A new Innovation for Health (IFH) cooperation between OSF HealthCare and Bradley University aims to provide scholarly research that can lead to workable solutions to enhance both individual and community health. The new partnership, comprising staff members at Bradley University and OSF HealthCare, two of Peoria’s biggest and most influential nonprofit organisations, aims to foster a vibrant, cooperative research community. Significantly, Bradley will become OSF HealthCare’s first formalised research partnership with a private university. The creation of both organisations was made possible in part by Lydia Moss Bradley, and the two cornerstone institutions have a shared history within the Peoria community.
In order to solve health care concerns inside and outside of the greater Peoria area, the IFH partnership will link faculty scholars from Bradley’s five colleges with clinical researchers through OSF Innovation Labs and other OSF HealthCare providers. A division of OSF HealthCare called OSF Innovation is made up of designers, engineers, data scientists, performance improvement specialists, and other experts who put in endless hours to create the best solutions that would benefit patients and communities the most.
The official connection will benefit from Bradley’s knowledge of the natural and medical sciences. Additionally, it will give Bradley University faculty members in the fields of business, engineering, education, computer science, interactive media, communications, the humanities, the social sciences, and other disciplines the chance to participate in problem-based studies on the social determinants of health (factors affecting health outside of a medical setting), health literacy, rural health, and aspects of cancer treatment and prevention.