Legislative candidate Tony Sorrentino visits UNMC

Tony Sorrentino hears a presentation from Mark Vazquez, program manager with the Global Center for Health Security, on UNMC's ISTARI portable negative pressure containment patient care system.

Editor’s note: UNMC writes a brief article on each candidate for office who has an official visit to campus before Nov. 1. If you are a candidate and wish to visit UNMC for a briefing, please contact Jeff Kratz, director of government relations.

Legislative candidate Tony Sorrentino, who is running to represent District 39 and western Douglas County in the Nebraska Legislature, visited UNMC on July 22.

Sorrentino toured the Davis Global Center, where he watched a video of John Lowe, PhD, director of the UNMC Global Center for Health Security, in the holographic theater. He also saw some of the med center’s biosecurity capabilities at the facility’s National Training, Simulation and Quarantine Center.

Sorrentino called the facility cutting edge but yet a best-kept secret.

“When it comes to infectious diseases, it’s basically like the center of the universe,” he said. “That’s unbelievable.”

He added, “What we’re building here is incredible. … We’ve got an opportunity to build on what we’ve already put together here. This is life changing.”