Lt. Gen. Dorothy Hogg, U.S. Air Force Surgeon General, and key members of her team visited UNMC in December to meet with leadership and tour the medical center, including federal-UNMC partnerships such as the National Strategic Research Institute, the UNMC Global Center for Health Security , and the Center for Sustainment of Trauma Readiness Skills (C-STARS) Omaha.
Hogg was joined by Maj. Gen. Robert Miller, M.D., the Air Force director of medical operations and research, and David Neri, Ph.D., Air Force Medical Service chief scientist, and other key staff members. After meeting with UNMC Chancellor Jeffrey P. Gold, M.D., the group’s tour also included the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit, the Simulation-in-Motion, or SIM-NE trucks, and the iEXCEL Visualization Hub.
At the UNMC Global Center for Health Security, Chris Kratochvil, M.D., associate vice chancellor for clinical research, and GCHS co-director, provided an overview of the facility. Ben Stobbe, assistant vice chancellor for clinical simulation, led a tour through the rest of the Dr. Edwin G. & Dorothy Balbach Davis Global Center.
“It was important to have my team here to see the partnership and collaboration that we’re doing with UNMC, first,” said Hogg. “Then second, to be able to truly understand the capability that UNMC can bring to us as a team going forward, in how to deal with some of the same kinds of health problems we all deal with — bio-disease containment, global health security. I’m excited for the possibilities for future collaboration.”
Miller was impressed, as well.
“When you combine the clinical skills, the education and training, research and development, I’ve personally not seen anyone do it better than the University of Nebraska when it comes to disease containment and these types of issues,” he said. “It’s impressive.”
As a Veteran of the Air Force, this collaboration is a point of pride for me as a UNMC employee.