From left: Jane Potter, M.D., Paul and Lori Hogan and UNMC Chancellor Harold M. Maurer, M.D., at Wednesday’s ground breaking for the Home Instead Center for Successful aging.

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To Paul Hogan, co-founder of Home Instead Senior Care, the numbers speak for themselves.

“In 42 months, the first baby boomer will turn 65,” Hogan said on Wednesday at a groundbreaking at UNMC for the Home Instead Center for Successful Aging. From that point on, he said, about 20,000 people will turn 65 each day — a trend that will lead to 1 billion people being 65 or older worldwide by the year 2030.

Long story short, Hogan said, the need for quality health care for seniors is great and growing.

That’s why, Hogan and his wife, Lori, who together co-founded Home Instead - the world’s largest private provider of non-medical home care to seniors - became the principal donors for the new center on the UNMC campus.

The Home Instead Center for Successful Aging will offer specialized services aimed at helping seniors age better and live healthier lives. It will be the only free-standing center tied to an academic medical center focused on aging in Nebraska and the region. The closest similar center is at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.

“Baby boomers often talk of how they will age differently, how 50 is the new 30,” Hogan said. “Well, regardless of how they try and mask the reality that they are getting older, it’s just going to happen.”

Helping people age successfully, remain independent and in their own homes, is a main focus of Home Instead as well as the staff of the UNMC geriatrics department.

Hogan said he is excited by the possible advances in senior care that could be achieved by UNMC clinicians, researchers and educators working in the new center.

UNMC Chancellor Harold M. Maurer, M.D., said the Hogans’ generosity and vision will have a ripple affect that could benefit people worldwide.

“This partnership between UNMC and Home Instead will allow us to take senior care to a whole new level,” Dr. Maurer said.

This is so, in part, because the three-level, 31,000 square foot center will allow all the various disciplines incorporated in senior care to work together under one roof, said Jane Potter, M.D., professor and chief of the section of geriatrics and gerontology at UNMC.

The Home Instead Center for Successful Aging will create physical space for both the sections of geriatric medicine and geriatric psychiatry, which currently include six geriatric physicians, five geriatric psychiatrists and one geriatric psychologist.

This will allow UNMC to train students, residents and fellows to work across disciplines to provide the best care possible to the aging population.

“Groundbreakings are really a time to say thank you,” Dr. Potter said. “I woke up this morning and I was enormously grateful.”

Grateful, Dr. Potter said, for the dedication of the UNMC geriatric staff as well as donors such as the Hogans.

“Thank you, Paul and Lori, for not only having a great idea but for turning that great idea into a wonderful resource for caring for the aging,” Dr. Potter said.

Dr. Potter also expressed her gratitude for The Kinman Oldfield Family Foundation — which has pledged significant support for the new center.

Doug Carlo of Kinman Oldfield Family Foundation, Paul and Lori Hogan, and University of Nebraska Regent Bob Whitehouse dig in during the groundbreaking for the Home Instead Center for Successful Aging.

The foundation carries the name of Col. Barney Oldfield, a legendary public relations professional, and his wife, Vada Kinman Oldfield. The Oldfields both graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1933. While making their home in Hollywood, Calif., after the war, the Oldfields never forgot Nebraska. The foundation’s gift for the Home Instead Center continues their support of geriatrics at UNMC. In 1999 Barney established a fund to benefit Alzheimer’s research at UNMC, following his wife’s death from the disease. Barney Oldfield died in 2003.

“I knew Col. Oldfield,” Dr. Potter said. “I know he would be delighted with this (gift to UNMC.)”

The $10.2 million Home Instead Center for Successful Aging will be funded entirely by private donations and will sit just south of the Weigel Williamson Center for Visual Rehabilitation at 38th Avenue and Leavenworth Street.

It will create a centralized location for geriatric medicine and psychiatry on the UNMC campus. Construction is expected to be completed in the spring of 2010.

