UNMC for the record

The National Ebola Training and Education Center won the CDC's NCEZID (National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases) Award for Excellence in Partnering-Domestic. Pictured from left to right are: John-Martin Lowe, Ph.D., UNMC; Sonia Bell, Emory University; Bruce Ribner, M.D., Emory University; Sharon Vanairsdale, Emory; Phil Smith, M.D., UNMC; Amy Bradford, Emory; Abbigail Tumpey, CDC; and Jennifer Mitchell, CDC.

The National Ebola Training and Education Center won the CDC's NCEZID (National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases) Award for Excellence in Partnering-Domestic. Pictured from left to right are: John-Martin Lowe, Ph.D., UNMC; Sonia Bell, Emory University; Bruce Ribner, M.D., Emory University; Sharon Vanairsdale, Emory; Phil Smith, M.D., UNMC; Amy Bradford, Emory; Abbigail Tumpey, CDC; and Jennifer Mitchell, CDC.

NETEC wins CDC award for excellence
The National Ebola Training and Education Center won the CDC’s NCEZID (National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases) Award for Excellence in Partnering-Domestic. This award recognizes the initiative and effectiveness of programs through establishing and sustaining a strategic partnership with government, private sector, volunteer, or nonprofit organizations.

John-Martin Lowe, Ph.D., assistant professor, environmental, agricultural & occupational health, one of the people recognized by the CDC, and Ted Cieslak, M.D., associate professor, epidemiology, both in the College of Public Health, are now in Germany touring the German biocontainment units that treated Ebola patients.

Next week, Dr. Lowe will attend an International Workshop on Viral Hemorrhagic Fever in Berlin. Main topics that will be discussed include lessons learned from Ebola virus disease and emergency preparedness for Crimean Congo Hemorrhagic Fever. The workshop is co-hosted by the Robert Koch Institute, the World Health Organization, and the German Permanent Working Group of Medical Competence and Treatment Centers.

Panel discussion with Sierra Leone, Liberia ambassadors to be held Wednesday
His Excellency Bockari Kortu Stevens, ambassador for the Republic of Sierra Leone, and His Excellency Jeremiah C. Sulunteh, ambassador for Liberia, will take part in a presentation on “Health – Challenges and Opportunities in Liberia and Sierra Leone,” from 3-4 p.m. Wednesday, April 6, on the University of Nebraska at Kearney campus at the UNMC-UNK Health Science Education Complex. The presentation will also be live-streamed to the UNMC Maurer Center for Public Health, Room 3013.

Pinaki Panigrahi, M.D., Ph.D., professor of epidemiology and director of the Center for Global Health and Development at the UNMC College of Public Health, will moderate from UNMC a panel discussion with the ambassadors. This event is free and open to the public, and classes are welcome to attend.

Medical student honored in poetry competition
Third-year medical student Catherine Tran recently won second place in the 2016 William Carlos Williams Poetry Competition sponsored by the Northeast Ohio Medical University.

Her poem, titled “They Buried Him in California,” was one of hundreds of entries selected on the basis of craftsmanship, originality and content. The poem is about illness and death from the perspective of both the patient and the health care provider, Tran said.

“It explores the process of dying, which can be so lonely and painful for patients and their families, but can become part of the day-to-day for health care providers. I wanted to remind myself how overwhelmed and scared I felt when it was my family member in the hospital.”

Tran said she writes to bring herself clarity and peace. “Medicine can be incredibly rewarding and difficult, and writing is a way to honor the good and process the bad.”

Orthopaedic residents shine in national exam
The UNMC Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and Rehabilitation residency program scored in the 89th percentile for the 2015 Orthopaedic In-Training Exam. This score measures the residents’ knowledge and competency in all areas of orthopaedic surgery, compared to 238 other orthopaedic programs nationwide.