As advances in medicine continue to improve patient outcomes, more patients arrive at health care facilities with implanted devices, such as pacemakers, neurostimulators, infusion pumps and other technologies. At the same time, many instruments commonly used in surgical and procedural settings can generate electromagnetic fields that may interfere with these implants, creating potential safety risks.

DeviceWise addresses this challenge by providing clinicians with immediate access to device-specific guidance. Through a simple web-based application, users can select the type and model of an implanted device and quickly receive recommendations for patient management, along with facility-specific instructions, manufacturer contact information and other relevant resources.

The Ministrywide rollout reflects the commitment OSF HealthCare has to leveraging innovation to improve patient safety and support frontline caregivers with practical tools that fit seamlessly into clinical workflows.

"DeviceWise grew from a simple but important question: How can we make critical information easier for caregivers to access when they need it most?" said Becky Buchen, senior vice president, OSF Innovation and Transformation. "The answer came from the ingenuity of OSF Mission Partners who understood the challenge firsthand. Through the support of OSF Innovation Studio, those ideas were transformed into a scalable solution that can help clinicians make informed decisions and enhance safety for patients with implanted devices."

The technology behind DeviceWise originated from innovation developed by surgery nurses Jill Teubel, MSN, BSN, RN, and Mary Marvin, APRN, MSN, RN, and was supported through OSF Innovation Studio's ecosystem for advancing new ideas and startup ventures. OpenSurg Inc., the parent company, has licensed the intellectual property owned by OSF HealthCare to commercialize the technology.

OpenSurg CEO Jim Weldy says of reaching the milestone, "Getting this contract signed is a great capstone to this entire effort. It's a meaningful juncture to reflect on all it has taken to get to this point: initial concept from frontline OSF nurses, prototype build through OSF Innovation, proof of value in reducing cancellations and costs, rolling it out across all OSF hospitals, company launch, intellectual property licensing, commercial productization of the concept, and now getting through the rigorous contracting process."

The announcement also follows a significant intellectual property milestone. The United States Patent and Trademark Office recently granted a patent for CaseChat™, an innovation related to surgical and procedural workflows. OSF HealthCare owns the patent for the original product, DeviceTable, and underlying intellectual property. OpenSurg holds an exclusive license to further develop and commercialize the technology.

CaseChat represents a future product opportunity and remains under development.

"Every improvement that helps our teams identify risks and access information more efficiently has the potential to make a meaningful difference for patients," says Sherri Greenwood, DNP, MHA, RN, NEA-BC, vice president of Surgical & Procedural Services for OSF HealthCare. "Deploying DeviceWise across OSF HealthCare strengthens our ability to support caregivers with timely, reliable information and reinforces our commitment to delivering safe, high-quality care throughout every stage of the patient experience. Greenwood adds, “Having this information at our fingertips prevents potential delays in our patients’ care.”

Weldy says, “OpenSurg is working on ways to bring more of those efficiencies to other hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers around the country, so patients everywhere can benefit!"

OpenSurg is also a participant in the current gBETA Distillery Labs accelerator cohort, a program supported by OSF HealthCare that helps emerging companies accelerate growth and bring innovative solutions to market.

The deployment of DeviceWise across OSF HealthCare hospitals will begin this summer with implementation occurring throughout the Ministry.

A new hands-on tool is helping young patients feel more prepared – and less afraid – before undergoing an MRI.

MRIs can be especially intimidating for children, who must lie still in a tight space surrounded by loud, unfamiliar sounds. Until now, child life specialists, like Allison West, at OSF HealthCare Children’s Hospital of Illinois in Peoria relied on educational materials to prepare patients. But West says many young children are hands-on learners.

“They need to be able to see, touch and manipulate. We had prep books and pictures and sounds that we would play for them, but we were missing something concrete,” says Child Life Specialist Allison West. “So, this was a huge need that Savannah was able to deliver for us.”

West is referencing former Tremont, Illinois, high school student Savannah Jost of Mapleton, whose interest in health care grew after her own serious cancer diagnosis.

Inspired by a cancer journey

In January of 2022, Jost was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma. She went through eight rounds of chemo and 17 radiation treatments before doctors at OSF Children’s Hospital of Illinois declared her cancer free in December of 2022.

Jost then joined OSF HealthCare through a high school co-op program, where she helped design a simulated MRI with engineers from Jump Trading Simulation & Education Center. The idea was to help children role-play the experience using stuffed animals or dolls.

