Life-saving app: Illinois State and OSF HealthCare are addressing the opioid epidemic with an unconventional tool

Matt Kase, M.S. ’24, is a musician with a love for technology and video games. He was looking for a practical way to combine music and sound when he enrolled in the School of Creative Technologies (CTK) at Illinois State University. He found what he was looking for in the Apple Vision Pro headset.

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Illinois State: Winter 2025

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Kase served as the lead student developer of an app to train laypeople how to administer Narcan, a brand name for naloxone, a drug delivered as a nasal spray that’s capable of saving lives by immediately reversing the effects of an opioid overdose. The work began with funding from the Illinois Innovation Network (IIN)—a statewide collective driving research, innovation, and economic development—and continues with support from the Connected Communities Initiative (CCI), a formal partnership between Illinois State and OSF HealthCare. (Illinois State and OSF are also members of the IIN.)

Kase’s work builds on a concept hatched by Southern Illinois University faculty member Wasantha Jayawardene, who hypothesized that a virtual reality-based training tool could save lives. With a bachelor’s degree in cognitive neuroscience and a master’s in creative technology, Kase used the Apple Vision Pro to design and develop what Jayawardene envisioned.  

“We got the Apple Vision Pro on February 10, which was brand-new technology just the week before,” said project manager Roy Magnuson, an associate professor in the School of Music who teaches in CTK, and was recently named director of emerging technologies for instruction and research in the Office of Technology Solutions. “It’s been a fascinating process, and I’m really proud of what Matt’s done so far.”

Kase had no programing experience until he sat in one of Dr. Magnuson’s classes. He soon found himself building an entire application. “I was pretty rushed to learn the Apple Vision Pro after waiting on it to be delivered,” Kase said. “I had a semester to come up with the prototype, but I was happy to do my own thing and have Roy advising me when I needed it. We pieced it together through a lot of trial and error. I’m very proud of the work.”

Kase isn’t an animator or a visual artist but relied on his passion for technology to drive the project. A musician since he was 13, he’s played in bands in Chicago and even toured the country for five years with one of them. Sound technology is his area of expertise. He eventually figured out what the headset could do and created a variety of realistic sounds. 

“Matt made all the sounds you hear,” Magnuson said. “You’re wearing the headset, and the mannequin—which is actually a hologram—is breathing and making gasping sounds in front of you. Plus, you’re looking around, and you can pick up the Narcan, see it in your hand, and administer it to a virtual mannequin.” 

Kase said what he’s developed so far is mixed reality. A person wearing the headset sees a panel with instructions floating in the air, and a series of videos comes on with directions on how to respond to an overdose situation.  

“You can see all around you,” Kase explained. “You look down, and there’s a guy on the floor who’s overdosed. You can select ‘signs of an overdose,’ and it walks you through all the steps with instructions.” 

The next step in development will be to create a VR environment that puts the user in a more immersive environment. “There will be less handholding,” Kase said. “Maybe we’ll have a club setting that’s a more distracting environment with more people and music playing.” 

Kase used his synthesizer to create many of the sounds. Others are self-recorded or pulled from audio libraries. There are sounds of a person who’s been revived and wakes up coughing. There are sounds of someone delivering breaths to a person on the ground. Kase said while he worked alone mostly, it was great to know Magnuson had his back.

“I have to give a shoutout to Roy,” Kase said. “I never felt like I was completely on my own.” 

Scott Barrows is director of OSF’s Innovation Design Lab, a research lab that focuses on user experience and user interface design. He’s pleased with the early returns of the OSF-Illinois State partnership. 

“We design things around different cultures and different socioeconomic backgrounds with the goal of encouraging cancer screenings, vaccines for kids, that sort of thing,” Barrows said. “We focus on rural communities here in Central Illinois, so this partnership seemed like a natural fit.”  

Barrows likes the portability of the Apple Vision Pro, knowing that it will travel well when it’s out for field testing. Less populated counties in Illinois will be on the itinerary. “Big cities often do a better job of making Narcan available and are managing it better,” Barrows said. “Small towns can’t get an ambulance for 40 minutes, and there are no doctors’ offices around. This technology could eventually be merged with robotics and surgeries.”

The timeline is to have a completed prototype to OSF by December, followed soon after by field testing. Joanna Willett ’09, director of Illinois State’s Mennonite College of Nursing Simulation Center, will be involved in training people in the field, most of whom are not health care professionals. 

For a new graduate just beginning his career, things have worked out well for Kase. He’s been hired to work in the OSF Design Lab, where he will work closely with Barrows. 

“Matt is an amazing find,” Barrows said. “With his background in science, we couldn’t have found a better or more qualified person.”

Magnuson agrees. “What Matt has done? Wow, I don’t think I could’ve done it,” Magnuson said. “And that’s what we hope to say about our grad students.”

More successes to come

The collaboration in addressing a crucial health problem like the opioid epidemic is a prime example of the type of work being done in the Connected Communities Initiative (CCI), a partnership between Illinois State and OSF aimed at developing solutions to health challenges in Central Illinois, said Associate Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies Craig C. McLauchlan. 

“The CCI is just one example of the formalized partnerships Illinois State has been working to implement the past few years,” he said. “As anchor institutions in our communities, it makes sense that Illinois State and OSF HealthCare are partners trying to solve the problems we’re facing.” 

The CCI is one piece of a broader partnership with OSF that includes curriculum modernization, placement of students, data science, workforce development, and Redbird Athletics. 

“This is not the first successful collaborative research partnership, nor do we expect it to be the last,” McLauchlan said.