When someone is having a stroke, time can make a difference.
Recognizing a stroke quickly and determining the right treatment can help doctors act sooner. OSF HealthCare is expanding its use of artificial intelligence technology that helps physicians evaluate possible strokes to all 18 hospitals in its health system.
The technology, called RapidAI, analyzes medical images and gives doctors additional information about what may be happening inside a patient’s brain. It can help identify certain types of strokes and determine whether a patient may be a candidate for medication to break up a clot or a procedure to remove one.
OSF began using the technology at select hospitals and saw improvements in treatment times and in identifying patients who may need an intervention. Those results led the health system to expand the platform throughout its hospitals in Illinois and Michigan.
The goal is to make advanced technology available to doctors across the OSF system, including those working in smaller and rural hospitals.
“Every community we serve should benefit from the same advanced technology, whether a patient enters one of our largest medical centers or a rural, critical access hospital,” said Dr. Arun Talkad, a neurologist who directs stroke care at OSF HealthCare.
RapidAI does more than alert doctors to a possible stroke. The platform can automatically analyze images, provide measurements and offer visual information that can help clinicians better understand a patient’s condition.
That information also can help connect doctors and care teams as patients move through the health system. A patient may begin treatment at one hospital and later need to be transferred to another facility with more specialized services. Keeping medical information connected can help physicians follow the patient’s care along the way.
“After seeing how RapidAI supported clinical decisions and patient care at select sites, we saw the opportunity to add more AI solutions to the platform and extend that value across all hospitals, strengthening access to specialty expertise and helping us deliver high-quality, consistent care at every level of our health system,” Talkad said.
While stroke care is a major focus of the expansion, the Rapid Enterprise Platform can be used in other areas of medicine. The technology includes applications related to neurological, cardiac and vascular care, trauma and oncology.
The platform also offers 3D visualization, care coordination and analytics tools. These features are designed to give health care teams a clearer picture of a patient’s condition and help them follow changes over time.
Another feature, known as Rapid Edge Cloud, is designed to keep important clinical tools available during certain network or cloud outages. The goal is to limit disruptions and allow care teams to continue accessing critical information.
The expansion is part of OSF’s larger effort to use technology to improve patient care. In 2025, Fortune named OSF one of America’s Most Innovative Companies for the second time. OSF was the only Illinois health system included on the list.
OSF also received CHIME Digital Health Most Wired recognition for the 14th consecutive year, earning Level 9 certification across acute, ambulatory and long-term acute care settings.
The new technology will now be available throughout the OSF system, giving physicians at all 18 hospitals another tool to help identify strokes, evaluate patients and make treatment decisions as quickly as possible.