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I L L I N O I S M E D I C I N E | 27 PANOPLY OF INNOVATIVE RESEARCH AND PATIENT CARE across the campuses and departments of the College of Medi- cine is improving outcomes for patients throughout Illinois and beyond. One example of such a project, birthed at the Peoria campus, is a marvel of new technology that allows physicians to see pediatric hearts in full virtual reality, which they can manipulate in infinite ways to prepare for an upcoming surgery down to the smallest blood vessel. A second example is an expansion of an existing rural health education program that aims to reach into remote, underserved sections of the U.S., as well as across the globe, to bring improved health care to Native Americans and learn from programs in other countries. Virtual Reality Impacts Real Anatomy THROUGH A $15 MILLION PRIVATE ENDOWMENT, the College of Medicine Peoria is doing groundbreaking work in virtual reality. With a headset and hand controls, physicians can virtually walk into a person's body, see it from essentially any angle and simulate precise surgical incisions. It's been used so far for the smallest of patients with congenital heart disease and logically follows a previous breakthrough on the Peoria campus in which hearts were printed in 3-D, in precise, personalized detail, allowing surgeons to see exactly where the problems lay and what they needed to do before starting an invasive procedure. This visionary work is being accomplished at the Jump Trading Simulation & Education Center, a part of OSF Innovation, and through a collaboration between OSF HealthCare and the COM Peoria. "Our hypothesis was that we could achieve the same level of understanding through virtual reality," says Matthew Bramlet, MD, an assistant professor of pediatric medicine at the COM Peoria and director of the Advanced Imaging and Modeling (AIM) Program A P H O T O : L L O Y D D E G R A N E FROM VIRTUAL HEARTS TO ADVANCES IN RURAL MEDICINE The College of Medicine continues innovation across a spectrum of disciplines The College of Medicine Peoria has moved beyond 3-D printing of heart models to displaying them in virtual reality through the leadership of Matthew Bramlet, an assistant professor of pediatric medicine and director of the Advanced Imaging and Modeling (AIM) Program at Jump Simulation.