An emergency room physician at OSF HealthCare Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria, Ill., won the health system's inaugural Innovator of the Year award for advancing a handheld ultrasound technology.
John Wipfler, MD, got the honor for helping develop a software platform for Exo, a medtech company backed by OSF Ventures, the Peoria-based health system's venture capital arm.
"I think in the next five to 10 years, you will see every physician out there have a small portable ultrasound in their pocket," Dr. Wipfler said in a May 1 news release. "They'll have a stethoscope too probably, but they're going to have this piece of equipment called bedside ultrasound or actually just an ultrasound probe that hooks up to their phone. It's going to be saving lives … making a big difference."