters, as well as in a third shelter near OSF HealthCare Little Company of Mary Medical Center in Evergreen Park.

Scott Barrows, who directs the OSF Innovation Design Lab at the Jump Simulation & Education Center in Peoria, says the embedded iPads will provide a digital connection with a center at the UIC College of Pharmacy.

“This digital connection is hopefully going to address (medication) compliance for long-term health care issues like diabetes, high blood pressure, infection, as well as some behavioral health issues. That’s actually a huge issue that I think the telemedicine and the iPad kiosks will help address.”

Within the iPad is an app OSF HealthCare developed to screen for social determinants of health. The app already is being used in medical clinics and homeless shelters in Peoria, and provides a connection to community resources for food, transportation, permanent housing and financial counseling among other supports. 

Barrows believes the lessons learned in Peoria will help as the project rolls out in the Chicago Metro area.

“The shelters are pretty overwhelmed, so the connections we’ll make will be with other partners in the city and the state, the federal government, private agencies, some insurance agencies, health care organizations … so it’s a partnership, and that is one of the things in our app – we’ll connect resources.”

Barrows says helping the homeless population manage chronic diseases is important.

“Foot care is very critical. A lot of our homeless population are diabetic and they have foot sores. As far as maternal care – mothers and women who might be pregnant; helping them care better for their health.”

In Peoria, the biggest issues among the homeless population include access to addiction services, wound care and mental health providers.

A secondary goal of the CHA grant project is to reduce reliance on more costly care options – urgent care centers or emergency departments.

“We think we can save expenses for health care conditions by better managing prescriptions and compliance, as well as trying to help people in the shelters take care of their conditions so they don’t have to use the emergency departments or it doesn’t get to that point.”

Barrows hopes to secure additional funding, in addition to the CHA grant, to expand the project to include video visits and to provide prescription delivery and care directly at homeless shelters to eliminate transportation issues, which is one of the most common barriers people endure in managing their chronic conditions. 

Video-Audio Clips with Scott Barrows, director OSF Innovation Design Lab

OSF HealthCare is partnering with Medically Home Group, Inc. to establish an Acute Care at Home Program, which will enable Peoria-based OSF HealthCare to provide hospital-level, high-acuity care to patients in the comfort and convenience of their own homes. OSF has selected for a partner, a company that’s quickly becoming the leader in hospital at home services, having announced earlier this month that it has attracted $110 million from strategic investors including Baxter International Inc., Global Medical Response (GMR) and Cardinal Health. Cardinal Health, Mayo Clinic and Kaiser Permanente are providing additional capital on top of their previous investments, demonstrating confidence in the growing expansion of the model nationwide.

In January 2021, OSF HealthCare opened its OSF OnCall Digital Health building – essentially a hospital without the bricks and mortar. This new program will serve as an extension to OSF’s current digital health capabilities, offering hospital-level services at home to even more patients who would otherwise require hospitalization for serious illnesses including chronic diseases (such as heart failure and COPD), infections (such as pneumonia and cellulitis), and post-surgical hospitalizations, as well as for COVID-19.

Under the program, OSF HealthCare physicians and nurses in a medical command center will monitor and care for patients in their homes 24/7. Patients will have access to hospital-level medical services (ranging from IV therapies, oxygen treatments, and lab tests – even X-rays and ultrasounds) without having to leave their homes, and without the disruption, stress, and potential isolation that can be experienced by those hospitalized.

Clinical studies have shown that home hospitalization delivers improved patient outcomes, including: lower mortality rates and a reduced risk for readmissions along with higher patient and clinician satisfaction, and increased cost savings. Patients of OSF HealthCare Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria will be the first to have the OSF OnCall Hospital at Home option starting in the summer, with plans to extend the program.

Medically Home is decentralizing the delivery of patient care with a platform that provides a command center and technology that manages the logistics and coordination of all care in the home to enable safe, high-acuity care for patients with serious or complex illness. The platform also offers decision support to clinicians caring for those patients, and the collection and proper handling of patient vitals and other data, integrating them into the patient’s electronic medical record.

“Medically Home’s model is designed to enable health systems to safely shift lower and higher-acuity medical care from hospitals to patients’ homes where they prefer to receive it and when they need it,” said Brandi Clark, vice president of Digital Care, OSF OnCall. “We are excited to be able to offer this new and enhanced service later this year as we continue to work to do what is best for patients in the communities we have been called to serve.”

Twenty research projects are sharing slightly more than $1.4 million in funding through the Jump ARCHES research and development program to address a variety of vexing medical challenges including neurological testing for children and athletes (such as concussions), migraines, and stress among nurses enduring pandemic challenges at home and at work. The Jump ARCHES program is a partnership between OSF HealthCare and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I) and the University of Illinois College of Medicine in Peoria (UICOMP).

The funding supports research involving clinicians, engineers, and social scientists to rapidly develop technologies and devices that could revolutionize medical training and health care delivery. Many of the awards represent new projects, while some will build on previously funded efforts.

“These projects highlight areas where OSF HealthCare and our partners are committed to making advancements, including: COVID-19 recovery, personalized medicine, data security, health literacy to underserved populations, support for those giving bedside care, as well as improvements in neurological diagnosis/treatment, according to Dr. John Vozenilek, vice president/chief medical officer, OSF Innovation & Digital Health. He adds, “We know digitally connected health systems, powerful data analytics, and new innovative approaches offer the promise of universal standard care and health knowledge for everyone we serve.”

“The grant awards reflect areas of tremendous research success on the U of I campus at the intersection of engineering and medicine, which began at our very own Health Care Engineering Systems Center,” said T. Kesh Kesavadas, director of the Health Care Engineering Systems Center at U of I Urbana-Champaign. “The Center has established itself as a leading innovator on campus where researchers solve problems faced by real clinicians in hospital settings with technology such as AI-based intubation and IoT sensor-based masks.”

Meenakshy Aiyer, MD, interim regional dean of UICOMP stresses collaboration and innovation are the key to advancing healthcare. “These Jump ARCHES grants showcase the exciting possibilities that exist when the best and brightest minds from across disciplines unite for the greater good.”

Highlight Project- Assessing Concussions in Two Minutes

Assessing concussions in both children and adults has been a challenging problem which relies on self-reported symptoms. Adam Cross, MD, FAAP is a pediatric hospitalist and clinical informaticist,  and an assistant professor of Clinical Pediatrics at UICOMP.  He also directs the Jump Simulation and Education Center’s Children’s Innovation Lab.  Cross and his team have come up with a smart device application that uses a phone-based mixed-reality game to detect performance impairments such as those commonly seen in concussion.
Read the full story here.

