ITM-Loyola I-Corps Grads Secure ITM Implementation Seed Awards To Scale Up Health Innovations - Institute For Translational Medicine

ITM-Loyola I-Corps Grads Secure ITM Implementation Seed Awards to Scale Up Health Innovations

The Institute for Translational Medicine (ITM) has selected the 2025 recipients of its Implementation Seed Awards, spearheaded by the Parkinson School of Health Sciences and Public Health at ITM-Loyola.

The awards provide $25,000 in funding and mentorship for early-stage projects to catalyze researchers’ next phase of their implementation journey.

“The Implementation Seed Awards are designed to help promising ideas move more quickly from concept to real-world impact,” said Elaine Morrato, DrPH, MPH, ITM-Loyola site leader and national expert in implementation science. “By pairing implementation seed funding with mentorship, we’re supporting investigators as they tackle practical challenges in healthcare delivery and get their evidence-based solutions out to the people who need them most.” 

The winning teams come from Loyola University Chicago and Rush University Medical Center. Their projects aim to solve practical problems in patient care, including improving how urologic concerns are evaluated and directed through a more efficient triage system, identifying safe and personalized levels of physical activity to help prevent joint injuries and slow the progression of osteoarthritis, and using music and wearable sensors to help patients relearn healthier walking patterns during orthopedic rehabilitation.  

“We appreciate the support from the ITM to develop a new and innovative tool to assist individuals with osteoarthritis and community runners,” said Felipe Gonzalez, MD, from ITM-RUSH. “Understanding how people move and how much load they place on their bodies has the potential to reduce symptoms and even prevent orthopedic injuries. This is an important first step in a very promising line of research that may ultimately benefit millions of people.”

Meet the Winners:

UroConnect: Intelligent Triage Platform for Urology Clinical Outpatient Practice  Ahmer Farooq, DO, Ahmad El-Arabi, MD, Kristin Baldea, MD, Mary Clare Hogan, NP, Matthew Driscoll
Loyola University Chicago

Investigating Optimal Walking Load for Osteoarthritis Prevention and Management.  
Jonathan Gustafson, PhD, Felipe Gonzalez, MD, Jorge Chahla, MD 
Rush University Medical Center

Exploring Musical Feedback for Gait Retraining: A Novel Approach for Orthopedic Rehabilitation  
Markus Wimmer, PhD, Chris Knowlton, PhD, Camilla Antognini, MS, Luisa Cedin, PT, MS, David Wetzel, DMA, Konstantin Läufer, PhD
Rush University Medical Center

Two of the awardees, Gustafson and Wimmer, are also ITM Pilot Awards alums.

The Implementation Science Seed Awards are part of the ITM’s broader effort to accelerate the spread of new treatments and programs across Chicagoland and beyond. 

Researchers interested in applying for the Implementation awards can prepare now for the next I-Corps@NCATS program, a prerequisite for applicants. The course provides entrepreneurial immersion, weekly coaching, and hands-on customer discovery interviews to strengthen the real-world impact of translational projects.

Questions? Connect with Nallely Mora at namora@luc.edu to learn more!

About the Institute for Translational Medicine (ITM)

The Institute for Translational Medicine (ITM) helps you live your best life by making research breakthroughs happen and getting those discoveries into the real world to improve your health as soon as possible.

The ITM is a partnership between the University of Chicago and Rush in collaboration with Advocate Aurora Health Care, Illinois Institute of Technology (Illinois Tech), Loyola University Chicago, and Endeavor Health that’s fueled by about $51 million in grants from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences at the National Institutes of Health through its Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) Program.

The ITM is part of a network of more than 50 CTSA Program-supported hubs across the country working to slash the time it takes to develop and share new treatments and health approaches. We work with you and for you to make participating in health research easy, so that together we improve health care for all.

Join the movement and learn more about how we help researchers, physicians, community members, industry, government organizations, and others. Visit us at chicagoitm.org and connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn @ChicagoITM.

ITM Contact: Sara Serritella, Director of ITM Communications, serritella@uchicago.edu

This project is supported by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that supports the Institute for Translational Medicine (ITM) through Grant Number UL1TR002389.

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