In early January, UNMC hosted a group from Elsevier, a world-leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services, to discuss UNMC’s growing efforts in clinical simulation and e-learning and opportunities for potential partnerships.
John Danaher, M.D., president of education, Jay Katzen, president of clinical solutions, and Brad Fenwick, D.V.M., Ph.D., senior vice president for global strategic alliances, met with UNMC Chancellor Jeffrey P. Gold, M.D., Dele Davies, M.D., vice chancellor for academic affairs, and other campus leaders.
“We recognize we have something special here at UNMC and Nebraska Medicine in terms of several of our campus educational and clinical initiatives, and wanted to explore opportunities to partner with a global leader such as Elsevier to be the standard in some of these areas,” said Dr. Davies.
Areas such as the e-learning lab, clinical simulation lab and the Virtual Environment Radiotherapy Treatment (VERT) simulation suite drew praise from the visitors.
“We were incredibly impressed with the people and what they put in place and the investments that UNMC is making to propel health care and education,” Katzen said. “The labs, the virtual reality you have, is incredibly impressive. It’s state of the art and world-class.”
Dr. Danaher praised UNMC’s leadership.
“Dr. Gold’s leadership vision, Dr. Davies’ expertise, the faculty buy-in, the students’ support — what we get excited about, as much as the technology, is the people, the vision and the direction,” said Dr. Danaher. “It’s not technology for technology’s sake, or learning for learning’s sake. It is to improve the efficacy.”
Dr. Danaher further explained how it is a confluence of UNMC’s leadership, existing resources, and student and faculty energy and innovation that will take educational initiatives, like the E-Learning Program, to the next level and make UNMC a global leader.
Dr. Fenwick, who also serves on UNMC’s E-Learning External Advisory Board, said, “At Elsevier, we recognize that the future of advanced learning, academic scientific and medical research, and the application of these are increasingly premised on a higher degree of collaboration and coordination. UNMC shares this vision and we are excited about what a partnership might produce.”
“The impressive thing is the fact that the leadership, faculty and students are working hand-in-hand. There’s no ego going around, this is actually a very collaborative and engaging effort, and it shows,” Katzen said.