Future Healthcare Leaders Tour UIC’s Surgical Innovation Training Lab

On July 15th, UI Health hosted summer interns working for State Senator Lakesia Collins’s (5th District) aspiring for careers in medicine, along with students participating in the Urban Health Program’s Urban Pathway Summer Program, to tour the Surgical Innovation Training Lab. Dr. Phyllis Hayes, Assistant Vice Chancellor for External Engagement in the Office for the Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs, organized the tour for these aspiring healthcare professionals.

Our visitors were deeply inspired by the lab, seeing for the first time advanced surgical simulators in one of the nation’s leading centers for robotic surgery. These young visitors learned about SITL, the 17,000 square foot state-of-the-art facility dedicated to contemporary and future surgical training, innovation, and technological research. After a lecture and hands-on training in the lab, they took turns using the simulation technology.

Students expressed their excitement about the tour and the UIC campus and spoke highly of their overall experience, discussing their plans for college, focusing on their futures in healthcare. Other campus partners who assisted with this visit included the UIC Office of the Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs (OVCHA), Office of Admissions, the African American Academic Network, College of Business, the Office of Academic Center for Excellence, and the Office of Financial Aid.

After the tour, everyone gathered to share their thoughts with a question & answer session over lunch provided by the OVCHA. Hosting young people from our local communities on the UIC campus exposes them to opportunities they may not have considered, and these eager young minds could very well be our healthcare leaders of the future.