“Nebraskans are too modest; we don’t brag enough, we need to be bragging about this one,” said University of Nebraska President Hank Bounds.
Recently UNMC and Nebraska Medicine received nearly $20 million from the US Department of Health and Human Services for a National Center for Health Security and Biopreparedness.
“This will really put us on the map as far as being the place that those hospitals will come to train and those government employees will come to train to get ready to go out into the world to treat highly infectious diseases,” said Dr. Angela Hewlett, of Nebraska Medicines Biocontainment unit.
The center will not only provide training, but will feature virtual simulations and include a dedicated quarantine center.
Nebraska Medicine’s biocontainment unit will work closely with the center. During the Ebola crisis, the BioContainment unit treated three people for Ebola, two survived.
“After the Ebola outbreak our expertise became highly coveted not only in the region and the country, but around the world,” said UNMC Chancellor Dr. Jeffrey Gold.
Washington is also recognizing UNMC’s commitment to national health security.
“UNMC is an amazing institution,” said Congressman Brad Ashford.
Both Congressman Brad Ashford and Jeff Fortenberry helped UNMC compete for the funding.
“We had to have it teed up, but once it came down to the decision making process, there was no question,” said Ashford.
The congressmen are proud of what has come from this team effort.
“I called it TLC, team, leadership, and continuity. They had to stay with this to work through the ups and downs and the setbacks, but they kept the vision alive and now they are on the precipice of achieving great things,” said Congressman Fortenberry.
