$10 million Jump Simulation Center coming to new College of Medicine

A $10 million gift will launch the Jump Simulation Center in Urbana and help train a new type of doctor uniquely equipped to transform healthcare.

The center will be part of the new College of Medicine, a partnership of Carle Health System and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the first medical school in the nation focused from the beginning at the intersection of engineering and medicine.

The gift is the result of a growing partnership with Chicago-based Jump Trading, a financial technology firm. 

“This is the first gift of this size to the new College of Medicine, and it defines what we will accomplish with a new engineering-based medical school,” said Phyllis Wise, chancellor of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. 

“When the first class of students enters the medical school in 2018, they are going to be immersed in experiences that merge clinical education and engineering. We’re thrilled that the Jump Simulation Center will do exactly that from day one.”

The Jump Simulation Center will be located in Everitt Laboratory, which will soon be renovated and become home to Illinois’ bioengineering department. Medical and engineering students will be immersed in technology-driven clinical environments at the Jump Simulation Center. They will design and learn how to use:

• New medical devices.
• New mobile, low-cost technologies for rural and developing areas.
• New medical simulation tools.
• New bio-printing and bio-fabrication techniques.

“Too often on university campuses, we talk about different disciplines working in silos, barriers separating us from valuable collaborations,” said Rashid Bashir, the head of the bioengineering department and a key member of the team that developed the plans for the new engineering-based medical school. "But we’ll have immediate proximity and constant interaction, thanks to the Jump Simulation Center. The engineers and medical students will be literally side-by-side, learning about and solving medical problems every day.”

“This new center will provide great benefit to the new College of Medicine,” said James Leonard, the chief executive officer at Carle. “Carle has been in ongoing discussions with Parkland College about a potential simulation center to support the community, and the new Jump Simulation Center at the College of Medicine, with the existing Jump Trading Simulation and Education Center in Peoria, will complete a level of synergy that will make central Illinois a destination for simulation work at all levels.”

Just last year, a $25 million gift established the Jump Applied Research for Community Health through Engineering and Simulation (Jump ARCHES), a partnership between the Jump Trading Simulation & Education Center at OSF HealthCare in Peoria and the Healthcare Engineering Systems Center in Illinois’ College of Engineering. Jump Trading also supports Jump Labs in the Illinois Research Park, where student interns work with Jump on high-performance trading, venture capitalism and ARCHES projects.

Carle Health System is the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s clinical partner in the new College of Medicine and a nationally recognized leader in high-quality, cost-effective and coordinated patient care. 

The $55 million Everitt Laboratory renovation will include collaboration spaces, flexible modern classrooms and labs. This central hub for bioengineering at Illinois will help attract new faculty and enhance opportunities for the entire campus to solve grand challenges in health nationally and globally. It is also supported by a $20 million gift from The Grainger Foundation as part of the Grainger Engineering Breakthroughs Initiative. 

“Locating the Jump Simulation Center in Everitt Lab emphasizes a close connection to the College of Engineering’s bioengineering department and Healthcare Engineering Systems Center – not to mention opportunities to collaborate with teachers and researchers in every imaginable field,” said Dr. John Vozenilek, the chief medical officer of Jump ARCHES in Peoria. He will co-direct the new Jump Simulation Center in Urbana with Kesh Kesavadas, the director of Illinois’ Healthcare Engineering Systems Center.

Work on Everitt Lab and the Jump Simulation Center is expected to begin in early 2016 and be complete in 2018.

Tools doctors might develop and use at the Jump Simulation Center include:

• Robotic arms that simulate abnormal muscle tone
• New, safer IV lines
• Muscle-powered biobots
• 3-D avatars for distance medicine
• Technology that allows doctors to image individual cells in patients’ eyes
• Injectable LEDs to stimulate neurological pathways