Sister M. Pieta Keller, F.S.G.M., an engineer with OSF Innovation Studio, part of the OSF Innovation ecosystem, explains there is a toy MRI available on the market, but it was prohibitively expensive. Instead, she and other engineers speculated that they could create something to simulate the medical imaging experience for kids, using their favorite toy as child life suggested.

“That could kind of show the child what happens and could we do it with a stuffed animal or doll or something that’s theirs – their object that’s special to them that could go through this, and they could see that everything was just fine and what would happen in that experience.”

Creating the MRI model for kids meant balancing realism with durability for young users Sister M. Pieta explains while discussing the creative process.

Design challenges

“As Savannah came to me with plans and ideas of what she wanted to do, we kind of went back through it. We let her do a first prototype of what she was thinking but then I was like we actually need to rebuild it and rebuild the inside so that it can withstand a small child climbing on top of it because,” Sister Pieta points out, “It is big enough to be a little gymnasium as well, so we wanted it to have that strength and robustness.”

West says children often have to have multiple imaging tests throughout their treatment and most of them have to be sedated. But the goal is to avoid having to put young children under anesthesia repeatedly.

“We think with additional education and preparation, that they (kids) would be able to do it successfully without that sedation,” West shares. “So, then we start prepping them. That’s where this beautiful machine comes in because we can use this to make them comfortable, to reduce that fear and really to prepare them for what to expect and kind of set them up for more success.”

The design and build process introduced Jost to the process of innovation. The biggest lesson she learned from engineers at Jump – you will most likely fail before you’re successful.

Lifelong lessons from engineers at Jump Simulation

“When I came in, they just answered all of my questions. They would help me, but they also let me try and fail and they would be like, ‘How would you do this?’ and I would go and do it and most likely fail and then they let me ask them and pick their brains about it. I just loved working with them.”

One of the biggest goals was to make the mini-MRI simulator as realistic as possible. From her own experience, Jost wanted to make sure there was no sugarcoating the experience. Combined with audio from a real MRI that can be played from a tablet, Jost thinks the team hit the mark.

The project represents more than just a design success. Jost stresses that it’s a way for her to pay it forward.

“It’s knowing that I get to give back to the community that helped me, that saved my life when I was 14 years old … just knowing that little kids here are using it and that I have the same cancer journey as some of them – It makes my 14-year-old self proud.” Jost is now a student at Bradley University, an OSF academic partner under its Innovation Academic Incubator. She eventually hopes to become a radiation oncologist.

Meanwhile, West says the simulated MRI has been used with a few patients and will be used with more in the future to help reduce fear, improve understanding and prepare children for real imaging exams – one stuffed animal at a time.

Savannah Jost

Sister Pieta 

Allison West

B-roll-Toy MRI

Amaneigh (pronounced uh-MAHN-ee) Stevenson of Bloomington, Illinois, is a sassy 7-year-old girl who until January had never undergone surgery or even had a broken bone. But that month she was diagnosed with Stage 3 Hodgkin lymphoma following a biopsy the previous month. Amaneigh is currently undergoing IV chemotherapy treatment at OSF HealthCare Children's Hospital of Illinois in Peoria. Her treatment is expected to last six months.

Having cancer has been a difficult challenge for the girl who embraces challenges, her mom, Karisma Morris-Bush, says. This was not a challenge her daughter was prepared for as Amaneigh has always been full of energy.

“Ever since she was a little girl, she’s been very active. She’s in gymnastics, she’s done cheerleading, she likes to play outside, run around, cartwheels, flips, you name it. Since she was a baby, she’s been climbing on everything.”

Before January, Amaneigh had never missed a gymnastics practice. But the middle child with three brothers was sidelined from that activity for her safety after having a central venous port implanted to deliver chemotherapy and other medications directly to the bloodstream. The port makes treatment safer and more comfortable for frequent infusions or blood draws.

Concerned about protecting the port, Morris-Bush worried about her daughter riding a bike or playing with friends. That’s when Nick Kemp, an exercise physiologist with OSF Children's Hospital of Illinois, told her about PortGuard, a device he was working on designing with OSF Innovation Studio engineers that prevents damage to a port during contact activities.

“She has lots of friends who are also very active, and there were incidents in which she was bumped into. I was concerned about maybe it [the port] might be dislodged or put her at some type of risk, and he [Nick Kemp] told me that he was creating this PortGuard. He gave me the entire plan. This is when it was in the beginning stages, and I told him I thought it sounds wonderful.”

Kemp says he outlined his ideas to the Innovation engineers and told them his solution needed to be durable and comfortable.

