Overview
The Center for Immersive Learning and Digital Innovation (CILDI), funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, is a cutting-edge patient and safety learning laboratory focused on transforming patient safety and healthcare outcomes using advanced technology from the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Through a multidisciplinary approach combining nursing, medicine, engineering, public health, and patient and caregiver input, CILDI pioneers innovative solutions to reduce healthcare-associated infections (HAIs), with a particular focus on central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs) and Ventilator Associated Pnuemonia (VAP).
Leveraging expertise from leading institutions, including Penn State, Johns Hopkins University and University of Michigan, CILDI brings together researchers, clinicians, engineers, and technology experts to create impactful, technology-based interventions to enhance patient care and healthcare worker efficiency. Our projects emphasize the use of immersive learning, systems engineering, and human-centered design to advance the science of patient safety.
Mission and Vision
Our mission is to improve patient safety and healthcare outcomes by fostering interdisciplinary collaboration and employing innovative digital and immersive learning technologies. Our vision is a future where healthcare-associated infections, including CLABSIs and VAPs, are preventable and manageable through enhanced training, improved systems, and cutting-edge technology.
Our Goals
- Reduce CLABSI and VAP Rates: Develop and implement technology-based interventions to decrease CLABSI and VAP incidence and associated mortality in intensive care units.
- Improve Healthcare Worker Training: Use virtual and mixed reality to enhance healthcare providers’ knowledge, confidence, and adherence to safety protocols.
- Increase Efficiency: Innovate with mixed reality and robotic systems to streamline critical tasks, enabling safer, more efficient healthcare practices.
- Promote Multidisciplinary Collaboration: Engage patients, families, and healthcare professionals in a systems engineering approach to drive sustainable improvements in patient safety.
- Advance the Science of Patient Safety: Through rigorous research and dissemination, contribute to the broader field of healthcare technology and patient safety.
Our Approach
At CILDI, we employ a structured, systems engineering life cycle — problem analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation — to address patient safety challenges.
Guided by the Systems Engineering Initiative for Patient Safety (SEIPS) model, our process ensures that our interventions are holistic, inclusive, and sustainable.
Our approach prioritizes input from diverse stakeholders, including patients, families, healthcare providers, and policymakers.