The Hogans are Omaha natives and longtime supporters of the University of Nebraska. Paul Hogan is a 1985 graduate of the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. Lori Hogan is a 1984 graduate of the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

Headquartered in Omaha, Home Instead Senior Care was founded in 1994 and now has 810 franchise businesses in 15 countries. The company’s franchise owners employ 50,000 workers called CAREGivers. These CAREGivers help seniors with the activities of daily living, which enables seniors to live in their own homes where most desire to stay. CAREGivers also provide similar services to seniors who reside in care facilities.

This spring, President Bush and Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez presented Home Instead Senior Care with the Presidential ‘E’ Award, the highest honor the federal government can give to American people, firms or organizations that have made significant contributions to the increase of American exports.

UNMC Chancellor Harold M. Maurer, M.D., second from right, and UNMC Vice Chancellor for Business and Finance Don Leuenberger, right, with the Chinese delegation that visited UNMC on Thursday.

UNMC Director of Research Resources Paula Turpen, Ph.D., left, shows visitors from the Reverse Trade Mission the view of the medical center campus from the eighth floor of the Durham Research Center.

Jialin Zheng, M.D., left, director of the UNMC Asia Pacific Rim Development Program, and Darrell Ullman of the Nebraska Department of Economic Development, address the international visitors during their visit to the Durham Research Center on Thursday.

When UNMC Chancellor Harold M. Maurer, M.D., went to China last month to help UNMC move forward on its various initiatives with Chinese institutions, he couldn’t have been more impressed with how he was treated.

“We had people who would pick us up each morning at 8:30 a.m., then drop us back at our hotel at 9 p.m.” he said. “They were with us the entire day and really took care of us. They couldn’t have been nicer or more hospitable.”

Now, it’s payback time.

On Thursday, a contingent of Chinese and Japanese professionals came to UNMC as part of the first-ever reverse trade mission under the direction of Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman.

They heard an overview of UNMC’s research efforts by James Linder, M.D., associate vice chancellor for research and president and CEO of UNeMed, UNMC’s technology transfer organization, as well as presentations from several UNMC researchers.

In all, more than 100 professionals from Brazil, Canada, China, Costa Rica, Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea are in Nebraska for the reverse trade mission, which started Wednesday and runs through Saturday.

During their stay in Nebraska, the foreign visitors will take tours highlighting Nebraska industries such as research, information technology, agriculture, renewable energy, distribution and logistics. UNMC was one of the tour stops. Other stops include a Cargill ethanol plant, Union Pacific Railroad and the Kawasaki plant in Lincoln.

Two of the visitors to UNMC — both from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing — have special significance to Dr. Maurer, as they were instrumental in making sure that his visit to China went off without a hitch. They are Le Kang, Ph.D., president of the Beijing Institutes of Life Science, and Yong Zhao, M.D., Ph.D., a professor of transplantation biology research in the Institute of Zoology. They are planning to spend several days in Omaha.

“I want to make sure these two gentlemen enjoy their stay in Omaha,” he said. “Now, it’s my turn to take care of them.”

Dr. Maurer said he plans to take them to the Jerry Seinfeld performance at the Orpheum Theater on Sept. 18 and will make sure they are exposed to some of Omaha’s top dining experiences.

During his trip to China, Dr. Maurer signed an agreement with the Chinese Academy of Sciences — the Chinese equivalent of the U.S National Academy of Science — to form a joint center for research collaboration. Other U.S. institutions including the University of California-Davis, University of Arizona and Rutgers University already have expressed interest in joining this center.

In addition, Dr. Maurer also signed an agreement with Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine to initiate a joint M.D./Ph.D. program that would allow medical students from the Chinese university to come to UNMC to earn a Ph.D. degree after their M.D. training in China. It’s the first such program between a U.S. and Chinese university.

“What many of the universities do — with some exceptions — is they go over there (to China), and they sign agreements and nothing really happens,” Dr. Maurer said. “The agreements are shelved. That’s not what we’re doing. If we sign agreements with Beijing and Shanghai in these areas, we contribute and they contribute. We’ve also been very fortunate that we are on the list of institutions in which their students will be eligible for scholarship support. There are about 10 such institutions in the United States. We now have made that list.”

