GCHS Highlights
Learn more below about some of the recent GCHS highlights, articles, events, recognition, and updates the GCHS and our programs and partners have been involved with.
June 2024 Highlights
Pandemic Drive Innovation and Post Pandemic Collaborations- The Emergency Medicine and Emerging Pathogens Laboratory Teams
“Despite working within walking distance of each other and sharing the goal of delivering optimal health outcomes, the departments of Emergency Medicine (EM) and the Emerging Pathogens Laboratory (EPL) at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) initially followed parallel paths. This changed in early March 2020 when an unexpected collaboration was sparked. Under the cover of darkness, a team of healthcare professionals from the National Quarantine Unit (NQU) were positioned on the Eppley Airfield tarmac, awaiting the arrival of passengers potentially infected with COVID-19 from the Diamond Princess cruise ship. The NQU team, donned in personal protective equipment (PPE), prepared isolation units to transport the passengers to the NQU homebase at UNMC for SARS-CoV-2 testing and care. Dr. Jana Broadhurst and her EPL team developed one of the nation’s first polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test assays to detect SARS-CoV-2. However, the daunting task remained: collecting diagnostic specimens of a highly virulent pathogen.”
Read more about this collaboration between Drs. Jana Broadhurst, Andy Schnaubelt, Thanh Nguye, and GCHS Scholar Mike Wadman by clicking the button below.
May 2024 Highlights
The Nebraska Biocontainment Unit (NBU) team recently collaborated with UNeTech and the Maverick Technology and Ventures Alliance (MTVA) on the OmniFit gown after winning first place in a national PPE competition. The OmniFit gown was initially presented to UNeTech in August 2023—the only university-affiliated entrepreneurship assistance group in Omaha housed under both UNMC and UNO. UNeTech recommended the MTVA, which is a student-led corporate strategy curriculum overseen by the University of Nebraska. The MTVA, Omaha's Center for Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Franchising, develops business plans for ideas from lecturers and staff at the University of Nebraska Omaha and the University of Nebraska Medical Center. MTVA listened to the NBU team’s suggestions, wanted to know more details about this exceptional chance, and were eager to begin this business study assignment after meeting with UNeTech and the presentation of the NBU’s ideas. They recently finished the midpoint assessment and the final analysis, which will define the idea and direction of our OmniFit gown. A patent application was filed to UNeMed in 2023, and a prototype vendor was selected to develop the OmniFit. An investigation into the gown's components is on track to begin later this year.
April 2024 Highlights
John Lowe, PhD, has been named the inaugural Anne M. Hubbard Chair and department chair of the UNMC Department of Environmental, Agricultural and Occupational Health, effective July 1, 2024.
UNMC College of Public Health members Rachel Lookadoo, Jesse Bell, and Summer Woolsey recently wrote and published a guide titled "Drought and Health: A Message Framework for Public Health Professionals & Healthcare Providers."
Check out this article by MedPage Today as James Lawler, MD, MPH, FIDSA answers the question "Are we testing enough for H5N1?."