Here is a full list-description of the latest Jump ARCHES-funded projects.

Video Clip with Dr. John Vozenilek, vice president/chief medical officer, OSF Innovation & Digital Health

All too many times, high school, college or even pro athletes push to be able to stay in play after a hard hit during a game, or they push to get back on the field after they’ve been held out due to a concussion. While sideline testing is done, it has limitations.

The so called FlightPath application being developed by researchers at the Jump Simulation and Education Center’s Children’s Innovation Lab is a game that takes only two minutes to complete, so it can be used on the playground or the sidelines to easily confirm a suspected traumatic brain injury.  Adam Cross, MD, FAAP is a pediatric hospitalist and clinical informaticist who directs the lab. Dr. Cross, is also an assistant professor of Pediatrics at the University of Illinois College of Medicine in Peoria. He says unlike typical exams, his app does not rely on someone being truthful about their symptoms, such as an athlete who downplays their symptoms to stay on the field.

“Because they want to keep playing - we term that ‘sandbagging.’ And the current tests that we have really don’t protect against sandbagging. They’re so reliant on people being honest with their symptoms that if somebody doesn’t want to tell you, there’s not a whole lot you can do. But this application that we’re using is meant to test all of the different ways in which a concussion can manifest, and there are many.”

Eventually the app could be downloaded for an Apple or Android device and will measure the physical, perceptual, and visual impairments caused by a brain injury. The game asks the user to capture a virtual hummingbird within the user’s actual environment – which is how the “mixed reality” is created.

Dr. Cross explains, “We have a set of complex algorithms that determine how the bird should fly in that space to better test your abilities. If it detects you’re having trouble in a certain way, it actually will go back and test that kind of movement to get a good sense of what’s going on with that particular impairment.”

The mixed reality system also requires the individual to move around physically to follow the hummingbird which tests the user’s coordination and balance.

“That actually requires you to not only move your hands and arms up and down but also reqires moving throughout the room (or location). You have to walk, you have to turn, you have to look up and down and all that requires vision; it requires reaction time to move with the hummingbird. It requires balance and it also requires a little bit of memory as you watch the bird leave the screen and figure out where it was going if it goes very quickly. It adapts itself to your performance in order to best test that threshold where you start having trouble.”

The game app creates thousands of data points every minute which are analyzed using machine learning techniques. Those results can speed up time to diagnosis which improves treatment and recovery. It also helps a person’s care team understand how impairments are improving over time. While current tests can be memorized after a few sessions, the FlightPath app has randomized but constrained paths that are never identical, which prevents the user from simply memorizing the hummingbird’s flight pattern.

Dr. Cross has applied for additional federal grants, to supplement grant funding through the Jump ARCHES program, speed up development and testing, which will include offering free downloads and small incentives for individuals with no symptoms of a concussion to play the game. That data will provide a necessary performance baseline for comparison against other users with known manifestations of concussion.

While the app could be ready for pilot testing within six months, Dr. Cross says it could take a few years for the federal  Food and Drug Administration to approve for clinical use.

Video Clips with Dr. Adam Cross, pediatrician hospitalist and informaticist, OSF HealthCare

B-roll of FlightPath app in use

SWITCH stands for Sustainable Wellness through Innovation, Technology, & Collaborative Health. Its mission is to increase health equity and measurably improve community health delivery and wellness outcomes in Chicago’s most underserved communities. Solutions will be developed by engaging residents and patients to ensure they have an active voice in solution creation; leveraging a robust racial equity and inclusion (REI) methodology to address inherent bias in existing solution development processes.

As part of the partnership, SWITCH and OSF HealthCare, with support from the UIC Innovation and Verizon, will look at the possibility of expanding and commercializing the OSF CommunityConnect (OCC) software platform to improve access to health care, education, and disease prevention in the underserved neighborhoods around OSF HealthCare Little Company of Mary Hospital in Evergreen Park, Illinois and surrounding clinics and medical offices. 

OSF has been using the OCC platform for its OnCall Connect program to allow digital health care workers to provide care, support, and monitoring of patients recovering at home post-surgery or from COVID-19. It will also be used as part of the Medicaid Innovation Collaborative to create solutions that improve access and quality of care for Medicaid patients throughout the state.

Angela E.L. Barnes, general counsel, director of Legal Affairs & Growth Initiatives at City Tech Collaborative founded SWITCH, and she will lead the partners’ efforts to improve health access with stakeholders who will have direct input in helping determine the best strategy for delivering better health and wellness. Barnes has long been a champion of diversity and equity, and last year was appointed to the Racial Justice Diversity Committee for the federal courts in the Northern District of Illinois to examine the court’s racial diversity and help identify barriers to providing racial justice to everyone.

“The pandemic has only exacerbated what we already know to be true: systematic disparities and biases create significant barriers to achieving health and wellness for all communities,” said Barnes.“These growing health disparities are even more evident in Chicago’s BIPOC communities on the South and West sides. With the development of SWITCH, I’m excited to deliver resident-and community-informed solutions that overcome these physical, digital, and socioeconomic barriers to health so that all communities can flourish.”

The partnership will also leverage diverse and talented students from the UIC Innovation Center to help grow SWITCH and its solutions. 

SWITCH was recently chosen to participate in a 2021 Health Equity Innovation accelerator program to support entrepreneurs with solutions that advance health equity. The challenge from MATTER, the global healthcare innovation hub headquartered in Chicago, and YWCA Metropolitan Chicago, focuses on projects such as those using data and research to promote equity in health care, plus projects to increase access to care and to address social determinants of health (SDOH) among others.

Don Bergh, associate director for Labs and Instructional Programs at the UIC Innovation Center said students selected for the accelerator program will be highly engaged.

“Our students are innovation-trained, and ready to jump into teams and projects that demand smart, flexible, motivated problem solvers.”

The accelerator challenge specifically accepted applicants with a goal to develop and launch a solution to directly impact SDOH in Chicago’s underrepresented communities. Participants have to be connected to a Chicagoland organization and preference was given to entrepreneurs of color.

The corporate investment arm of OSF HealthCare joined an extended round of funding, that increased overall investment to the $25 million level. OSF Ventures joins new investors: The American Cancer Society’s venture capital fund, BrightEdge, and the Citi Impact Fund. Existing investor Sanara Capital, Sanara Ventures’ follow-on fund, also participated.