“It needed to be lightweight, kind of mobile, something that wouldn’t get in the way during sports – that they could wear it and not have any type of disadvantage during their sport, so I really wanted it to be as comfortable as possible.”

Bracing for impact

OSF Innovation Studio engineer Reid Jockisch says they needed to create a divot in the design so that upon impact, the molded plastic would not contact the port that it was designed to protect. Jockisch explains engineers used a meter device to measure the force against the PortGuard as they hurled various size balls at high impact.

“We used balls from different sports – basketballs, baseballs. We threw them at the port to see and try to measure what kind of impact the port would have. That’s where the force gauge was. So, we measured what those numbers would be as compared to what it would be with no device, and we were able to get them to almost zero.”

That means the force on the port would be nearly zero with a high impact hit. Jockisch says they also tested the port’s durability and after pummeling it full force with a baseball bat, two-by-four and even a hammer, it was nearly indestructible.

The challenge, says Jockisch, was finding a balance between weight and comfort.

“We had to find lighter materials to encase the device such that when it gets attached with the supports, it’s able to stay in place. So, what’s been most helpful; there is patient feedback and their experiences wearing the device and what kind of activities were causing the device to shift around so we could design the straps in a way that supports the weight of the device.”

Morris-Bush was part of the prototype testing and says the design works, as she turns to Amaneigh and explains it.

“There is a spot right here. It’s kind of a circular spot, Amaneigh chimes in and says, “It goes over my port,” while mom adds, “Right, and that actually hugs the port and, in that spot, – and I can even put my hand over it – there’s space.” Amaneigh adds, “It’s like my port has gone into a mold.”

Morris-Bush says the hand washable PortGuard can even be used while her daughter is swimming. With lightweight straps connecting the guard in two places, it can be adjusted depending on the child’s size and what they’re wearing. Most of the time, Amaneigh puts it on by herself. She’s a big fan of the Port Guard because it put her back in action. Amaneigh even showed off a few of her gymnastics moves while wearing it.

“It makes me feel protected. It makes me feel safe. I don’t wear it often, but I wear it when I’m doing stuff I’m not supposed to do right now in this situation.” She adds, “It helps me, and I get to play with all the other kids. I love it a lot.”

For Kemp, that’s what his invention is all about. He’s excited that his idea to help pediatric cancer patients is doing just that.

“That’s the best part. It’s seeing the reactions and seeing them able to do activities and sports that they may not have felt as comfortable doing. So that’s the ultimate goal – to get them comfortable and bring them back to the normalcy that they were used to before treatment.”

The protective device is currently in use by 10 pediatric cancer patients. Kemp and OSF will be looking to collaborate with other children’s hospitals across the country to collect patient feedback. Once OSF Innovation Studio has collected additional feedback and has a final product, the goal is to make PortGuard available for as many kids as possible and ultimately scale production for wider use.

Karisma Morris-Bush

Nick Kemp, Reid Jockisch and Amaneigh Stevenson

B-roll-PortGuard and Amaneigh Stevenson playing

Travis Jones, DPT, OCS, MBA, and an OSF Mission Partner (employee) learned about the power of data while getting his master’s degree in business administration. While concentrating on business analytics Jones thought about how data could apply to his job as a physical therapist and soon he was working with the OSF Innovation Studio team to build an AI-backed platform that can be used to help health care employers identify job risks and speed review of injury assessments in workers’ compensation cases.

That’s important because, according to Jones, nurses and CNAs are injured on the job more than any other profession in the U.S. — even more than construction workers. RNs suffer over 20,000 work-related injuries each year serious enough to miss work. One back injury can cost a hospital $30,000+ in direct costs alone, not including lost productivity, overtime, or turnover.

Jones’ platform and company Health Shift AI uses advanced algorithms and historical data analysis, built on licensed intellectual property from OSF HealthCare, to identify risks on day one of workplace incidents in a health care setting to prevent chronic injuries. It also ensures the person injured gets a quick assessment.

“So really, one of our biggest goals is improving the access, so that way people can have access to rehab programs almost immediately when the injury occurs, which then can help reduce costs down the line from those issues not becoming chronic issues, and by getting really to the root of the problem quickly.”

By using his platform, Jones estimates health care systems could see a 30% reduction in the current annual claim costs, which can easily be hundreds of thousands of dollars or more for large hospitals.  He also believes it could likely lower workers’ compensation premiums.

Jones explains he developed his algorithm by looking at crucial data points.

