UNMC for the record, March 11, 2022

Dr. Davis reappointed to U.S. National Biodefense Safety Board

Dele Davies, MD, UNMC's senior vice chancellor for academic affairs and dean for graduate studies, has been reappointed by the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for a second three-year term on the National Biodefense Safety Board.

Dr. Davies currently cochairs its Readiness and Resilience Working Group. During his first term, he chaired recommendations to improve and standardize national training and readiness for health care professions and public health responders, the NBSB Report on the Strategic Improvements to the National Medical Disaster Medical System (NDMS) and co-chaired the Recommendations for the 2023-2026 National Health Security Strategy.

Dr. Davies said he is looking forward to continuing to support the country in this advisory role.

Winners selected in UNeMed contest

UNeMed's inaugural "Back-o-the-Napkin Contest" closed recently, and organizers selected three winning inventions that will receive further development guidance and prototyping.

The "Single Laser Measurement Device for Jump Testing" was submitted by Michael Rosenthal, DSc, Elizabeth Wellsandt, DPT, and Michael Wellsandt, DPT. All three co-inventors are physical therapists in allied health. Their proposed device is a portable, single laser jump-testing device for repeatable, objective horizontal and vertical testing.

The "Beam Helmet" was submitted by Elizabeth Beam, PhD, a registered nurse in the UNMC College of Nursing. She designed a personalized, protective helmet for doctors that could replace filtering face piece respirators and powered air-purifying respirators.

The "Wearable Pinch Ligation Device – Python" was submitted by Quan Ly, MD, and Meghana Kashyap, MD, from the UNMC College of Medicine's Division of Surgery; and Larry Hart, a UNeTech prototyping fellow at Metropolitan Community College. Their invention is a wearable, electrosurgical ligation device to facilitate improved tissue sparing surgical procedures.

UNeMed, the technology transfer and commercialization office for UNMC and the University of Nebraska at Omaha, sponsored the contest in collaboration with the James and Karen Linder Maker Studio at UNMC's McGoogan Library, UNeTech Institute and UNO's Center for Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Franchising.