The round, led by Providence Ventures, also included new investors Almeda Ventures, Bridges Israel, Discount Capital, and UnityPoint Health Ventures. Existing investors Accelmed, and Triventures also joined in the latest financing.

TailorMed is focused on ensuring patients get the care they need in a difficult financial environment. TailorMed’s financial navigation platform automates the processes of identifying financially at-risk patients, matching and enrolling them in funding programs such as co-pay assistance, replacement drug programs, government subsidies, community and state resources, assistance from disease-specific foundations, and programs that support patients with their living expenses.

“It’s exciting to see a health system with the reputation of OSF HealthCare recognizing the value of a platform that gives health care providers more tools to help more patients avoid crippling medical debt,” said Srulik Dvorsky, CEO and co-founder of TailorMed. Medical debt is the single largest kind of debt owed to collection agencies in the U.S., according to a recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). It has reached a total of $140 billion, twice as much as previously thought and yet the data does not cover the period that included the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dvorsky co-founded TailorMed on the premise that no one should have to abandon treatment that could save their life because of their inability to pay. He points to research that showed even among cancer patients with insurance,16% quit their treatment plans because they could not afford life-saving chemotherapy drugs, and patients with higher copayments were 42% more likely to skip treatment.

Mayank Taneja, director of Venture Investments, says the Ventures team at OSF HealthCare believes the TailorMed financial navigation platform is superior to what competitors offer because it includes access to resources not only for people with cancer, but for those with other chronic diseases and conditions as well.

TailorMed’s predictive analytic capabilities leverage electronic medical records to reveal patients with the highest financial vulnerability. Financial navigators can then proactively match patients with resources early on to reduce their out-of-pocket treatment costs. This early intervention can help patients avoid dropping out of treatment before it’s completed because of financial worries.

Hospital systems can also benefit by incurring less bad debt, freeing up resources to invest in operations and offer additional options to access care.

OSF Innovation and its partners at the University of Illinois College of Medicine Peoria (UICOMP) and Illinois State University (ISU) in Normal, Illinois, have received a federal Human Resources & Services Administration (HRSA) grant of $10,000 to continue work to expand childhood vaccinations to children of low-income families in Central Illinois. 

Recent CDC data shows fewer children were vaccinated on time this year compared to last year, in part, because of the COVID-19 pandemic. HRSA invited grant applicants to propose and implement innovative approaches to increase access to and utilization of well-child visits and immunization services.

OSF is already part of the federal Vaccines for Children (VFC) program providing free vaccines to children whose families meet income guidelines. This new grant will fund vaccinations for children in families that might not qualify under those low-income guidelines. In addition, OSF will use the funding to purchase refrigerators for the mobile OSF Care-A-Van to store vaccines when going out into the community. A small portion of the grant will also support vaccine education in communities.

“The HRSA award is a competitive, multi-stage grant, and we will be working toward a second round of funding in the fall,” said OSF Design Lab Director Scott Barrows. “Our vision is to possibly expand the program throughout the state and refine efforts from what we have learned and data collected.”

The Innovation Labs are creating scalable solutions that can improve access and quality of care for Medicaid patients throughout the state. OSF OnCall Digital Health enables community health workers to use well-designed tools that leverage analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence for outreach to underserved populations. OSF Innovation has engaged in targeted partnerships to develop the pipeline for diverse, future health care workers through its STEAM and Pre-Surgical Immersion offerings via Jump Simulation.

Through the mobile vaccination effort, OSF Innovation is tapping resources in its Data Science and Advanced Informatics Lab, Children’s Innovation Lab and its Design Lab to use advanced AI-informed technology to fuel mobile outreach. Pediatric nurses and doctors, along with community partners, will use the OSF Care-A-Van to expand vaccinations for children in underserved areas.

Barrows says the OSF Design Lab has again partnered with Dr. Adam Cross of UICOMP who is also clinical informaticist for the OSF Innovation Children’s Lab, Dr. Mary Stapel, director of OSF Community Care Clinics, and Population Health Manager Elise Albers of OSF HealthCare Children’s Hospital of Illinois, as well as with Dr. Shaoen Wu of ISU. The project aligns with the current Illinois Innovation Network (IIN). ISU research grant and current Jump ARCHES grant research. The grants are receiving additional research support from interns at the U of I, ISU, University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) and Bradley University.

Dr. Stapel will be working with community members and developing partnerships, particularly with schools that have a large percentage of low-income families. As summer approaches, community outreach will accelerate to meet families where they are.

Seven research projects are sharing slightly more than $400,000 in funding through the Jump ARCHES research and development program to address challenges and expand on lessons learned about COVID-19 vaccinations and testing.The Jump ARCHES program is a partnership between OSF HealthCare and The Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I) and the University of Illinois College of Medicine in Peoria (UICOMP).

The funding supports research involving clinicians, engineers and social scientists to rapidly develop technologies and devices that could revolutionize medical training and health care delivery. A requirement of the grant applications was for solutions that could be deployed quickly, within four to six weeks. Investigators were also encouraged to consider how to best mitigate the impact of age, location, and social barriers in delivering quality health care to vulnerable populations.

“The outcomes of these projects will help with issues arising from the current pandemic and help physicians apply lessons learned in the post-COVID health care landscape,” said Seth Stutzman, coordinator for the Jump ARCHES grant program.

"As we develop new vaccines and treatments for COVID-19, it’s also important to take into account societal factors such as age, race, location, infrastructure, and how to best provide for underserved populations. We expect significant changes in how health care is delivered so that it is more accessible for all and are proud to fund projects that spearhead these developments,” said T. Kesh Kesavadas, Ph.D., director of the Health Care Engineering Systems Center at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Here are summaries of some key projects, with a full list of spring 2021 projects available on the Jump ARCHES website.

Every shot counts: Development of a novel predictive model and toolkit to predict and decrease vaccine-preventable rural COVID-19 deaths

Investigators: Jimeng Sun, PhD, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Scott Barrows, MA, FAMI, University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), University of Illinois College of Medicine Peoria (UICOMP), OSF HealthCare; Adam Cross, MD, FAAP, OSF HealthCare, UICOMP; Ann Willemsen-Dunlap, CRNA, PhD, OSF HealthCare, UICOMP; and Mary Stapel, MD, OSF HealthCare

Currently, 12% of the U.S. population has received at least one COVID-19 vaccine, which is below the projected 70-90% required to achieve herd immunity to the virus. This project aims to develop a predictive model to predict vaccine-preventable deaths in each county in the U.S. and the most likely reasons for vaccine hesitancy among populations. A toolkit will help guide rural populations in their decision-making about accepting the COVID-19 vaccine.