Dr. Maurer said UNMC initially plans to focus most of its attention internationally on China and India.

He noted that a group of UNMC officials will be going to China next month to continue to build relationships.

From left, Dr. Jiayang Li, vice president of the Chinese Academy of Science, UNMC Chancellor Harold M. Maurer, M.D., and Beverly Maurer unveil a plaque commemorating the formation of the joint research center between UNMC and the Chinese Academy of Science.

Dr. and Mrs. Maurer, front row third and fourth from left, and Dr. Zheng, back row second from right, at dinner with Chinese Academy of Science representatives who have interest in collaborating with UNMC.

From left, Dr. Zheng, Dr. Zhenggang Zhu, vice president of Shanghai Jiao Tong University and dean of the Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Mrs. Maurer, Dr. Maurer, and Dr. Xiaoming Shen, vice mayor of Shanghai City, at Shanghai’s city hall.

The establishment of a joint center between UNMC and the Chinese equivalent of the National Institutes of Health and the creation of the first joint M.D./Ph.D. program between a U.S. and Chinese university were among the highlights of a recent trip to China by UNMC Chancellor Harold M. Maurer, M.D.

Dr. Maurer, his wife Beverly, and Jialin Zheng, M.D., director of the UNMC Asia Pacific Rim Development Program (APRDP), visited two cities in China earlier this month.

“This was a wonderful and productive trip,” Dr. Maurer said. “We’ve been very fortunate to be able to develop deep relationships with Chinese institutions and this trip gave us a chance to officially get the wheels rolling on some exciting new endeavors.”

During the trip, Dr. Maurer signed an agreement with the Chinese Academy of Science — the Chinese equivalent of the National Institutes of Health — to form a joint center for research collaboration. Other U.S. institutions including the University of California-Davis, University of Arizona and Rutgers University already have expressed interest in joining this center.

Dr. Maurer also signed an agreement with Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine to initiate a joint M.D./Ph.D. program that would allow medical students from the Chinese university to come to UNMC to earn a Ph.D. degree after their M.D. training in China.

Dr. Maurer said the accomplishments achieved during the trip were the culmination of the hard work and effort of many people at UNMC including:

• Don Leuenberger, vice chancellor for business and finance;
• Tom Rosenquist, Ph.D., vice chancellor for research;
• Rubens Pamies, M.D., vice chancellor for academic affairs;
• John Gollan, M.D., Ph.D., dean of the College of Medicine;
• Virginia Tilden, D.N.Sc., dean of College of Nursing;
• Gerald Moore, M.D., associate dean of the College of Medicine; and
• Sheila Ryan, Ph.D., director of international education programs in the College of Nursing.

Dr. Maurer made special note of the work done by Dr. Zheng and the APRDP staff, which has been instrumental in developing UNMC’s relationships with China.

“Dr. Zheng truly has a passion for helping us build relationships with these prestigious Chinese institutions,” Dr. Maurer said. “He and his staff have worked tirelessly to build our profile in China.”

Also during his trip, Dr. Maurer was able to meet with several academic and governmental leaders including Jiayang Li, Ph.D., vice president of the Chinese Academy of Science, Le Kang, Ph.D., president of Beijing Life Science Institute of the Chinese Academy of Science, Jie Zhang, Ph.D., president of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and Xiaoming Shen, M.D., Ph.D., vice mayor of Shanghai City.

China is a burgeoning society, Dr. Maurer said, and it will serve UNMC well to build strong relationships with colleagues in that country.

With its massive population of more than 1 billion people, China has an incredibly large number of researchers and also a vast potential to facilitate a massive amount of clinical research, he said.

“It was a very busy and productive trip,” Dr. Zheng said. “I was glad Dr. Maurer and his wife, Beverly, were able to come to China and meet with the key leaders of these important institutions.

“These key leaders enjoyed their interactions with Dr. Maurer and his wife and their presence really helped put the cap on a lot of important work that other UNMC leaders have been doing here at the medical center.”