Program Overview
Health security is a new clinical subspecialty that focuses on preparedness and response to local, regional and global health crises. This includes managing resource utilization, overseeing medical team organization, and optimizing health system performance and patient care in response to catastrophic health emergencies. Ultimately, the goals are to preserve health system function and mitigate morbidity, mortality, and social and economic disruptions.
Health security encompasses preparedness and response for a variety of threats, including meteorological and other natural disasters, bioterrorism, chemical, radiological and nuclear incidents, emerging infectious diseases, and pandemics. It is inherently multidisciplinary and team-oriented, involving risk assessment, disease surveillance and modeling, health care planning and operations, incident management, decision science, operations research, technology and system innovation, logistics and supply chain management, health care economics, and national and international policy.
Physicians who practice in the field of health security incorporate skills from the specialties of emergency medicine, infectious disease, critical care, emergency management and public health. As leaders managing planning and operations for complex health care delivery and emergency management systems, health security practitioners must have a strong foundation in the theory and practice of crisis response, disaster medicine and public health.
Curriculum
Some of the training will be curated to help with the fellow’s areas of interest and prior training. Much of the year will be spent doing specialized training in different aspects of health security, included experience or training related to:
- Biopreparedness overview.
- Disaster medicine.
- Public health.
- Biocontainment, isolation and quarantine medical care.
- Communications and interdepartmental coordination.
- Emergency medical services and incident command.
- Emerging infectious diseases, outbreaks and pandemics.
- CBRNE (chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and explosives).
- Research.
Global Center for Health Security
UNMC is home to the Global Center for Health Security, which is a global leader in health emergency preparedness. The center hosts many unique opportunities including:
The only federally designated quarantine unit in the United States. This unit is a facility for individuals exposed to a highly infectious disease and was used to house Americans repatriated in early days of COVID-19 pandemic.
A joint UNMC/Nebraska Medicine biocontainment patient care unit for safely treating patients infected with dangerous pathogens. The unit serves as the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Region VII Emerging Special Pathogens Treatment Center equipped to care for patients exposed to a high consequence infectious disease.
Established to connect high-level isolation units around the globe for advancement of global readiness and capacity to respond to infectious disease outbreaks. The network leverages UNMC’s leadership and expertise as well as that of experienced global partners to deliver an international training program, clinical trials network, clinical response force and rapid exchange of clinical information during outbreaks.
A physical training center at UNMC that supports training programs in highly infectious disease management for National Disaster Medical System federal responders, uniformed public health service responders and military trainees.
A U.S. Air Force training program founded to develop protocols, best practices and training for military medical personnel in the management and care of individuals with suspected or active highly hazardous infectious diseases.
A network of U.S. institutions with high-level patient isolation units committed to the development and maintenance of rapid response clinical research infrastructure. The network has been funded by federal agencies such as the National Institutes of Health and Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority to rapidly implement special pathogens clinical trials and expand access investigational new drug protocols.