“We look at things like job type, we look at age, we look at what the individual was doing when they were injured, what body region was injured, what type of injury it was. And then also we can look at the descriptions of the incident that happened. And we can generate insights from those as well.”

The platform analyzes historical workers' comp data to prioritize physical therapy for at-risk employees, aiming to improve recovery time and reduce employer costs. But it also offers a personalized approach for injured workers.

“That computer vision model can then identify potential faulty movement patterns that may increase risk of injury. And then it provides that individual with customized exercise programs, education; things they can do to address those faulty movement patterns to reduce their injury risk.”

There might be other companies that provide virtual physical therapy, but Jones says his digital platform is the most integrated solution available for employers – evaluating workplace risk, plus proactively identifying and addressing movement risks using AI-powered personalized assessments and educational resources.

OSF Innovation Studio provided Jones with guidance, coaching, and connections to help him refine his idea, understand the market potential, and ultimately develop a software solution that could be licensed to a startup. Jones’ efforts with Health Shift AI are currently self-funded and include support from family and friends.

Used AI to help develop the software

He used AI to help him write code to develop his software, saving time and money because he didn’t have to hire a software engineer. And as an OSF Mission Partner, he received input and support in that area from OSF Innovation Studio.

Kip McCoy, vice president, Innovation Studio says Jones is an enthusiastic entrepreneur, and he maximized the help available.

“There are a lot of resources in the local entrepreneurial ecosystem that are available. So, what we’ve tried to do is to get him tied into or connected to a lot of those that are at the disposal of various start-ups in the Peoria area.”

That includes Distillery Labs in Peoria where Joes participated in gALPHA class last September. He says exposure to others’ struggles and mentors who have been successful entrepreneurs really helped. Additionally, he also connected with Enterprise Works, and the National Science Foundation’s I-Corps™ program.

His company, Health Shift AI, has since licensed the software he developed at OSF HealthCare.

Other aspects that are not part of the licensing agreement include self-guided recovery access -- personalized recovery programs and progress tracking through the digital platform.

Jones established his company in Peoria, Illinois and plans to keep it here. Next steps are to work on a pilot within OSF HealthCare that utilizes all aspects of the platform. Jones also sees a market for his Health Shift AI in manufacturing and is testing the software with a window manufacturer and distributor.

McCoy says Health Shift AI is a success story that reminds OSF HealthCare Mission Partners that if they have an idea, the OSF Innovation Studio team is ready to assist.

“We can help you think through that, look at different opportunities, see what resources we can have available to help you just better craft or focus in on where the potential opportunity or the need might be that can help move it (your idea) forward.”

OSF Mission Partners can begin their journey toward potentially developing their solution by filling out an idea submission form online here.

Travis Jones

Kip McCoy

B-roll of Health Shift AI

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. 

Eight years ago, two surgery nurses at OSF HealthCare Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria were approached about a big problem that cost their hospital several million dollars a year in lost revenue – cancelled surgeries.  An anesthesiologist approached surgery nurses Jill Teubel, MSN, BSN, RN and Mary Marvin, APRN, MSN, RN to see if they had a way to prevent cancelling surgeries because of overlooked implanted medical devices.

Hundreds of surgeries each year at OSF Saint Francis were being cancelled or delayed because patients had implanted medical devices with electrical components, such as pacemakers to regulate the heart and spinal stimulators to suppress pain. Without the devices temporarily turned off during surgery, patients and the devices could be harmed.

Jill Teubel says nurses, surgeons and anesthesia providers need to know, in advance of the procedure or surgery, specific instructions for each device and how to keep the patient safe.

“With that comes some pretty specialized directions when you come in for a procedure. Those are usually hidden and so it’s very difficult to find those.”

Teubel and her colleague, Mary Marvin, set out to create a spreadsheet to list every implantable medical device on the market with model numbers, surgery instructions, even contact information for the device sales rep who - in some cases - would have to come on site prior to the planned surgery.

Teubel and Marvin often spent their personal time researching, documenting and regularly updating the information in a matrix they called Device Table.

Marvin says the effort was worth it because 4.5% or more than 1,900 patients coming to OSF Saint Francis Medical Center for surgery each year have an active medical device implant.  By addressing these patient devices in the pre-operative area, the hospital saved $1.9 million dollars annually in lost revenue due to cancellations which have since been reduced to nearly zero because of implants.

“Doing all his work upfront, we save the patient the misfortune of being cancelled. A lot of times the patient’s family will come in to be with them; to take care of them after the case,” Marvin explains.