Human factors in the use of telepresence robots after the COVID-19 pandemic

Investigators: Inki Kim, PhD, U of I; Thenkurussi (Kesh) Kesavadas, PhD, U of I; Jon Michel, MD, OSF HealthCare; and Shandra Jamison, MA, RRT, U of I

The COVID-19 pandemic outbreak resulted in an increase in telemedicine visits to prevent the spread of the virus. The goal of this concept is to establish, justify and optimize a set of existing or new-use cases for telepresence robot use in telemedicine to reduce the risk of in-hospital transmission of COVID-19, as well as for continued quality of care delivery in the post-COVID-19 era.

Early insights and recommendation for implementing a COVID-19 saliva-based testing program in K-12 schools: Lessons learned from four under-resourced schools

Investigators; Rebecca Lee Smith, DVM, MS, PhD, U of I; Thanh (Helen) Nguyen, PhD, U of I; Nicole Delinski, DNP, MSN, RN, OSF HealthCare; Michaelene Ostrosky, PhD, U of I; and W. Catherine Cheung, PT, PhD, U of I

With the goal of successfully reopening K-12 schools and keeping them open, this proposed plan will work to gain a better understanding of the acceptability, feasibility and effectiveness of implementing saliva-based testing in under-resourced schools, as well as parental behavior of deciding to allow their children to return to in-person learning.

Voice vitals: A new approach for anxiety and depression screening in the era of COVID-19

Investigators: Mary Pietrowicz, PhD, U of I; Ryan Finkenbine, MD, UICOMP, OSF HealthCare; and Sarah Donohue, PhD, UICOMP

Existing systems fall short in identifying and treating individuals with anxiety disorders and major depressive disorders due to a variety of issues, including people not seeking medical attention, attitudinal barriers like stigma, and structural barriers such as a lack of providers. This proposal aims to develop a prototype of machine models that can listen to speech and language and automatically screen for anxiety and depression disorders.

See the complete list of the latest Jump ARCHES grant projects.

Middle ear infections are the leading cause of hearing loss, surgery and antibiotic use, especially in children who are misdiagnosed up to half of the time using the current technology. Knowing there is a need for better tools to diagnose and treat ear infections, OSF Ventures is joining a $5.2 million Series A investment in Champaign, Illinois based PhotoniCare Inc. and its TOMi™ Scope for non-invasive imaging of the middle ear.

Three other venture capital firms joined OSF Ventures in the investment round including i2E Ventures, Sony Corporation of America and Dreampact Ventures. The money will be used for further development of AI technology, and to ramp up sales, customer support, and provider reimbursement.

PhotoniCare recently received Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for the TOMi hand-held medical device. Since 2013, the medical device start-up has been developing technology invented at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign by the company's founders. Its new imager uses a novel application of light wave technology known as Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT).

The hand-held device allows physicians, for the first time, to directly visualize fluid in the middle ear where ear infections reside. What’s most impressive – the imager works even in the presence of wax – providing objective data for a diagnosis and treatment course. Clinicians who have used the imager say it will revolutionize diagnosis and treatment of inner ear infections.

“Ear pain and concerns about hearing are one of the most common reasons parents take their children to the doctor. But, for decades, until now, technology to see inside the ear canal has not improved,” according to Mayank Taneja, Director of Venture Investments, OSF Ventures.

He added, “Surgery and antibiotics are not always needed and we’re excited the TOMi Scope could reduce unnecessary care and costs for patients and families.” Taneja points out the investment also fits with OSF Ventures’ priorities of improving patient outcomes, enhancing patient experience and reducing the cost of health care.

Children can suffer from recurring ear infections for six to 12 months before they are referred to an ENT specialist, and are often prescribed increasingly potent antibiotics during this time. More than one million tube surgeries to reduce fluid and pressure in the inner ear are performed in the US alone every year.

Melinda Cooling, OSF Vice President Advance Practice Providers/Chief Clinician Executive Saint Gabriel Digital Health said OSF HealthCare will pilot the digitally enhanced otoscope at a few of its OSF Urgo urgent care locations to evaluate the equipment and workflow.“This could be a game changer in improving our diagnosis and treatment so we’re excited to partner with PhotoniCare,” Cooling said. “The device also has a video screen and can connect to other devices for easy viewing that will let providers visually show patients and parents of small children the extent of the problem and provide education about the best remedies.”

PhotoniCare co-founder & CEO Ryan Shelton is equally excited by the support from OSF HealthCare.

“At PhotoniCare we set out to solve the massive problem of frequent misdiagnosis of middle ear infections, and the overuse of antibiotics and referrals to surgery in children” said Shelton. “We are excited to have the support of OSF Ventures which has a reputation for successful investments and we appreciate the partnership that will pilot use of the TOMi Scope which will provide us with valuable feedback.”

They’ll use digital tools including text messaging, videos, and two-way messaging to help educate and empower patients to engage more in their own health. In turn, that should help improve mammogram rates and lower breast cancer mortality.

Dr. Sarah Stewart deRamirez, vice president-chief medical officer for OSF Clinical Innovation says efforts will be funded by a $75,000, one-year grant from the Illinois Hospital Association and Blue Cross-Blue Shield Insurance. 

Of the households that OSF HealthCare (OSF) serves, nearly half are low-income and almost a quarter are below the poverty line. Dr. Stewart deRamirez, who is also an Emergency Medicine physician, says nationwide 40% of the population gets a yearly mammogram but for low-income women over 39, it’s closer to 20%.

According to Dr. Stewart deRamirez, “So depending on how much money you make and the insurance you get, that ultimately determines the rate at which people are able to access mammograms as well as access treatment and ultimately survive or die from breast cancer.”

The main goal of the grant is to pilot a hybrid digital health worker (remote) and community health worker (in-person) model to see the impact on improving breast cancer screening for Peoria and 5 surrounding rural counties (Fulton, Henry, Knox, Tazewell and Warren). Stewart deRamirez says there is little understanding about the impact of using communication and education tools patients can access on a smartphone, pad or computer. The results of the research, in collaboration with the Harvard School of Public Health, could also provide insights about prevention approaches for other types of cancer and chronic diseases.

Abby Lotz, vice pesident and chief oursing Officer for OSF  Digital Health agrees it’s important to collect evidence about what works to improve mammogram rates and early treatment for breast cancer.

“Do people want to stand and talk to someone at a health fair? Do they want to connect with their digital health worker in their community one-on-one? Do they want to connect passively through the health applications or messaging functions and we’ll make sure we’re using all of those approaches to meet them where they are.”

OSF Saint Gabriel Digital Health deployed pandemic health workers to digitally support COVID care for individuals at home. Leaders were pleasantly surprised about people’s willingness to use smartphones or tablets to stay connected with health care providers.

“I think that we don’t give each generation enough credit. I think technology is so widely adopted but we need to support that. We need to continually upscale our communities to help them with that adoption and we want to be the trusted partner to help them do that,” according to Lotz. 

The grant will also support efforts to screen all at risk patients within the OSF HealthCare system for social determinants of health such as housing and food insecurity or transportation challenges that contribute to lack of access and care. Those who screen positive will be connected to community social service agencies that can provide support and reduce those barriers. 

Dr. Stewart deRamirez believes technology can be a great equalizer in providing health equity but key to making an impact is understanding more about the extent people want to connect digitally and the kind of support needed to allow them to do that easily.

Video Clips with Dr. Sarah Stewart de Ramirez, Vice President-Chief Medical Officer for OSF Clinical Innovation

Video Clips with Abby Lotz, Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer for OSF Digital Health 

OSF Ventures joins LRVHealth, MemorialCare Innovation Fund, UnityPoint Health Ventures, B Capital Group and ACT Venture Fund in the latest investment round. The investment fits with OSF HealthCare’s strategy of financially and operationally supporting opportunities that improve patient outcomes, enhance patient experience and reduce the cost of health care.

“We also invest strategically through comprehensive collaboration, which is the approach we’ve taken with SilverCloud,” according to Stan Lynall, vice president for OSF Venture Investments. In 2018, OSF HealthCare became the first US health care system to offer free open enrollment to SilverCloud’s online cognitive behavioral health therapy for adults in regions served by OSF but without a requirement that users be current patients of the health system.

The SilverCloud platform is HIPAA compliant and is available via handheld device, computer or laptop. It is an anonymous, secure and interactive platform that helps people manage the symptoms of depression, including anxiety and stress.

“OSF HealthCare was an early believer in our evidence-based approach and continues to provide collaboration and support. SilverCloud has been able to demonstrate that our solutions provide an equivalence to more traditional methods of mental health care,” said SilverCloud Health CEO Ken Cahill.

SilverCloud’s solution for moderate depression, anxiety and stress was piloted and eventually expanded for open enrollment with product updates and enhancements made to the platform to align with feedback from behavioral health professionals who monitor the platform and interact with users when additional individual support is needed. SilverCloud platform wide results show up to 65 percent of users have significantly decreased depression and anxiety symptoms, and up to a 91 percent reduction in care delivery costs compared to face-to-face therapy.

“The key that separates SilverCloud from other applications is that it offers the user with an integrated supporter,” according to OSF HealthCare Behavioral Health Manager Luke Raymond. “The platform has been clinically validated as a viable resource to deliver cognitive behavioral therapy content, and we also have a background person who will provide periodic check-ins and reviews and help you if you need connection with a live resource.”

He added, “SilverCloud Health responded rapidly to our need to help our front-line health care workers dealing with the stressors of the COVID-19 pandemic and added a specific program for them, which was an important resource to support our employees.”

Lynall is impressed with the SilverCloud leadership team which includes top executives and co-creators who are global leaders in online behavior therapy tools and digital specialists who have grown the platform to include more than 30 effective online mental health interventions.

“SilverCloud Health is filling a void left by a lack of mental health professionals in the U.S. and globally. OSF Ventures is excited to back SilverCloud Health as it works to create tools patients are embracing to lead happier, more successful lives,” said Lynall.

Physician Assistant Mandy Robinson learned from a new screening tool that the patient was at high risk for financial, housing and food insecurity.

“He didn’t have refrigeration and he had eaten a piece of meat that he knew was probably spoiled but he was so hungry and because he didn’t have any other food in the house he chose to eat it and became ill,” she explained. 

Under a new primary care digital screening program for social determinants of health, patients use iPads and are screening for ten areas of social needs including food insecurity, financial support, housing, transportation, and intimate partner violence among others. Social Determinants of Health are conditions in the places where people live, learn, work, and play that affect a wide range of health risks and outcomes. In this case, Robinson says the care team manager helped the patient avoid that kind of dilemma in the future.

“The care manager spoke to the power company on his behalf and we were also able to get him resources on food pantries in the area so we were able to help with that. I believe he also has an appointment to get his hearing aid test.” Robinson added, “So it’s definitely a process when we get into the lives of these patients but every step we take is a positive outcome for them.”

Robinson was skeptical at first of the Screen and Connect pilot. She worried about having to address all of a patient’s needs, clinical and non-clinical, during the average 15 to 20-minute appointment.

But, Robinson says when care managers know of non-clinical conditions they can handle patient referrals to community resources. She only gets involved when patients really need to be convinced to receive help or when she’s so concerned about a patient’s welfare that she personally follows up. Robinson often finds those who she sees have multiple unmet needs and they’re relieved to know someone can coordinate help for them outside of the medical office.

“Once they realize that we care about them beyond their lab numbers that they’re more likely to open up to us and come to us with needs that maybe they’re not sure who to go to but they know at least, we’re a good starting point, Robinson shared.

OSF Innovation rolled out the Screen and Connect tool three months ago and recently hit a milestone on November 5, 2019 when the 1,000th patient was screened. Dr. Sarah Stewart de Ramirez, vice preisdent and chief medical officer for OSF Innovation says the idea was to treat social determinants of health like a vital sign.

The team was empowered through a design process utilizing multiple tests of change to optimize the solution for providers and patients. Providers desired an approach which informed their interactions but didn’t take up their patient-provider time with screening questions, or create delays in getting patients to rooms. They also didn’t want the long delays typically experienced by paper surveys or asynchronous screening, where patients screen at one time, and results are later tabulated and only inform subsequent referrals to social work etc. On the other hand, patients wanted privacy to share their information and decide if they felt comfortable talking about it so they didn’t want to be called ahead of time or even asked face-to-face. The resulting process was able to use digital screening to achieve the privacy requirements of patients, and the real time need of providers to address social needs as they were identified.

Knowing many older patients use iPads to connect with their kids and grandchildren, using them seemed like a great approach.

“For discrete assessment of all ten domains of the social determinants of health, iPads were used with every patient, every time they came into the clinic. The responses populated those social needs on food insecurity, housing, transportation. As they answered those questions in real time, that information would be available to the clinician before the patient was even in the room.”

Stewart de Ramirez believes that OSF HealthCare is a leader of screening patients by using a digital tool that can provide social vulnerability information as soon as a patient enters it in the waiting room so the social risk indicators can better inform "whole person care" during the patient's appointment.

“Instead of just asking about medications related to heart failure, medications related to their diabetes, instead of just talking about the clinical needs, they could now expand to whole person needs and be able to think about what else needs to be addressed to optimize the whole health of that individual and their family.” according to Stewart de Ramirez.

The iPad screening tool takes patients an average of two-and-a-half minutes to complete and most patients have been willing to fill out the quick screening assessment, sometimes with the help of a medical office assistant. Nearly 40% of patients screened as having at least one social risk and nearly 25% have two to three social challenges that need to be addressed. While most health care leaders believed transportation would be the number one challenge in rural areas, food insecurity has been the leading concern of patients who screened high risk, accounting for nearly one third of patients with a factor influencing their health outside of the medical office.

Sarah Overton, chief nursing officer for OSF Multi Specialty Services says results so far have prompted care teams to consider alternative approaches with some patients.

“It really makes them stop and think when they’re going to prescribe a medication or treatment, if it’s really the best solution for that patient,” she said. “Perhaps there’s a cheaper alternative or there are some resources they can connect them with that really will allow them to achieve those goals of great care overall and a great health outcome for them.”

Overton believes nurses in particular, who often serve as care managers referring patients to community resources, are finding their jobs fulfilling and patients are feeling our Mission, to serve with the greatest care and love.

“Nothing is more gratifying as a nurse or physician than hearing how maybe something little that you did in that experience changed that patient’s overall perspective and outcome and really listened to them and cared for them in a way that probably they weren’t anticipating when they came in for their medical need.”

Stewart de Ramirez says Screen and Connect has already revealed that in the bread basket of America, which feeds the world, as many as half of patients are food insecure and that’s a challenge OSF HealthCare and community partners will have to tackle collectively. She also says a community care network will need expanded digital tools to allow two-way communication in which community partners can also refer individuals to OSF for medical care and, with patients’ permission, allow information-sharing among agencies for a coordinated approach to “whole person care.”

That’s because research is showing where you live has a far greater influence than genetics on your overall health. For example, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has used data to tie life expectancy to zip codes. You can type in your own address here to see life expectancy in your neighborhood.

Family Doctor Trenor Williams started paying more attention to where a person lives and other social factors when he realized his mom, a social worker, talked about so many factors influencing her patient’s ability to be healthy. Then, he began working as a consultant for the former chief medical information officer for the Veterans Administration. He was asked to take a look at social risk factors that contributed to problems such as suicide among military veterans.

That initiative led to him co-found Washington-based Socially Determined, a start-up cloud-based data analytics company that helps integrate data into a platform to identify health care needs to help communities solve barriers to better health such as food insecurity, housing and transportation.

According to Williams, “40 to 60% of your health care outcomes are influenced by social risk factors. We haven’t thought about how to integrate that information into the decision-making process and how we support people, and so we saw that as a huge opportunity.”

Socially Determined looks at open source data from agencies such as the U.S. Census, Department of Labor Statistics, and the Department of Agriculture along with commercial data, such as vehicles purchased, and what’s called ‘aggregated people data by zip code’ including credit scores.

Williams says his platform uses business intelligence tools to analyze the number of people and locations of vulnerable populations.

“We look at a population of 700 moms who have gestational diabetes and hypertension, and also have economic risk and food insecurity to look at where there are opportunities to intervene around that population. So we look geospatially as well as at populations.” 

Sarah de Ramirez, MD, vice president and chief medical officer for Clinical Innovation was pleased to learn OSF Ventures, the health care system’s investment arm, decided to invest financially in Socially Determined and that OSF HealthCare will use the platform to get a fuller picture of patients served.

“[Socially Determined takes] consumer, federal, state, and local data sources and puts them along-side our clinical screening and clinical patient care data to have a whole patient view of all the patient’s needs for the pursuit of wellness,” said Dr. de Ramirez. 

Socially Determined also works with health care organizations such as OSF to design meaningful interventions. That should help collaborative efforts with community partners, according to Dr. de Ramirez.

“[This will allow us] to be proactive, good partners in a community and able to strategically impact the things that matter most to our patients,” she said. 

Socially Determined is a relatively young company but it has created a repository of insights already revealed by data from Medicaid and Medicare claims. For example, the data has identified that use of the emergency department is linked to homelessness, and social isolation is a risk factor for stroke and heart attack.

Williams says his company is also compiling profiles of the most effective solutions to meet patients’ social needs.

 “We also can look at the difference between interventions with populations in urban areas versus suburban or for OSF, where a lot of your patients are in rural communities; how might we need to look differently at intervention strategies and the risks that those patients have?” 

For example, giving patients free Lyft rides to the doctor’s office might work in a city that has a ride-sharing service but that’s not an option for a rural community such as Monmouth, Illinois. Solutions have to be scalable, sustainable and cost-effective – all big challenges. However, there is also a financial incentive to tackle the social factors impacting health because government programs are focusing reimbursement on better outcomes. Williams believes using his company’s comprehensive data will be part of the prescription for preventing disease, and improving patient outcomes and community wellness.

OSF Ventures this week announced it has joined four other organizations in raising a combined $7.5 million dollars in Series ‘A’ funding to advance efforts of Socially Determined as the company strives to become the predominant data and analytics leader for health care systems looking to reduce the cost of care while improving patient outcomes.

Learn more about how OSF Innovation is transforming health care through community-based solutions.

Students hand-selected from across the curriculum at the University of Illinois in Chicago are advancing innovative solutions to solve the loneliness epidemic, particularly for older rural residents and they’ve come up with a solution for bringing the community health worker concept into the 21st century with digital tools to better focus on patients.

The group of graduate and undergraduate students from the OSF Lab at UIC’s Innovation Center, led by faculty, worked this summer specifically on solutions to address social isolation and to digitally enable community health workers who are not medically trained but who serve as trusted advisors and connect patients to resources that can improve health and well-being.

OSF Performance Improvement Specialist Chelsea Courson is part of the Complex Solutions Innovation (CSI) Team which is transforming approaches to community health. She says the urban-based students immersed themselves in rural communities near Innovation Outposts including Pontiac and Monmouth, Illinois where they learned the harsh realities some residents face.

“That some towns only have a Casey’s or a Dollar General and there may not be another person for miles and no transportation to meet with someone and they don’t have internet so they don’t have that type of connectivity either.”

Graphic Design undergrad Alexandra Spiroff of Chicago has been leading the team working on ways to digitally support community health care workers so they can spend more time helping patients tackle their day-to-day struggles to try to improve long term health. Spiroff was drawn to the project because she is a diabetic and knows the challenges of managing a chronic disease.

“Because I’m looking at this now through the lens of a patient that requires more than regular care and also as a designer. I wear those two hats at once. They don’t come off. They’re always there.”

A lasting impression came from an interview in the small town of Collum, 20 miles east of Pontiac where an older woman lived with her health-challenged daughter who couldn’t drive.

“Well, we thought ‘what are you going to do when she’s (the mother) not able to drive?’ and putting that into perspective, we had just driven that distance from the doctor’s office. That’s a very long way to go for someone who had great health challenges and needed to go frequently.” Spiroff added, “Experiences like that really put it into perspective what we were dealing with and the people we were serving. It was a really interesting opportunity that was enlightening as well.”

Mrinal Kumar, a software developer who launched his own tech start-up in India, is pursuing a master’s degree in the U.S., in part to better understand why the country spends twice as much on health care as other developing countries but has worse results, including lower life expectancy. Kumar personally interviewed elderly and rural residents who face significant challenges including a woman with brain cancer who he later learned died.

Kumar was inspired knowing the work he is doing can help even terminally ill patients lead better lives for as long as they can. He also read transcripts of other interviews conducted by fellow Innovation Lab students.

“For half an hour, I couldn’t talk to anybody and I was like, ‘it’s a big problem here and it needs to be addressed in a country which is number one in the world and you still have these problems,” recalled Kumar. “I’m really glad OSF is looking into those areas and basically building solutions.”

Kumar vows to continue the work to test and refine a solution that will allow community health workers spend their time more efficiently, and focused solely on patients. The OSF Lab in Chicago is also tapping the resources of interns from several colleges and universities in Illinois who are adding Virtual and Augmented Reality into the design of the Community Health Workers tool.

Ram Krishnamoorthy is getting his PhD in Computer Science and worked for an e-commerce site in his native country of India where he was heavily involved in using his coding skills. He was excited about doing something that required more brainpower and about building something that could have a big impact on improving people’s lives.

“It excited me that I would be working on something which does not exist now. So I need to think a lot, I need to read a lot of literature, understand how it can be done and use my experience to do it in a better way,” he shared.

Krishnamoorthy will be joining Kumar on efforts to test usability and refine the community health worker's digital platform based on feedback. The UIC faculty-led group will also examine how information collected by the community-based outreach can be integrated to connect with medical providers and a larger social service network. The Southern Illinois University School of Medicine in Springfield is among the partners who will be included in the follow up studies.

OSF Ventures, the investment arm of OSF HealthCare, is among investors in the latest Series B funding round to help Redwood, California-based Exo Imaging achieve FDA approval and commercially develop its handheld ultrasound platform. The device can be used for the entire body—from looking at 3D images of the heart and other organs to imaging a person’s vascular system or musculoskeletal features.One of the major investors in Exo Imaging is Intel which has microchip technology that could be used in development of the ultrasound platform capable of penetration depth and exceptional fidelity, 3D imaging that still fits in the palm of your hand. “Image quality is so important and Intel’s involvement was a significant indicator to us that this is going to be successful technology,” according to Stan Lynall, vice president of Venture Investments for OSF HealthCare.

Exo’s universal imager is being designed specifically with convenient patient care and cost savings in mind which is why it was appealing to OSF Ventures which has a strategic investment focus on those two areas. It offers sharper images but at a much more affordable price than current imaging technology. Lynall stresses this advancement could transform the way OSF clinicians offer care by improving their ability to diagnose and provide the most effective treatment for a variety of OSF patients.

In the course of vetting Exo Imaging, the Ventures team consulted with physicians at the University of Illinois College of Medicine in Peoria (UICOMP) who indicated ultrasound is being deployed in many cases as a less-costly and non-invasive but effective imaging tool. “There is an emerging trend of ultrasound being more widely accepted among a variety of disciplines and more medical students are being taught to read and interpret results as a consequence of this changing view,” said Lynall.

“Having OSF Healthcare on board as an investor is invaluable in providing our engineers with an opportunity for testing and feedback of our Exo Ultrasound Platform,” said Sandeep Akkaraju, CEO and president at Exo.

Exo plans to add a layer of artificial intelligence that’ll offer support for users to make quicker, more accurate life-saving decisions on behalf of patients.

Three and a half years following its first investment, OSF Ventures has directly invested in 15 companies and is preparing to close on investment in another. Additionally, investments in two venture capital funds – Ascension Ventures and LRV Health round out the initial OSF Ventures portfolio.

“Our venture program is strategically focused. We are only investing in technologies that improve patient care and outcomes, or reduce costs to our health care system,” said Stan Lynall, vice president of Venture Investments for OSF Ventures. The approach includes looking for opportunities to collaborate with start-ups for deployment of their technology at OSF HealthCare.

“OSF Ventures is an integral part of our Innovation strategy,” according to Michelle Conger, chief strategy officer for OSF HealthCare.

One example of a strategic investment includes Regroup, a Chicago-based start-up that provides telemedicine solutions to eradicate mental healthcare shortages across the country. A pilot program using the platform was launched at OSF HealthCare Saint Elizabeth Medical Center in Ottawa, Illinois in the fall of 2017. It allowed most patients in need of mental health care to be seen within two weeks and 93.5% of patients reported they felt seen and heard by their provider during the live video appointment. Regroup is now being rolled out to other communities through primary care providers.

“It has been a pleasure to work with OSF Ventures, which is a key member of our investment syndicate,” said David Cohn, founder and CEO of Regroup. He observed, “As an early adopter, OSF HealthCare provided us valuable insights as we developed our technology and service offerings.”

Lynall and his four-person team have been busy since OSF HealthCare launched its first $75 million dollar venture fund in 2016 as part of its overall innovation strategy. The small group has vetted more than 700 medical startup companies at early or mid-stage development. The team includes members with business, clinical and strong analytical skills as well as venture experience.

As the OSF Ventures brand has grown across the country, an ever-increasing list of startups seek OSF investment because of the access to clinical expertise and ability to test effectiveness and usability in a health care setting. As Lynall points out, entrepreneurs appreciate having early adopters of their technology.

