Jump ARCHES partnership expands to include social and behavioral determinants of health

Campus officials expect a new generation of research projects
Students learning about health care
The expansion of a partnership between OSF HealthCare and Illinois will allow new research projects in a variety of topics and fields, including social and behavioral science. (Image courtesy of U of I's Grainger College of Engineering.)

A longstanding partnership between OSF HealthCare and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s Grainger College of Engineering for joint research to revolutionize clinical simulation, health care systems, and medical education will expand dramatically through additional endowments.

This will fuel a new generation of joint research projects to include mobile sensors, Internet of Things applications, data analytics, and understanding social and behavioral determinants of health. Among the many beneficiaries, the partnership is growing to include strengths and insight from the Center for Social and Behavioral Science.  

Known as Jump ARCHES (Applied Research for Community Health through Engineering and Simulation), the partnership was established in 2013 with $62.5 million in support. With new commitments of $50 million, it will now be backed by a total of $112.5 million in endowment support.

The multifaceted expansion includes a $25 million gift from the DiSomma Family Foundation to the endowment pool held within the OSF HealthCare Foundation, an additional $12.5 million commitment from the OSF HealthCare Foundation, and the equivalent of $12.5 million in endowment support from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

As with current Jump ARCHES collaborations, teams with members from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, OSF HealthCare and University of Illinois Medical College in Peoria will receive grants to drive their research. The partnership previously provided about $2 million in grants annually. The expansion will ultimately provide about $4 million in grants annually. The grants will enable OSF HealthCare to continue improving the safety, effectiveness and efficiency of care, to advance health with intentional focus on the greatest challenges in our communities and beyond.

“This incredible new support from the DiSomma Family Foundation and the OSF HealthCare Foundation will allow our partnership to grow in exciting areas that we had not previously tackled,” said Rashid Bashir, dean of The Grainger College of Engineering. “We will continue to focus on medical simulation and health care engineering, but we will broaden our scope tremendously.”

New projects will explore the intersection of mobile sensors, devices, analytics, machine learning, and social and behavioral health science research. Kesh Kesavadas, director of The Grainger College of Engineering’s Health Care Engineering Systems Center and the Engineer-in-Chief of the Jump ARCHES The Jump ARCHES, said this endowment is the largest in the world dedicated to health care engineering.

“With this expansion of the endowment, we are now able to combine the strengths of the Grainger Engineering with the University of Illinois’ Center for Social and Behavioral Sciences and Illinois Innovation Network to engineer the next generation of solutions to improve health care,” he said.

Brent Roberts, professor of psychology, directs the Center for Social and Behavioral Science, and he sees great potential in marrying the insights of engineers, doctors, and social and behavioral scientists.

“We are very excited to join forces with the DiSomma Family Foundation, the OSF HealthCare Foundation and The Grainger College of Engineering in the expansion of Jump ARCHES. The Jump ARCHES program has already lead to amazing technological innovations to improve health care. We see tremendous potential to harness that creativity and apply it to social and behavioral health problems, many of which are key to improving health and wellness in all communities—urban and rural, well-resourced and underserved,” he said.

“We hope to support pathbreaking research to solve fundamental issues such as delivering health care more effectively to rural, underserved, communities; helping patients more effectively change their health behaviors and making sure patients can use the technological innovations generated by engineers to improve their health,” Roberts added.

The unique partnership through Jump ARCHES has already led to groundbreaking innovations. A simulator to train medical professionals to perform Extra Corporeal Membrane Oxygenation is being prepared for national trials. A virtual reality skill trainer for endotracheal intubation is now being used by medical institutions in the U.S. and abroad. A new process for 3D bio-printing to develop the next generation of printed hearts that mimic the physical stiffness and properties of a real heart for the purposes of preoperative planning and surgical training is under development.

Jump ARCHES combines broad expertise in health information technologies, sensing and devices, virtual reality, AI/machine learning, materials and mechanics, human factors/industrial ergonomics and design, and the social and behavioral sciences with OSF’s clinical experience and knowledge in the area of simulation and education toward executing collaborative projects directed to medical simulation and training of medical practitioners of the future.

The expansion of Jump ARCHES will also contribute to the new Discovery Partners Institute (DPI) and Illinois Innovation Network (IIN), statewide initiatives led by the U of I System to foster discovery and entrepreneurship that drives progress, job creation, and economic growth.

The Illinois Innovation Network is expected to provide for infrastructure to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, which will be critical to the success of the expanded Jump ARCHES Partnership. OSF, as the first corporate sponsor in the Discovery Partners Institute and Illinois Innovation Network through its Innovation Lab, will work with the OSF Innovation Team to better serve Illinois’ poor, rural, and elderly patients, and through its partnership to create a new downtown Peoria Innovation Hub, and continue its work with Illinois.

This new investment brings the total non-state funding that would leverage the DPI/IIN to $347.5 million.

“The successes we’ve already witnessed from our initial investment is largely responsible for the enthusiasm we share in committing additional support to expand the boundaries of discovery,” said Bill DiSomma, CEO of Jump Trading and founder of the DiSomma Family Foundation.

“OSF HealthCare has a mission of serving with the greatest care and love,” said Tom Hammerton, President of the OSF HealthCare Foundation. “Part of living out this mission means leading transformative change through innovation and in partnership with others. Philanthropy can be a compelling incentive for organizations to work together for common good. The DiSomma Family Foundation has done just that and has created a powerful engine for health care innovations. We are grateful for their visionary gift bringing this to reality.”

News Source

Illinois Grainger College of Engineering

Date