NASA praises UNMC’s efforts

Shane Farritor, Ph.D., right, shows part of a miniature in vivo robot system to Richard Williams, M.D., NASA’s chief health and medical officer, left, and Desmond Lugg, M.D., chief of NASA’s medicine of extreme environments.

UNMC is serving as an adviser to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) medical office and has worked on projects to help improve NASA’s health care plans to astronauts and their families.

Now, NASA is exploring other partnerships with UNMC in space flight support with a two-day visit to campus.

“It’s a new academic partnership for us,” Richard Williams, M.D., NASA’s chief health and medical officer, said Wednesday. “I think we will get an idea of the range of capabilities beyond how UNMC has helped us already and how they could help us in the future, especially in the context of exploration.”

NASA always is looking to explore other partnerships with academia and industry, said Dr. Williams, who was joined by Desmond Lugg, M.D., chief of NASA’s Medicine of Extreme Environments.

At NASA’s request, UNMC was asked to prepare a detailed analysis of a proposed lifetime health insurance plan for astronauts and their families. The coverage would be delivered through an integrated network of NASA medical facilities and community-based providers.

UNMC also assisted in developing a plan for NASA to provide fertility services for astronauts and their spouses. Because of the inherent danger associated with their profession, some astronauts and their spouses want to be able to bank sperm and eggs.
“Cory (Shaw) and his staff were able to help us articulate a policy,” Dr. Williams said.

“Cory also was very helpful in explaining these plans to senior NASA officials.”
Shaw is chief administrative officer for University Medical Associates, the physician group practice for UNMC.

“We chose UNMC because of the reputation of excellence the university of Nebraska has with regards to knowledge of health care markets,” Dr. Williams said. “We talked to them and liked their proposal. They’ve given us superb support and a product for the Care for Life plan.”

Dr. Williams said NASA would try to get the plan funded and enacted.

On Wednesday, the NASA officials met with Shane Farritor, Ph.D, assistant professor in the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Department of Mechanical Engineering, who is part of a UNL, University of Nebraska at Omaha and UNMC team working on advancing surgical technology, including various mini-robot applications in laparoscopic surgery.