Their Device Table document was laminated and attached to surgery carts. Over the years, it expanded from two pages to 80. Teubel and Marvin knew they needed something more manageable, so they pitched their idea to the OSF Innovation Studio, a part of OSF Innovation.

Kip McCoy, vice president, OSF Innovation Studio says his team initially built an Access database that could be more easily updated. But after learning there were no other solutions in the marketplace, the Studio team realized it needed additional expertise to more fully develop a scalable and potentially commercial product.

A Peoria-based company Enoch Collective worked with the Innovation Studio team to create, test and revise a web application that could be expanded and customized to meet the needs of the surgery team.

With an added ability to connect to Epic, one of the largest electronic medical records software systems in the country, Teubel expects to see the software commercially licensed.

“It was a solution we solved for our surgery area, and it’s been neat to work with the physicians and staff. For them to come back to us and say, ‘This really helps us. We use this all the time,’ that’s really satisfying because as a nurse, you go into the profession to help people.”

Lasting impact on patients and safety

Marvin relishes the idea of having a lasting impact by sharing their labor of love.

“The thought that someday someone in California or New York could be protecting their patients by utilizing our app is something that is very special to us because as nurses, taking care of the patient always comes first.”

The Innovation Studio team helped support a patent application. Approval can take between two to four years. In the meantime, the women are joining forces with a former member of the Innovation Studio team to form a new startup company, OpenSurg, to further develop, scale and eventually market the software and app that now includes information about 75 medical devices.

Senior Vice President for OSF Innovation, Becky Buchen says this spin-off company shows the benefit of leveraging the talents of frontline workers and then having a system in pace to help Mission Partners (employees) explore development, testing and possible commercializing of their idea.

“When you really start to leverage the ideas they have, because they’re at the frontline of care, they’re seeing the challenges being faced every day, whether it’s by our patients or their fellow Mission Partners (employees), and then bringing forward those ideas really starts to advance the transformation of health care.”

In preparation for the results of creating an innovative ecosystem, OSF developed an intellectual property policy in 2018. It provides the opportunity for revenue-sharing for intellectual property created by Mission Partners through the course of their employment. OSF HealthCare and OpenSurg recently signed a comprehensive licensing agreement.
 

Video clips with Jill Teubel and Mary Marvin

Video clip with Becky Buchen

B-roll for Device Table solution

OSF HealthCare is thrilled to announce a licensing agreement with Summit Venture Studio to commercialize and expand Medical Cart AR, an innovative medical training software developed by OSF Innovation. Medical Cart AR is an augmented reality training application designed to assist health care providers in locating key equipment swiftly during medical emergencies.

In emergency situations, rapid access to medical equipment can be critical. However, many health care providers don’t have the opportunity to train and quickly familiarize themselves with their medical carts because most hospitals restrict their use exclusively to emergencies. While these precautions minimize the need for constant inventory checks, they can create challenges in training new health care personnel. In addition, each organization typically has various types of medical carts, with different configurations, making it more difficult for new or temporary workers to locate key content efficiently. 

 Medical Cart AR addresses this issue by allowing hospitals and health care providers to simulate their own medical carts accurately through augmented reality. This case study reveals nurses and other staff can effortlessly identify the exact location of essential equipment without the risk of disrupting patient supplies. Unlike other simulators, Medical Cart AR is fully customizable, doesn’t require technical support and is easily accessible on a personal device. The unique app also features a built-in timer, enabling users to enhance their efficiency.

Medical Cart AR was developed by the OSF Innovation Studio’s Medical Visualization (MedVis) team with initial input from clinicians and faculty at the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria and the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, respectively, with the goal of enhancing the training and preparedness of health care professionals. 

“I presented a prototype of the app at a national conference in 2020 to gain feedback about its practicality and immediately gained interest from others in the simulation space,” said Kyle Formella, director of MedVis. “With no national standard for medical cart setup, these life-saving tools vary from organization to organization. That makes it difficult for clinicians to recall their contents, which is why ongoing training is so important.” 

Formella is excited to hand off the commercialization efforts to Summit Venture Studio so the app will become available to more learners in health systems across the country. 

Brent Cross of OSF Innovation Studio says his team saw the potential and was encouraged to pursue the effort due to enthusiasm from others in health care.

Taylor Bench, managing director at Summit Venture Studio, expressed enthusiasm about the partnership, stating, "We are excited to collaborate with OSF to introduce Medical Cart AR to the health care industry and provide customizable innovative training solutions to medical workers across the nation.”

Video demonstration (B-roll) of Medical Cart AR app