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Under the leadership of UNMC Chancellor Harold M. Maurer, M.D., and the contributions of dedicated faculty, staff and students, UNMC’s impact stretched far and wide, including:
- Making the holidays merrier for children at Monroe Middle School, UNMC’s Adopt-A-School;
- Educating Nebraskans through UNMC’s free Mini-Medical School;
- Training and graduating hundreds of new health professionals;
- Revitalizing midtown Omaha through Destination Midtown;
- Advancing medical science and providing compassionate clinical care; and
- Reaching out to underserved patients in north and south Omaha, as well as around the world through medical mission trips and partnerships in Afghanistan and other international locations.
As we climb to even greater heights in 2005, we pause to reflect on some of the successes of 2004.
Education
In February, the UNMC College of Nursing received the University of Nebraska’s most prestigious teaching award — the 2004 University-Wide Departmental Teaching Award. The award is given in honor and recognition of a department or unit within the university system that has made a unique and significant contribution to the teaching efforts of the university.
In September, UNMC announced the Virginia-Nebraska Alliance, a partnership with five Historically Black Colleges and Universities, a leading Virginia community college and Virginia Commonwealth University to provide a multitude of academic and research opportunities for minority undergraduate students and faculty.
In August, Gov. Mike Johanns announced that Nebraska would begin an aggressive effort to develop a 10-state alliance to provide mutual aid in the event of an act of bioterrorism or other public health emergency. Gov. Johanns approved $200,000 of Nebraska’s bioterrorism funding from the CDC to support the 10-state effort. UNMC committed an additional $50,000. The proposal includes establishment of the Mid-America Demonstration Center for Public Health Preparedness at UNMC. The center would facilitate the establishment of the mutual aid agreements and develop a prototype for a public-health response system, based on Nebraska’s model.
Research
In July, UNMC announced that, in response to a request from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Stephen Rennard, M.D., Larson Professor of Pulmonary Medicine, had applied for a grant to study emphysema. If funded, the grant would use two of the human embryonic stem cell lines approved by President Bush.
In August, UNMC received its largest grant ever — a five-year grant totaling almost $17 million — from the NIH to further its goal of building a statewide biomedical research infrastructure among undergraduate and graduate institutions. James Turpen, Ph.D., professor in the UNMC department of genetics, cell biology and anatomy, is the principal investigator on the grant, which is through the Institutional Development Award Program (IDeA) Networks of Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE). The grant, which totals $16.9 million, comes from the National Center for Research Resources, which is a division of the NIH.
In December, a team of cardiovascular scientists at UNMC received a five-year grant totaling more than $10.6 million from the NIH to study the mechanism for cardiovascular deterioration in heart failure. This is a renewal of a previous five-year grant. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), one of the institutes, that make up the NIH, awarded the program project grant. Irving Zucker, Ph.D., professor and chairman of the Cellular and Integrative Physiology Department in the UNMC College of Medicine, is the principal investigator of the grant.
Facilities
In July, University Medical Associates (UMA) and its partners, The Nebraska Medical Center and UNMC, announced plans to develop a comprehensive, full-service medical campus on the southeast corner of 180th and Dodge Streets, near the new Village Pointe shopping area. The 36-acre campus will include a clinical cancer center, surgery facility, additional medical office buildings, and ultimately inpatient hospital beds. Planning of the first phase of the project — the cancer center — has already begun with completion expected in 2006.
In July, UNMC and the City of Omaha renamed 45th Street the Durham Research Plaza to reflect the major impact Chuck Durham and his late wife, Margre, have made on research, education and patient care.
In August, students began moving into the one- and two-bedroom apartments in UNMC’s new $4.8 million student apartment complex at 38th Avenue and Jackson Streets, near the Ronald McDonald House. The three-story complex, which consists of two brick buildings of 30 units each, is the first apartment building UNMC has built on its campus.
UNMC announced plans for the Research Center of Excellence II, a $74 million research tower that is similar in architectural design to the Durham Research Center.
The Durham Foundation made an undisclosed donation to the 10-level, 242,000-square-foot building and the Nebraska Legislature approved a plan to appropriate $12 million in non-state general fund resources, contingent upon UNMC receiving $30 million in private support. Construction could begin in January 2006, with substantial completion tentatively scheduled for October 2007.
In October, the University of Nebraska Board of Regents approved a proposal allowing the Lincoln Division of the UNMC College of Nursing to move to the Commerce Court Building at 1230 O St. in Lincoln. The move would be temporary, completed in time for the 2005-06 school year and would give the College of Nursing 24,779 square feet of space on three levels of the building. The Lincoln nursing program has been housed in Benton and Fairfield Halls on the downtown UNL campus since 1976.
UNMC began fund-raising for the Center for Health Science Education, a new education facility planned for the northeast corner of 42nd and Emile Streets. The $52 million facility would become a “home” for the College of Medicine.
Outreach
In February, a UNMC contingent went to Kabul, Afghanistan to help improve the educational opportunities for health care providers in the war-torn country, as well as improve the status of women.
During a June trade mission, Gov. Mike Johanns announced the following education, research and patient care partnerships with Chinese institutions: 1) An agreement between UNMC and the Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing to possibly establish a joint graduate program in biomedical-related studies; 2) A partnership between UNMC, The Nebraska Medical Center and the Central Hospital of China National Petroleum Corporation in Beijing to exchange medical information and education; and 3) An exchange program between UNMC and Shanghai Second Medical University to collaborate on biomedical research, education and patient care.
In August, the Health Resources and Services Administration, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, awarded UNMC a $1.13 million grant to create the Panhandle Area Health Education Center (AHEC) in Scottsbluff and provide continued support for the two Nebraska AHECs formed in 2001 and 2002. AHECs are multi-institutional, multi-disciplinary, community-based programs that work with community and academic partners to address the primary health care work force needs and health promotion and disease prevention information needs of medically underserved communities.
In September, the UNMC College of Nursing and the Al-Zaytoonah Private University of Jordan, formalized an affiliation to advance nursing education in Jordan and the Arab region. UNMC’s three-year contract affiliation with AZPU will include sharing its traditional and online nursing education and clinical curriculum, as well as provide faculty training in integrating online courses into traditional curriculum.
In October, the U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (NCLIS) awarded UNMC’s McGoogan Library of Medicine with its 2004 NCLIS Blue Ribbon Consumer Health Information Recognition Award for Libraries for Nebraska. The award spotlighted the library’s Consumer Health Information Resource Service (CHIRS).
Clinical
In 2004, UNMC and its partner, The Nebraska Medical Center, reached a milestone shared by only five other transplant centers in the country by performing more than 2,000 liver transplants. The program started July 1, 1985.
Dr. Leland and Dorothy Olson of Omaha gifted $5 million to create the city’s first comprehensive outpatient center focused exclusively on women’s health. The gift will establish the Olson Women’s Outpatient Care Center as part of the Olson Center for Women’s Health. UNMC anticipates completion of the facility, to be located on the first floor of The Nebraska Medical Center’s Durham Outpatient Center, by the end of 2005.