ALTON - As a religious Sister with a biomedical engineering degree, Sister M. Pieta Keller, F.S.G.M., is no stranger to saving lives.
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Sister M. Pieta is a Sister of the St. Francis of the Martyr St. George Convent based in Alton. She works with the Jump Simulation and Education Center in Peoria as a biomedical engineer on their innovation team. She has developed many technological advancements that have saved and improved the lives of over 500 patients.
“Before I entered [the Sisterhood], I got a biomedical engineering degree, and in God’s providence, I actually use it,” Sister M. Pieta said. “I truly feel that God has placed me here and led me to choose a field that allows me to pursue my love of engineering, in addition to answering His call to serve Him, combining to positively affect people’s lives every day.”
After graduating from Purdue University with a degree in biomedical engineering, Sister M. Pieta joined the Sisterhood in 2013. She has worked with Jump Simulation and Education Center for the past ten years.
At Jump, researchers and clinicians collaborate to create new technologies that aim to improve patient care. Sister M. Pieta explained that the hospital’s Chief of Surgery “wanted to have a place where we could teach our students, our nurses, our doctors, a place to practice and really know how to use their skills well before they work with the patient.”
Donations made it possible for them to build the Jump Simulation and Training Center, where Sister M. Pieta works with virtual reality, 3D printing and more. Her work directly impacts how clinicians care for patients.
“What can we build? How can we transform healthcare? What do we need to deliver better care to our patients that we don’t have or that the industry does not offer and provide for us?” Sister M. Pieta asked.
These questions guide the work she does at Jump. For example, she might make a 3D model of a patient’s heart so the surgeon can study the heart before performing surgery. The 3D modeling has impacted at least 50% of surgical plans presented to her team, as doctors often learn more about a patient’s body and can then change their plans to reflect this knowledge.
Sister M. Pieta tells the story of an 11-week-old baby with severe sleep apnea. The baby was at risk of needing tracheotomy surgery, but Sister M. Pieta and her team instead created a modified breathing mask that would fit the newborn.
These are just a few examples of the work that she has done at Jump Simulation and Education Center, and all of this technology is available to clinicians at St. Anthony’s Hospital in Alton. If a local surgeon needed a 3D model of a patient’s anatomy, the innovation engineers in Peoria would create this model and send it to Alton.
“We’re all one OSF for that reason, because we want to be here for our patients,” Sister M. Pieta said. “All of these are available for our clinicians that work here, so they can partner with us on projects.”
While Sister M. Pieta’s devotion to her job is impressive, her passion for serving God is equally powerful. Her faith informs the way she cares for patients, just like her experience caring for patients helps her grow in her faith.
“Our charism as Franciscan Sisters is to make the merciful love of Christ visible,” she added. “The whole beauty of mercy is love encountering suffering. Our patients come to us at a vulnerable moment that they’re suffering, where things aren’t going the best. And we’re able to meet them, accept them where they’re at and help them to be healthy and whole. The goal of life is to be holy, but that implies wholeness, and wholeness is body, mind and soul. So we’re able to do that spiritual care, but that physical care, that mental care, that emotional care as well.”
The Jump Simulation and Education Center has many other programs, including STEAM education and nursing labs. For more information about these programs, visit OSFInnovation.org/jump-simulation.
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