UNMC officials Friday will seek approval of the Board of Regents for establishing a College of Public Health (COPH) on the UNMC campus. The board will vote on the matter during a board meeting in Grand Island. UNMC presented its initial proposal to the Academic Affairs Committee of the Board of Regents at the June 15 board meeting.
The COPH will allow Nebraska to better address a variety of critical health-related issues, said Harold M. Maurer, M.D., UNMC chancellor. These include emergency preparedness, emerging and pandemic diseases such as SARS and the avian flu, health disparities, and increasing public health risks such as obesity, substance abuse, inadequate prenatal care and age-related diseases.
“The time is right,” Dr. Maurer said. “Our mission is to improve the health of Nebraska. We firmly believe that the College of Public Health would make a huge difference in helping us meet this goal.”
Dr. Maurer said the COPH would be the first new college at UNMC since 1968. He said it is the only major academic unit typically associated with a comprehensive health science center that is not presently part of UNMC.
Currently, there are only 38 public health colleges in the U.S. The UNMC college would be the only one west of the Missouri River except for programs in Texas, California, Arizona, Oklahoma and Washington.
“The College of Public Health would fill the gap in the university’s ability to educate the complete spectrum of health professionals,” said Rubens Pamies, M.D., vice chancellor for academic affairs. “It will allow us to emphasize disease prevention and health promotion for all populations of Nebraska and conduct the type of research that can impact the entire population in the state.”
During the next five years UNMC will provide support for the new college by reallocating nearly $3.6 million in existing resources, infusing dedicated Programs of Excellence funds amounting to more than $5 million and bringing in more than $6.5 in research grants and contracts. The reallocation of current resources will come primarily from several UNMC departments, which will provide existing faculty to the COPH – Preventive and Societal Medicine, the Rural Health Education Network (RHEN), the Health Professions Tracking Center (HPTC) and the Biosecurity Center – as well as other ongoing Programs of Excellence.
Dr. Maurer noted the potential economic impact of the college. Initial estimates indicate that the college could bring in $30 million in new funds within five years, resulting in a $67.5 million boon to the state’s economy and 700 to 750 new jobs.
The COPH curriculum will concentrate on five knowledge areas basic to public health – health services administration, epidemiology, biostatistics, environmental health science, and social and behavioral science. UNMC has existing faculty in the first three areas, and will recruit additional faculty in the latter two areas, Dr Pamies said.
“We anticipate that at least three to five new faculty will be hired each year over three to four years to meet this need,” he said.
The COPH would initially be housed in existing facilities where current faculty work. Most of this space is in the UNMC Student Life Center, UNMC Annex IV and the UNMC/University of Nebraska at Omaha Annex XI (Collaborating Center for Public Health and Community Service).
Dr. Pamies said that UNMC hopes to eventually consolidate all the COPH activities into a new facility that would be located on 40th Street, just to the south of the UNMC Eye Clinic on Dewey Avenue. Pending COPH approval by the Board of Regents, Dr. Pamies said a separate program statement would be developed for this new building.
Three existing centers at UNMC – the Nebraska Center for Rural Health Research, the Nebraska Center for Biosecurity and the Environmental Toxicology Center – will be associated with the COPH, Dr. Pamies said. In addition, the HPTC, RHEN and its associated Area Health Education Center (AHEC) activities also will be brought into the COPH.
Although the COPH will have its home at UNMC, Dr. Pamies said the other three University of Nebraska campuses also would participate in the COPH. The University of Nebraska at Omaha already shares the master’s in public health program with UNMC and will provide faculty and courses in the health services administration and community health education areas. The University of Nebraska-Lincoln has expertise in environmental toxicology and public health issues related to agriculture. The University of Nebraska at Kearney has strengths related to obesity, diabetes and K-12 public school wellness policies.
Several ongoing partnerships and relationships that UNMC has in Nebraska will support the COPH, Dr. Pamies said. These include the Nebraska Health and Human Services System (HHSS), the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), the Nebraska Center of Virology, and the Center for Biopreparedness Education, which involves UNMC, Creighton University and Nebraska HHSS.
The benefits of the COPH will be felt around the state, Dr. Pamies said, as the college will turn out public health professionals to serve in rural and urban communities, while collaborating with state and local government to raise public health competence.
Dr. Pamies said the COPH would seek to achieve six key outcomes:
- A more diverse and prepared public health workforce;
- Increased emphasis on health promotion and disease prevention throughout the state;
- Increased research funding directed toward population-based studies of health and disease;
- Increased policy-relevant research pertinent to local, state and federal government;
- Collaboration with other professional schools to incorporate public health content;
- Establishment and expansion of programs promoting life-long learning; and
- Increased collaboration with Nebraska communities to assess their public health needs and develop programs to meet these needs.
Board of Regents Chairman James McClurg, Ph.D., called the COPH “a strategic opportunity for the state and the university. It will produce important health care jobs, leading edge health care policy and delivery for all Nebraskans, and a unique resource for the entire Midwest.”
The formation of the COPH would allow the university to compete for many federal or philanthropic monies for which it has previously been ineligible, Dr. Pamies said. A report developed by the Association of Schools of Public Health (ASPH) determined that schools and colleges of public health brought in total revenues of more than $1.3 billion in 2004 – an average of about $34 million for each of the 38 institutions. This includes an average of $12.1 million per institution in research funding support from the National Institutes of Health.
Following Board of Regent approval, Dr. Pamies said UNMC would need to receive final approval to move forward on the COPH from the Nebraska Coordinating Commission for Postsecondary Education.