OSF HealthCare has been recognized as one of the “Most Wired” in the country, according to a survey by the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives. 

The 13-hospital integrated health system is based out of Peoria and includes the Heart of Mary Medical Center in Urbana, where many faculty, staff and students of the University receive medical care.  

CHIME’s Most Wired program conducts an annual survey to assess how well health care providers apply and integrate new technology to improve the well-being of their patients and communities.

“We designed ‘Most Wired’ to identify and share those leading practices so everyone can benefit,” said Russell Branzell, CHIME President and CEO, in a press release. 

2019 marks the eighth consecutive year OSF has been recognized with the honor. 

“We continually work to improve the foundational technologies at OSF HealthCare to securely protect our patients and Mission Partners, while at the same time developing our use of transformational technologies to support population health management, value-based care, patient engagement and telehealth,” said David Hall, medical doctor and OSF HealthCare senior vice president of Information Technology Operations, in a press release. “The Most Wired designation reaffirms for us how important our continued investment is.”  

One of the many ways OSF integrates technology to serve the community is through the Jump Trading Simulation & Education Center, a partnership with the University’s College of Medicine. The program aims to improve outcomes and lower health care costs through innovative simulation training that begins in the early years of medical school. Since its inception in 2013, the partnership has been expanded to all three campuses of the University of Illinois System to find other uses of virtual reality technology in medical care. John Vozenilek, vice president and chief medical officer for Simulation at the Jump Trading Simulation and Education Center, said the UI System and OSF have been long standig collaborators in medical education.  

“The Jump ARCHES endowment which is jointly administered for the benefit of Community Health (CH) through Applied Research (AR)is now $112.5m strong and will fund the applies research effort performed by OSF and by UI,” Vozenilek said in an email.

The Jump Simulation team’s work includes new uses of advanced 3D printing for pre-surgery planning and exact anatomical digital images that can be manipulated in virtual or augmented reality.  

The UI System is an integral partner to OSF in this endeavor. The University of Illinois at Chicago’s Biomedical Visualization graduate program has a formal agreement with OSF, which helps the Jump Medical Simulation team develop projects to enhance clinical education and research development.  

“OSF HealthCare is committed to doing its part to help design a better future,” said Michelle Conger, chief strategy officer for OSF HealthCare, on OSF’s website. “We understand the value of fresh perspectives and seek to work with innovators outside our walls to maximize solutions that bring value to our patients and communities.” 

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