Weil Foot & Ankle Institute works outside the box to treat patients during pandemic

Weil Foot & Ankle Institute, headquartered in Mount Prospect, is thoughtfully and diligently supporting efforts to flatten the curve of COVID-19.

The physicians and staff at WFAI are available and working hard for our community!

From providing virtual and telehealth appointment options to social distancing in person appointments at our more than 20 locations, we are helping keep our patients and staff safe. We also have team members putting their seamstress skills to use, sewing protective masks for staff and doctors, which helps to preserve valuable protective equipment for patients and care providers in need.

Recently, WFAI sought out options for obtaining hand sanitizer and was met with limited or long delays for supplies. Until connecting with Chicago-based Koval Distillery. Koval has been producing hand sanitizer for the last several weeks for healthcare providers across Chicagoland and this has supported our continued efforts to keep our patients and team members safe.

A unique way the IT team at WFAI is getting involved in efforts to combat COVID-19 is by leveraging our technology infrastructure to help develop therapeutics. WFAI has joined a distributed computing project spearheaded by Folding@home (FAH or F@h). FAH brings together citizen scientists who volunteer to run simulations of protein dynamics on their personal computers. Insights from this data are helping scientists to better understand biology and providing new opportunities for developing therapeutics. WFAI, by providing access to servers and processing power, supports the ability of FAH to run simulations which will help scientists find antibodies or small molecules that could disrupt the way coronaviruses interact with the body.