UNMC for the record

Magazine honors Dr. Shillcutt as a ‘pathfinder’

UNMC’s Sasha Shillcutt, MD, professor in the UNMC Department of Anesthesiology, was chosen by Metro Magazine as one of Omaha’s “Pathfinders: Women Leading the Way for Other Women.”

Dr. Shillcutt and the other honorees are featured in the June 7 issue of the magazine.

The magazine lauded Dr. Shillcutt not only for her medical accomplishments, but for the creation of her company, Brave Enough, to assist women with achieving work-life balance along with success.

“I’m proud of creating a community where women can empower themselves and get advice from other women,” Dr. Shillcutt told the magazine.

Nebraska providers complete NSRI virtual burn exercises

The National Strategic Research Institute (NSRI) at the University of Nebraska recently concluded a series of five virtual mass casualty preparedness exercises for the Nebraska Healthcare Coalitions.

The scenario-based exercises focused on communication, coordination and treatment protocols for a mass casualty event that resulted in many burn victims. In total, the virtual exercises brought together more than 325 health care professionals from across Nebraska this spring.

“These exercises are important not only for situational awareness, but also provide an opportunity for responders to assess and review current disaster plans, identify gaps in care patterns and address these gaps through improvement processes,” said Judy Placek, nurse practitioner in plastic and burn surgery at Nebraska Medicine and hospital facilitator for the exercises. “Improving our preparedness and ability to respond will not only reduce redundancy and wasting of limited resources, but most importantly save the lives of those impacted by burn injury across Nebraska.”

The objective of the exercises was to test each coalition’s burn annex plan, which is a requirement for the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) Hospital Preparedness Program (HPP). The exercises also achieved requirements for Nebraska Medicine’s $3 million Regional 7 Disaster Health Response Ecosystem Grant from ASPR.

“Nebraskans should be proud of their health care community for preparing to get patients the specialized care they need as swiftly as possible,” said Paul Brantmier, NSRI program manager. “I just appreciated the opportunity to work with everyone in this way. I am always inspired by the teamwork I see from Nebraska.”

Two awarded internal medicine research honors

Two UNMC Department of Internal Medicine Scientist Development Awards recently were presented.

Christopher D’Angelo, MD, received the award for his research titled “Prebiotics to Improve Gut Microbiome Diversity After Autologous Stem Cell Transplantation in Multiple Myeloma and Lymphoma: The PRIMAL Trial.” Dr. D’Angelo is an assistant professor in the UNMC Division of Hematology/Oncology.

Dustin Krutsinger, MD, received the award for “Exploring the Impact of Unengaged Stakeholders and Intra-Family Conflict in Critical Care Surrogate Decision Making.” Dr. Krutsinger is an assistant professor in the UNMC Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine.