• OSF researchers developed an AI tool that creates a 3D model of the aorta and generates hundreds of precise measurements in seconds.
• More accurate and consistent measurements could help doctors detect aneurysm growth earlier and determine the safest time for surgery.
• The technology could eventually support automated diagnosis and improve care for patients with conditions such as Marfan syndrome and Turner syndrome.

A team at OSF HealthCare is developing an artificial intelligence-powered tool designed to improve how physicians measure and monitor the aorta, a breakthrough that could help doctors detect dangerous aneurysms earlier and make more informed decisions about when surgery is needed.

The project, led by pediatric cardiologist Mathew Bramlet, MD, at OSF HealthCare Children's Hospital of Illinois, combines expertise from OSF HealthCare, Jump Simulation and Education Center, the University of Illinois College of Medicine Peoria and University of Illinois engineering researchers. The technology creates a highly detailed three-dimensional "digital twin" of a patient's anatomy from MRI or CT scans, allowing software to automatically analyze the aorta in seconds instead of requiring lengthy manual measurements.

The aortic arch project, funded through a Jump ARCHES grant, is aimed at improving longitudinal surveillance and the diagnosis and the tracking of aortic aneurysms, so they don’t tear or rupture. The aorta is the main and largest artery in the human body, carrying oxygen-rich blood from the left ventricle of the heart to the rest of the body. An aneurysm is a large bulge in that artery.

Accurate measurements are critical

Dr. Bramlet says measurements that document any expansion of the aneurysm need to be obtained with clear imaging with an expert eye that is generating reproducible measurements. Since high-risk surgery can hinge on one measurement, the accuracy of that measurement at one point in time, or over years as the growth of the aneurysm is monitored, becomes critically important. Among the complications doctors trying to prevent is an aortic dissection which recently killed Senator Lindsey Graham of North Carolina.

Currently, physicians often compare scans taken over many years to determine whether an aneurysm has grown enough to justify preventative surgery — a decision that carries significant risks if performed too early or too late. Manually measuring the aorta can take about 30 minutes and depends heavily on specialist expertise like that of Dr. Bramlet.

The new software automates that process, which Dr. Bramlet explains can generate up to 300 measurements in about 30 seconds while improving consistency.

“If we can capture this aorta and generate those same measurements with fancy new math and machine learning programs, we can distribute the expertise that I have accumulated over years and years and years, essentially into a program that would allow this type of analysis to be distributed at a larger scale.”

The automated approach also could allow researchers to analyze thousands of patient scans, helping develop more personalized treatment guidelines for conditions such as Marfan syndrome and Turner syndrome.

Aorta library will be created

The project is also creating a library of 3D digital models of healthy and diseased aortas that could eventually support automated diagnosis.

"The model library that we will have, where we can compare a diseased aorta to a normal aorta and look for the differences, it's a much easier automated process to get toward automated diagnosis, automated analysis and this is really the mindset of the entire lab,” says Dr. Bramlet.

Dr. Bramlet directs the Advanced Imaging and Modeling Lab at OSF Jump Simulation.

Beyond aortic disease, the underlying technology is designed to create digital models of multiple organs, opening the door to broader AI-assisted imaging analysis across medicine.

For Dr. Bramlet, it is exciting to see how this will be able to help provide better guidance for diagnosis and surgery determinations. The team is continuing to validate the technology through research while working toward clinical deployment – something Dr. Bramlet says is unique to OSF HealthCare.

“To have a hospital institution assign operational resources towards a clinical tool but I believe it is the commitment to serve people and to actually see the fruits of that labor being deployed within this institution really makes it a special place.”

In research conducted, this tool showed that automated 3D measurements closely match those done by clinicians, paving the way for a shift from traditional 2D imaging to more advanced 3D analysis.

Dr. Mathew Bramlet is also an associate professor of Clinical Pediatrics at the University of Illinois College of Medicine in Peoria.

Video clips with Dr. Mathew Bramlet

B-roll-Aortic aneurysm detection

OSF HealthCare is piloting a new clinical intelligence platform designed to help medical providers quickly identify meaningful trends in patient data without interrupting care or adding clicks to already busy workflows.

The platform, called CliniPane, was developed through OSF Innovation and interfaces with a patient’s electronic health record, surfacing key insights at the point of care. Leaders say the goal is to reduce information overload while supporting faster, more informed clinical decisions.

Roopa Foulger, vice president of Digital Innovation Development at OSF Innovation, says the Peoria-based health system’s innovation ecosystem provided end-to-end support to develop CliniPane. That ecosystem includes internal funding through Jump ARCHES and Community Health Advocacy grants and academic research partners at the University of Illinois in Chicago and Urbana-Champaign.

The project also required collaboration with clinicians to understand what information is most useful during patient visits. Foulger says that early groundwork allowed the team to focus on real clinical needs before scaling the technology.

A new way to see data

OSF Innovation Senior Fellow Jonathan Handler, MD, who launched the effort and served on the research and development team, says traditional decision-support tools often rely on alerts or buried menus that can disrupt care or go unused.

“At the end of the day, we just wanted a new way to surface information to help clinicians during the care that they provide without making them do work and without interrupting their workflow.”

Rather than generating alerts, the platform displays relevant trends, such as lab values moving in the wrong direction. That information is directly within the clinician’s view and tailored to the provider’s role and the patient being seen.

“You may not notice that this person has been trending downward and that that’s a sign of something wrong, and by showing it (with CliniPane), we can potentially help them identify the underlying problem earlier so it can get diagnosed earlier and treated earlier.”

Dr. Handler says surfacing useful data can also help providers decide about whether to adjust medication types or doses.

Visual trends at the point of care

Visualization of data via CliniPane is something Dr. Handler sees as an important feature for patients as well. Physicians in the early testing group reported that during patient visits, they anticipated turning their screen around to show patients the same data they were reviewing.

“That might be something really meaningful to help patients to be empowered to participate in their own care, to understand their health and to see the impact of the changes that they make in their own lives and how it can impact their health.”

There are current solutions that can surface insights for clinicians in a patient’s electronic health record but usually not in a way that doesn’t require clicking to new screens or that allows future uses to accommodate external data from things such as smart watches or ever-expanding AI software. Foulger says that’s what’s different about CliniPane. It’s a platform that can be enhanced.

Built to Scale and Adapt

“Any data can come in – whether it’s variable data, whether it’s data from your EMR (electronic medical record), whether it’s data from a remote patient monitoring system we have, and that’s how the structure is. So, we can integrate more data that might be able to generate insights which, at the end from a user experience standpoint, ensures that it’s going to be valuable for the clinician.”

Foulger points out that researchers and developers also spent time collaborating with Information Technology leaders at OSF to ensure the platform securely protects patient data. It was a huge lift, Foulger says, to ensure data goes only to the right medical provider and that only data needed for decision support was provided at every level.

Because of those and other challenges, developers had to pivot many times. In fact, Foulger says there were at least 50 test versions of CliniPane.

“This is almost a new blueprint that we created at OSF in how you need to build these solutions that can fit with the growing needs on the AI side and how it needs to integrate with security.”

Physician feedback

Justin Holschbach, MD, an OSF HealthCare primary care physician in Bloomington, Illinois, has participated in the pilot. He agrees that the visual trend lines available via CliniPane have been helpful, especially for diabetes management.

“So, if we’re talking about diabetic control and an A1C, you were able to just kind of – in the corner of your screen – see whether the line was holding steady, going down or going up without having to click into multiple labs and see that in a different screen and get off of your space in Epic.”

The platform is currently being tested by a small group of primary care providers, with plans to expand access as technical validation continues. Developers say ongoing feedback from physicians is shaping future enhancements and helping determine which data points provide the most value.

Holschbach sees a future with expanded uses of data, and he believes CliniPane will eventually become standard of care, at least at OSF HealthCare. Innovation leaders believe CliniPane could eventually support multiple specialties and even improve patient health outcomes by turning complex data into clear, actionable insights without adding burden to clinicians.

Video clips with Dr. Jonathan Handler

Video clips with Roopa Foulger and Dr. Justin Holschbach

B-roll-CliniPane

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Imagine being a heart surgeon preparing for a complex case. Traditionally, you rely on stacks of 2D images from CT scans to build a mental picture of your patient’s anatomy. But the heart isn’t static – it twists and pumps blood in a rhythm unique to each person. Now, thanks to a breakthrough at OSF Innovation, surgeons can “see” their patient’s heart beating in 3D before ever stepping into the operating room.

This innovation is called the 4D Heart. Unlike standard 3D models, which capture a single snapshot in time, the 4D Heart recreates every phase of a patient’s cardiac cycle, allowing doctors to watch their heart beat virtually. And it isn’t just a generic animation. Rather, it is the creation of a digital twin.

“This is taking a CT scan of a patient, a retrospectively gated CT scan, and converting a patient’s own heart – in each phase of that cardiac cycle – and making it beat in a virtual environment,” says Matthew Bramlet, MD, who directs the Advanced Image and Modeling (AIM) Lab at OSF Innovation. The lab is focused on improving the understanding of complex anatomy for surgeons and diagnosticians. Dr. Bramlet also specializes in congenital cardiac MRI for OSF HealthCare Children’s Hospital of Illinois and is an associate professor of Clinical Pediatrics at the University of Illinois College of Medicine in Peoria and the University of Illinois Grainger College of Engineering in Urbana-Champaign.

Dr. Bramlet’s efforts began in 2018 with manually segmenting parts of the heart so it could be viewed in virtual reality. It continued with an infusion of grant money two years ago. Using an Innovation for Health (IFH) grant with Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois, a team used machine learning to convert standard medical images into a sequence of 3D models that, when played sequentially, create a 3D beating heart – the 4D heart. The initial process took an entire summer.

That made the technology nearly impossible to use in real world clinical care. But in late 2024, researchers achieved a major breakthrough. With the help of engineers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, AIM lab engineers trained neural networks on hundreds of high-quality CT scans and automated the entire process. Now, what once took months can be done with a single click.

“Have you ever seen a flip book where you see a drawing move? That’s what we’re doing with these 3D models in a digital, virtual space.” Dr. Bramlet explains, “We’re just turning them off and on in rapid succession until we have that beating heart.”

For surgeons, the benefits are game-changing. They can see not only the anatomy but also how it changes with every beat. This is especially critical for conditions such as hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy, where the problem lies in how the heart contracts. Even more surprising, the AI began rendering valves — structures notoriously difficult to see on CT scans.

“Now we can see that valve which we really couldn’t see before. So, repeat valve procedures are very valuable for this. TAVR or any valve in the cath lab, we’re finding good use with these as well as the hypertrophic cardiomyopathy cases.”

Hospitals across the country are taking notice, sending scans to OSF and receiving beating heart files in return. Some don’t even have the technology to view them yet. Dr. Bramlet says OSF Innovation is pushing the boundaries so far forward, some other health systems will need to get on board with the technology to be able to visualize the data being sent to them.

For now, the ability to view a 4D Heart is already changing how surgeons think about the body’s most vital organ. In some cases, the new view is confirming a surgery plan. In other cases, including a most recent pediatric heart case from another hospital, it changed the approach. Dr. Bramlet says as surgeons interact with the models, they are amazed.

He shares, “I see those lightbulbs go on and there’s nothing like being able to observe and interact with these 3D models in a format, and especially a 4D model, in a way they’ve never been able to see them before, and it will become the standard of care, I have no doubt.”

The ultimate vision is bold: a patient enters the CT or MRI scanner, and their digital twin heart comes out the other side – ready for analysis, surgical planning and even analysis of AI-driven measurements like ejection fraction or blood flow strain to help with diagnosis and a treatment plan.

How long until that happens? Hard to say because as Dr. Bramlet points out, “seeing is believing,” and it might take time for health systems to invest in the technology to make the vision become reality. Government reimbursement for the care will also drive adoption. For now, the work is being covered through research grants, most notably; the Jump ARCHES endowment through the Health Care Engineering Systems Center at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign and OSF HealthCare.

Dr. Mathew Bramlet

B-roll-4D Beating Heart

Jump Simulation, a part of OSF Innovation and among the largest purpose-built simulation and health care engineering centers in the world, recently received a five-year reaccreditation by the Society for Simulation in Healthcare (SSH). SSH is an international organization that seeks to improve performance and reduce errors in patient care through the use of simulation. It is also the world’s largest health care simulation accrediting body.

The designation comes after an application process that included a visit to the 67,000 square foot Jump Trading Simulation & Education Center in Peoria, Illinois, which opened in 2013. The re-accreditation covers the areas of assessment, research, teaching/education and systems integration. 

In their final report, reviewers noted several strengths of the Jump Simulation program:

•  The whole organization is built around innovation and integration, co-located with performance improvement, data analytics and other resources.
•  Strong organizational buy-in
•  Exemplary OSF STEAM program

“The Jump Trading Simulation & Education Center's STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math) programs cater to a diverse range of students, including college pre-medical students, middle and high school students, at-risk youth, young learners nationwide through remote learning, community and youth organizations, and undergraduate and graduate students from various majors.” The report continues, “These programs aim to inspire interest in health care and STEM fields by offering hands-on, immersive learning experiences designed to equip participants with valuable skills and knowledge for future success in technologically demanding careers.”

The accreditation indicates the Jump Simulation program has served as a resource for quality improvement, patient safety, risk management and related groups, contributing to the enhancement of health care systems which have used its programs and facilities.

Clinicians, scientists, and engineers are encouraged to collaborate in the development of new ways to solve the most pressing problems in health care. This work is funded through competitive grants sponsored by four Jump-university partnerships. Besides the ARCHES program Jump collaborates with three other Illinois universities, including University of Illinois-Chicago (Community Health Advocacy); Illinois State University (Connected Communities Initiative); and Bradley University (Innovation for Health).

Other related facts:

•  22,730 learners were instructed in FY24 through 2,031 different events
• 348 simulations used 56 standardized participants who are highly trained individuals who portray characteristics of a patient, family member or clinical team member
• Jump Trading Simulation & Education Center has been selected to host Society for Simulation in Healthcare SimOps 2025 Conference in July of 2025

Jump 10-year anniversary B-roll

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa recently suffered his third confirmed concussion in 25 months – just another reminder that football and other contact sports pose the threat of a traumatic brain injury.  Research indicates it’s important to accurately and immediately diagnose a concussion because the consequences of misdiagnosis or faulty management can lead to major disability or death.

Illinois State University senior Cyerra Hibbert knows about concussions. She’s had multiple ones while playing soccer in high school and at ISU, the most recent just a month ago. Hibbert is one of the first athletes to test a new FlightPath concussion app. The lead app developer is *Adam Cross, MD, a pediatric hospitalist and clinical informaticist for OSF HealthCare and director of the OSF Children’s Innovation Lab at Jump Simulation & Education Center in Peoria, Illinois. He is working with co-lead Inki Kim, of the Health Care Engineering Systems Center at the Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

The concussion assessment app is a grant-funded project through Jump ARCHES, a research collaborative that partners teams of clinicians and engineers working together to improve patient outcomes and reduce health care costs. The FlightPath app is being tested at Illinois State, Illinois Wesleyan and Bradley Universities as part of a clinical trial and research coalition.  Hibbert used the FlightPath app after receiving instructions from her athletic trainer six days after she received a blow to the head during a game.

Hibbert was able to finish the test. It only takes about two minutes to collect more than a million data points as a person tries to catch a hummingbird within a 3D space on a screen.

“After a while it did bring a little confusion or if I wasn’t aware of where the bird flew on or off the screen, that did trick a little bit of my memory and concentration skills, so I do think it’s definitely approachable," Hibbert explains. “It’s definitely doable. I think just based on your outcome will determine where you are in your concussion level.”

Dr. Cross says the single biggest risk factor for prolonged time to recovery is delayed diagnosis, so FlightPath is his answer with its ability to diagnose a concussion within minutes. His research team has done some internal testing.

“Regarding how well it detects differences in impairments with people – how well they can determine if someone is functioning, acting appropriately, or if there's if there's something else going on. The challenge has been really doing that with individuals that have true concussion,” says Dr. Cross.

Athletes with a suspected concussion are challenged by FlightPath to walk in their environment while trying to keep a hummingbird in a bubble on the screen.

“The players themselves are trying out this app while concussed after having been consented earlier on in the year so that we can get data around how they perform with this app while concussed versus not concussed, and comparing that to the normal, typical present-day evaluation techniques that the trainers perform.”

Dr. Cross stresses, right now, the clinical trial does not involve trainers using the app to help make decisions. He says the research is not that far along and data collection needs to happen first. But, Karan Rai, MD, a sports medicine physician with OSF HealthCare who also serves as the team doctor for ISU Athletics, says eventually, the data from FlightPath could help beyond diagnosis.

“It in turn can help us with making prognoses, coming up with recovery timelines, implementing certain vestibular therapy. Other than diagnostic purposes, we can extrapolate that data to help us come up with a better treatment plan as well.”

Takes the pressure off
Both Hibbert and Dr. Rai are excited to be part of what they consider ground-breaking research that has the potential for helping athletes in the future. Hibbert, who plans to go into medical sales, says it’s helpful to have an objective tool for an evaluation. She thinks it takes the pressure off athletes.

“Because as athletes, we’re always eager to be on the field or play the game and to have that mindset to be better and get back on your feet as quickly as you can. I think this app will allow you to really settle and to really take your time with your symptoms.”

The clinical trial is looking at whether FlightPath can do as good or better as traditional methods in diagnosing a concussion.  So far, Dr. Rai says nearly 15 athletes who have suffered a concussion have completed a FlightPath assessment and it’s been performing well.

“Results are early so far but in our sample size we found some associations at least where FlightPath has shown some abnormalities similar to what other examinations have found as well, whether that’s the SCAT test or the ImPACT test.”

There are other concussion applications commercially available, but Dr. Cross suggests none are as robust as FlightPath.

“There aren't any, as far as I've seen, that use this mixed reality approach to gather the kinds of data that we're gathering. This is very rich data in a very short time in our app. One of the things that makes it so unique and sets it apart is that we get so much data about so many different manifestations of concussion in such a short time.”

Testing is expected to take at least two years. After testing, the app will be submitted to the FDA for clinical approval.

Here is a video demonstrating how the app works.

*Dr. Adam Cross also holds these positions:
Assistant Professor, University of Illinois College of Medicine Peoria, Division of Pediatric Hospital Medicine
Adjunct Professor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Health Care Engineering Systems Center (HCESC)
Clinical Research Informatician, OSF HealthCare | Jump Trading Simulation & Education Center (JTSEC) 

Dr. Adam Cross, ISU soccer player Cyerra Hibbert and Dr. Karan Rai

B-roll of ISU soccer player Cyerra Hibbert on soccer field

B-roll of FlightPath app demonstration

Rare diseases might seem individually uncommon but collectively 1 in 10 people across the globe have a rare disease according to the World Health Organization. Undiagnosed rare diseases pose a significant challenge in health care, often leading to delayed treatment and poorer patient outcomes.

When specialists or primary care providers are confounded by a patient’s symptoms, it can send them back to their medical books. But, Adam Cross, MD, a pediatric hospitalist and clinical informaticist who leads the Children’s Innovation Lab at the Jump Trading Simulation & Education Center, is collaborating on research to better help primary care providers make a rare disease diagnosis quickly. The goal is to create an AI-backed, point-of-care support tool that can prompt testing for confirmation for the most relevant diagnoses.

Dr. Cross says typically genetic testing is the only way to confirm a rare disease. That testing is expensive and not readily available in primary care settings, particularly in rural communities. Patients have long waits and often must travel in hopes of getting a diagnosis.

A Jump ARCHES grant is funding a collaborative effort with the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), with co-lead researcher Jimeng Sun, PhD, to use generative AI and medical knowledge graphs to improve diagnosis of rare diseases.

“We are trying to create a model that will take the notes that are already being written by primary care physicians and look for unique sets of signs and symptoms that might suggest a patient has an undiagnosed rare disease.” Dr. Cross adds, “That approach can empower the physician with information regarding those diseases and prompt further testing if they choose to do so.”

Dr. Cross believes rare diseases, despite their complexity, leave identifiable patterns within electronic medical records. The project introduces Automated Rare Disease Mining (AutoRD) to help unearth patterns when analyzed using machine learning models and mapped using knowledge graphs. He believes the Auto RD method can potentially enable the early detection of these diseases. These patterns could be drawn from clinical signs and symptoms and medical history, in addition to demographic features such as race/ethnicity, age and geographic location.

Researchers are making progress

In one year, researchers have been able to develop robust machine learning models to extract signs and symptoms of rare diseases from notes within electronic medical records that have been stripped of personal, identifying information. They’ve also been constructing comprehensive knowledge graphs to visually map the relationships between various medical conditions and symptoms of rare diseases from existing resources. 

“We did this so that we could give people a better visual example of just how complex these diseases are and how they're all connected,” Dr. Cross observes while viewing an early version of a knowledge graph created by researchers that looks like a celestial constellation. “It's kind of beautiful when you see the simplicity and the complexity of all the different symptoms, but the simplicity of the structure. It gives you a sense of just how incredible these new technologies really are in terms of helping us find patterns in the chaos.”

The effort involves sophisticated machine learning approaches that have changed with lightning speed, even since Dr. Cross and his UIUC colleagues began their work.

“Even in that year, there have been more advanced and more powerful methods that have come out that we've since adopted, and we continue to improve our own methods based on what's being developed globally.”

The research is leveraging the abilities of a supercomputer at UIUC which has a federal health privacy compliant section for secure data storage and processing of massive amounts of health care data. The next focus is to work on the predictive ability of the models. Dr. Cross is convinced that dynamically linking patient-specific data with the broader context of medical knowledge on rare diseases can uncover patterns and correlations that might otherwise remain hidden.

As the approach is refined and improved, he also doesn’t rule out the possibility of discovering new rare diseases.

“As we go along, it is certainly possible with the technology that we've created, maybe we'll start to see patterns of signs and symptoms that don't have a known diagnosis. Or maybe there are subtypes of diseases that are out there that really seem to have their own unique progression, and we could also maybe discover those in subsequent phases of the project.”

Dr. Cross, who also serves as an assistant professor at the University of Illinois College of Medicine in Peoria (UICOMP) and is an adjunct professor at UIUC, says he and his fellow researchers have already published one scientific paper, and another has been submitted, showing the results of their research so far.

Video clips with Dr. Adam Cross

B-roll of knowledge graphs for rare disease diagnosis

Sixteen research projects are sharing more than $1.6 million in funding through the Jump ARCHES research and development program. Projects funded focused on novel automation in health data and patient experience, precision medicine, digital tools to enhance patient engagement in health, wellness and treatment, plus improved treatment and diagnosis of neurologic disorders. The latest request for proposals also encouraged supporting underserved populations.

The Jump ARCHES program is a collaboration between OSF HealthCare, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), and the University of Illinois College of Medicine Peoria (UICOMP). The funding supports research involving clinicians, engineers and social scientists to rapidly develop technologies, devices, and treatment approaches that improve outcomes and reduce costs.

Spring 2023 Project Awards

STREAM-ED: Simulation to Refine, Enhance and Adapt Management of Emergency
William Bond, MD, OSF HealthCare
Hyojung Kang, PhD, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

This study aims to develop practical models combining machine learning, discrete event simulation, and optimization techniques to improve emergency department (ED) resource utilization and address ED overcrowding, which is exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and staffing shortages.

Prototype: Intelligent Regulatory Change Management System
Scott Lowry, MHA, CHC, CCEP, OSF HealthCare
ChengXiang Zhai, PhD, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

This study proposes an Intelligent Regulatory Change Management (IRCM) System that uses natural language processing and artificial intelligence to track and evaluate public policy actions governing OSF HealthCare. This will enable compliance professionals to identify critical changes and determine appropriate courses of action, reducing manual review and improving quality, safety, privacy risk management and efficiency.

Machine Learning of Standardized DICOM Metadata from Imaging Datasets
Matthew Bramlet, MD, OSF HealthCare
Brad Sutton, PhD, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

This project aims to develop a machine learning-based algorithm that can categorize image parameters directly from signal intensity variations of 2D medical images to enable efficient pipelines for medical image segmentation. The proposed algorithm is expected to estimate patient and image-acquisition information by utilizing machine learning methods in situations where the DICOM header fields are incomplete or unreliable, ultimately allowing for automated characterization of unknown 3D DICOM imaging datasets.

Machine-Guided Staging of Neuroblastic Tumors of Patient Specific 3D Models
Daniel Robertson, MD, OSF HealthCare
Brad Sutton, PhD, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

The OSF HealthCare Children’s Hospital of Illinois is using segmentation services to create 3D models of neuroblastic tumors for pre-surgical planning. The hospital aims to transition from 2D imaging to 3D modeling to increase the reproducibility of staging analysis, establish a new standard for segmented models of neuroblastic tumors and develop machine-guided tools that can improve upon and automate current recommended image-defined risk factors staging.

Toward Machine-Learned Aortic Arch Measured Diameters
Matthew Bramlet, MD, OSF HealthCare
Brad Sutton, PhD, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

The original project aims to automate the segmentation and clinical measurement of aortic arch diameters from MRI imaging. The researchers leading this project have successfully completed several steps, including de-identification and curation of datasets, manual segmentation and the development of a novel method for automatically analyzing each aortic arch with promising results, indicating correlation between the automated and clinically derived measurements.

A Field Experiment to Evaluate the Efficacy of Convenient Health Kiosks
Ann Willemsen-Dunlap, CRNA, PhD, OSF HealthCare
Ujjal Mukherjee, PhD, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

This proposal outlines a field experiment to evaluate the efficacy of health kiosks supported by community health workers (CHWs) in delivering first line preventive health screenings to rural and underserved communities. The project is intended to lead to large-scale development and deployment of health kiosks with the goal of positively impacting social determinants of health and long-term health status of those served.

Contextualizing Nursing Needs for Development of Retention-Support App
Sheryl Emmerling, PhD, Rn, NEA-BC, OSF HealthCare
Ann-Perry Witmer, PhD, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

The goal of this project is to address the high turnover rate of new nurses by providing a digital app that offers personalized nursing support. The Contextual Engineering (CE) paradigm will be used to assess the needs and values of first-year nurses, including those who have left their positions, to inform the development of the app in the first phase of the project, with the goal of stabilizing the nursing staff, improving the quality of service and reducing operating costs.

Community Health Café: Engaging Digital Innovation and Community-Based Resources to Enhance Health Equities in Underserved Communities
Scott Barrows, MA, OSF HealthCare
Joe Bradley, PhD, MA, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

The purpose of the community health café is to provide digital access to health and health care resources, including links for assistance with the social determinants of health, health education and connections to public health in underserved communities. The eventual goal is a Medicaid telemedicine option with OSF OnCall. This proposal aims to address critical needs of underserved residents in vulnerable communities and is crucial for their health.

AI-Powered Brain Tumor Segmentation
Matthew Bramlet, MD, OSF HealthCare
Zhi-Pei Liang, PhD, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

This project aims to enhance the detection and monitoring of brain diseases. Phase 1 of the project focuses on accurate delineation and segmentation of brain tumors using a combination of structural and molecular multimodal brain imaging data and deep learning. The proposed work includes developing brain atlases for AI-powered brain image analysis, computational tools for automated tumor detection and segmentation and evaluating potential clinical applications.

Optimizing Pharmacologic Management of Behaviors in Patients with Autism
Adam Cross, MD, FAAP, OSF HealthCare
Ravishankar Iyer, PhD, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

This proposal aims to provide physicians with a machine learning model that assists in selecting appropriate medication and dosage strategies for patients with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). By incorporating patient history, genetic information and clinician notes, the model will dynamically adapt the treatment protocol as the patient progresses, ensuring optimal choices for improved behavioral symptoms with a high degree of confidence.

Predicting Medication Non-Adherence in Type 2 Diabetes
Mary Stapel, MD, OSF HealthCare
Hyojung Kang, PhD, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Medication adherence is crucial for managing diabetes, but disparities exist, particularly among racial/ethnic minorities and those with lower socioeconomic status. This proposal aims to use data-driven models to identify high-risk individuals and areas for non-adherence to diabetes medication, develop and validate prediction models and implement and evaluate them in clinical practice.

Knowledge Graph Construction with Large Language Models to Predict DKA Occurrence and Severity
Adam Cross, MD, FAAP, OSF HealthCare
Jimeng Sun, PhD, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) hospitalizes over 50,000 American children annually, with underprivileged and underserved children at higher risk. This proposal aims to develop a predictive model using patient-specific knowledge graphs generated from clinical data extracted through name entity recognition and language modeling. Clinicians can use the model to identify high-risk diabetic patients and prevent DKA.

As we begin a new year at OSF HealthCare, we're reflecting on some major advancements in the way we care for patients – with significant advancements in 2022 that have allowed us to meet patients where they are physically and where they are in their health care journey. Together, OSF Innovation and OSF OnCall, our digital health division, launched initiatives that leveraged digital technologies and data for more convenient access and improved patient outcomes.. 

Those efforts are highlighted here in our  Top 10 Innovation and Digital Health stories for 2022.

Jump ARCHES research and development program awarded nearly $1.8 million in funding across 16 projects to address a variety of medical challenges. Many of the grant awards address issues dominating the news, including health care inequity, misinformation on social media, and the need for earlier detection of anxiety and viruses for improved treatment.

“These projects leverage the strengths of OSF HealthCare and our academic partners who are committed to practical solutions that can be deployed throughout health care to make a difference in early diagnosis, personalized treatment and disease prevention,” according to John Vozenilek, MD, vice president/chief medical officer, OSF Innovation & Digital Health. 

Elizabeth Hsiao-Wecksler, PhD, interim director of the UIUC Health Care Engineering Systems Center and professor of mechanical science and engineering, says some of the grants build on
past successful Jump ARCHES research that is driving innovative solutions.

“Those projects will advance efforts to show proof of concept and scalability as a go-to-market solution to benefit partners and many others in the health care industry,” says Hsiao-Weckler. “Other projects lay the foundation for novel initiatives that will take time to develop but that show promise for transforming approaches to prevention, diagnosis, treatment and health outcomes.”

The Jump ARCHES program is a collaboration between OSF HealthCare, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and the University of Illinois College of Medicine Peoria. The funding supports research across multiple disciplines including clinicians, engineers and social scientists focused on rapidly developing solutions to advance medical training and health care delivery.

SEE THE FULL LIST OF PROJECTS AWARDED GRANTS through the Jump ARCHES program.

Highlight Project: Creating an application for health care providers to counter misinformation on social media

Health experts worry Twitter owner Elon Musk’s decision to drop a ban on misinformation will exacerbate the growing problem of health misinformation circulating on social media. Health providers can’t keep up with the latest misinformation so they’re often left with few options to respond to patients’ assertions or questions. This project will develop and deploy a stream of cost-effective, real-time fact-checking services through an application that provides physicians and other health care professionals with early-warning information tied to a variety of diseases, treatments and remedies. READ THE STORY. 

University of Illinois sociology professor Kevin Leicht, PhD, recalls a time during the COVID-19 pandemic when during a conversation, someone insisted only six people had died from the highly-infectious and rapidly-circulating virus. It was clear disinformation was driving people to doubt the potential deadly nature of the virus.

But even before the pandemic, researchers at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) had begun work on researching the spread of medical misinformation. Leicht, who is also science team lead at the Chicago-based Discovery Partners Institute (DPI), is co-leading work funded by DPI and a more than $100,000 Jump ARCHES newly-awarded grant to develop a software application for health care professionals to receive real-time alerts about misinformation on social media. The project builds on misinformation research and past National Science Foundation and Jump ARCHES-funded efforts to identify the spread of misinformation about COVID-19 and other debunked medical research.

Leicht says he and fellow researchers investigated what was available to identify and prevent the spread of bad information on social media. Colleagues were a bit surprised there wasn’t a more robust and commercially-available software platform. But, Leicht says he often reminds his team that research and development is usually more difficult than anyone anticipates.

“If this were easy, somebody would have done it already,” he says, laughing. “We were both surprised nobody tried to have done it. And then when we got into it. ‘Wow, it's really difficult.’”

Leicht points out that social media platforms don’t want to be in the content-identification and moderation business because it is so complex, and as in the case of Twitter, is also seen as quelling free speech.

Right now, health care providers are limited in their ability to answer patients’ questions or to counter misinformation by searching fact-checking websites such as snopes.com or factcheck.org. Leicht and his colleagues are using natural language processing, machine learning, data mining, specific information filters and retrieval methods that expand and automate the effort to identify inaccurate health information trending on social media.

“What our project actually does is take not only the pre-existing fact-checked data and query it all in one place, it brings it forward in a user-friendly fashion. But then it's also trying to come up with a way of adding to this data in a way that's faster than having a human fact checker just scan the web all the time, looking for what the new piece of misinformation is.” 

Leicht says computer science and data expertise will be leveraged with what social scientists know about how cultural and political fragmentation impact the spread of misinformation and how effective communication can become an antidote.

Co-lead investigator Mary Stapel, MD, is Community Care lead physician for OSF HealthCare Saint Francis Medical Center and assistant program director for the combined Internal Medicine-Pediatrics Residency at the University of Illinois College of Medicine Peoria (UICOMP). Dr. Stapel says an innovative software application could make a significant difference, especially if alerts are easily available within software programs clinicians use every day.

Many community health nurses and digitally-enabled health care workers would also find the real-time misinformation alerts helpful. Those individuals work to build trust, particularly with those who have suffered past trauma or unequal treatment in their experience with the health care system. Dr. Stapel says community-based organizations also engage in “trust transfers,” when they invite health care professionals to educate their clients and work collaboratively to identify the source of misinformation and publicly counter it.

Stopping viral spread

The alerts could allow organizations to stop bad information from going viral.

“If we can even get ahead of that – and know what information is circulating and start feeding out more accurate information ahead of time through our community partners; that really could be a game changer when we're thinking about things like pandemics and infectious disease," says Dr. Stapel.

During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Stapel says she learned that the problem of medical misinformation impacts everyone, regardless of their education level or other socio-economic factors.

“There was an interesting turn during the pandemic, where after education – large-scale campaigns and initiatives were put out around vaccination; there actually was sort of a flip to where communities of color, lower socio-economic communities were more vaccinated than upper class, more predominantly white communities so I really think it is across the spectrum.” 

Leicht says misinformation challenges many computer science and information mining techniques due to the way it changes quickly and spreads between languages and countries. It also requires human interpretation of the content identified and categorized through artificial intelligence. 

“Having humans curate that a little bit … you have content experts that look at that and say, ‘Is this dangerous or is it not? Is this trending, is it not?’ And then figuring out a way to deliver that to the final customer in a way that requires as little  interface by them as we can possibly get away with.” 

Leicht thinks it’ll take two years to get the software application completed. Researchers believe there is demand for what they’re creating. Already they have an industrial, non-profit software development partner, Meedan Labs, which creates open-source tools for creating and sharing context on digital media through verification, annotation, archival and translation services. The Discovery Partners Institute will also be involved in making the product commercially available not only for health care providers, but eventually for patients via electronic medical portals such as OSF MyChart.

Video clips with Kevin Leicht, sociology professor UIUC

Video clips with Dr. Mary Stapel, Community Care lead physician for OSF HealthCare Saint Francis Medical Center and assistant program director for the combined Internal Medicine-Pediatrics Residency UICOMP