A message from the dean

I would like to thank the many information technology staff and leaders across the UNMC/Nebraska Medicine enterprise for their dedication and the enormous hours of work they put in to address the cyber incident that emerged two weeks ago. Their efforts were truly heroic. Thanks to them, we are beginning to return to normal, with access to critical software systems and files.

This cyber event has disrupted the norm for all members of the College of Medicine, regardless of your role. Therefore, I also want to thank each of you for your extraordinary efforts to meet the challenges of accomplishing the missions of the college, without the benefit of the IT infrastructure upon which we have become so dependent.

Thanks as well to our students, residents and fellows for their patience and flexibility. The creativity and resilience that has been demonstrated in all aspects of education and clinical care has been nothing short of spectacular.

Similarly, our clinical faculty and staff found themselves employing downtime procedures. We train heavily to ensure that these downtime procedures go smoothly. Nevertheless, it is cumbersome, and they pulled together with their Nebraska Medicine colleagues to continue to provide safe and effective care to patients.

To each of you, thank you for your dedication to UNMC and Nebraska Medicine. You make me very proud to be a part of the College of Medicine.

What you may not realize is that we were not unique among health care institutions in being targeted by cyber criminals. In fact, attacks against health care institutions have tripled in recent weeks as cybercriminals look to exploit the “work from home” environment as an opportunity to evade cybersecurity systems. None of us wants to go through what we have experienced again. So, please elevate your vigilance in being on guard for
emails and web sites that may include links to malicious malware. If at all possible, separate your personal and professional electronic activities so as to not put our entire UNMC/Nebraska Medicine network at risk.

Before closing I would like to shift to a different topic — that of diversity. The diversity of an organization’s members and culture has been repeatedly shown to enhance the quality of the product of that organization. This applies to colleges of medicine and their missions of medical education, research and health care.

As detailed in another section of InterCOM, the addition of Dr. Shirley Delair to the leadership team of the College of Medicine as associate dean for diversity, equity and inclusion is one of many steps the college will be taking to make us a more diverse and welcoming organization for all. Dr. Delair will be leading our efforts in this arena. I look forward to working closely with Dr. Delair, and I know that she will welcome your support and ideas.

Bradley Britigan, MD
Dean
UNMC College of Medicine