The expansion of Jump ARCHES (Applied Research for Community Health through Engineering and Simulation), a part of OSF Innovation, includes a $25 million gift from the DiSomma Family Foundation to the endowment pool held within the OSF HealthCare Foundation, an additional $12.5 million commitment from the OSF HealthCare Foundation, and the equivalent of $12.5 million in endowment support from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

The expanded collaboration will include The Grainger College of Engineering and for the first time, it’ll bring in the Center for Social and Behavioral Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Dr. John Vozenilek, vice president and chief medical officer for Jump Simulation, says the larger collaboration will intentionally focus on the greatest challenges with solutions funneled through an academic center that has expertise in best practices and behavioral research.

“With this engineering know-how and device development know-how and social science know-how, we’re going to be able to create solutions that are not just good ideas, but are creating great impacts in our communities.” 

The Jump ARCHES expansion will allow for an increase in yearly grants from $2 million to $4 million to engage health providers and U of I researchers to improve community health and patient care through supportive medical devices, robots, artificial intelligence and process improvements.

Kesh Kesavades, the director of the Health Care Engineering Systems Center (HCESC) at the U of I, says construction is underway on a 2,500 square foot Life Home on the south side of the Champaign-Urbana campus. There, researchers will test devices and place potential users in the home to examine how remote monitors and in-home virtual assistants can help a growing population of Baby Boomers age gracefully and safely in their homes.

“Which can assist people living in the home for maybe providing them with medication at the right time or helping them reach out to people for getting their groceries for example,” said Kesavades who has already begun preliminary research in this area.

With expanded research money available through Jump ARCHES, researchers and clinicians will create and test cloud-based systems and sensors to measure health vitals such as body mass index, body temperature and blood pressure. Algorithms could check if there is an immediate need to notify a doctor or the user’s emergency contacts.

For the first time, Jump ARCHES will focus some research on human factors that influence whether people will actually adapt to technology options to help them age in place, including concerns about personal privacy.

“So eventually this becomes useable so people find it as a part of their life, not as something they find is interfering with their life – it should be naturally as a part of your life,” according to Kesavades.

One big initiative will tackle the opioid crisis including underlying conditions that if treated well, could prevent opioid addiction. Vozenilek says technology could also be used to predict people at risk for opioid dependence.

“Artificial intelligence can play a role and there are many other techniques that will help us that aren’t strictly technical,” according to Vozenilek. “There are many techniques we’re going to be bringing online that have to do with human-to-human outreach through community health workers for example.” 

For rural residents who don’t have easy access to facility-based care, researchers will use ethnographic research to understand the “why” behind daily behavior and structure solutions that’ll work for the mindset of certain health care consumers. Urban areas could also be impacted by data analytics that’ll examine by zip code, areas where people are at the highest risk for barriers to good health including food insecurity, transportation, even loneliness which is at epidemic levels among older Americans.

Kesavades and OSF Foundation President Tom Hammerton believe this endowment is the largest in the world dedicated to health care engineering. Hammerton says OSF HealthCare’s mission of serving with the greatest care and love means finding resources to transform and radically improve health care delivery using a collaborative approach and that’s not always easy.

“Philanthropy can break down that barrier. The stipulations of the gift, as crafted, have incentivized us to collaborate in an appropriate way,” said Hammerton.

The DiSomma Family Foundation has contributed a total of $85 million toward efforts to transform health care and Jump ARCHES grants have funded 34 ground-breaking projects over the last five years, including a new process for 3D bio-printing to develop the next generation of printed hearts for training and pre-operative planning as well as a virtual reality skill trainer for training medical students how to intubate patients. The VR trainer is now being used by medical institutions in the U.S. and abroad.

Jump ARCHES’ expanded efforts will also contribute to the new Discovery Partners Institute and Illinois Innovation Network, statewide initiatives to accelerate innovation, economic growth and job creation.

“It goes well beyond our geography. This is about transforming health care minimum in the United States, ultimately the world and we’re gonna be in that space,” said Hammerton. “We’re shooting for the moon.”

Through a new OSF-led Peoria Innovation Hub, Jump ARCHES researchers and clinicians will find additional support and expertise to drive advancements to solve complex challenges in health and wellness, agriculture, automation and food quality and safety.

The corporate investment arm of OSF HealthCare has decided to strategically invest in the Series B funding to speed expanded use of its flagship product, the Paradigm Cancer Diagnostic PCDx ™ test. The breakthrough technology assists physicians in targeting each patient's specific tumor pathways and genomic changes in aggressive or complicated cancers within three to five business days.

Paradigm also recently published results of a study showing the test’s unique ability to get comprehensive, actionable results from tumors so small, they previously could not be tested for a definitive cancer diagnosis and treatment protocol.

OSF Ventures joined six other venture groups in the Paradigm Diagnostics investment opportunity. Paradigm’s newly upgraded PCDx test includes next generation sequencing that evaluates gene mutations in a person’s DNA to identify the best evidence-based treatments to improve survival.

The test results provided to doctors are matched to FDA approved therapies and standards of care in the most recent National Comprehensive Cancer Network Guidelines as well as clinical trial options. Novel therapies are ranked in the report based on the level of evidence that they improve patient outcomes.

“Paradigm’s focus on rapidly helping the patient and oncologist find the best solutions, especially in our network, dovetails nicely with our mission to help accelerate innovative companies that enhance the quality of care,” said Stan Lynall, vice president of OSF Ventures.

Unique, Cutting Edge Technology

Lynall believes Paradigm Diagnostics offers cutting edge technology unlike competitors.

“I see as a real differentiator the company’s ability to provide results of cancer genomic profiling and therapeutic information in five business days or less to better support patient care. When you put that in the context of late-stage cancer, that’s important,” according to Lynall. Lynall and OSF HealthCare oncologists who consulted with the OSF Ventures team also believe the ability to test a tissue sample size as small as a grain of rice, using a single microscope slide or fine needle aspirate, makes Paradigm a leader in the industry.

David Mallery is co-founder, chairman and CEO of Paradigm Diagnostics. He helped lead efforts to support the biospecimen and clinical data collection for the National Cancer Institutes’ flagship project – The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), which comprehensively catalogued the molecular drivers of cancer to open a new era of discovery to better prevent, diagnose and treat all forms of the disease.

Mallery says having a health care system in the mix with other venture capital firms is significant.

“OSF Ventures’ backing represents support from one of the most highly respected health systems in the country,” said Mallery. He added, “We are excited to have the clinical expertise and financial support to help expand the use of our revolutionary diagnostic test that offers quick results with targeted treatment recommendations. This advancement offers hope to many more late-stage cancer patients who’ve had to experience a devastating diagnosis.”