The Nebraska Coordinating Commission for Postsecondary Education Tuesday unanimously approved establishment of the College of Public Health at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. The action endorsed the July 28 action of the University of Nebraska Board of Regents.
"The College of Public Health will add an important element to the UNMC mission, namely population health science education, research and outreach to improve the health of the population of Nebraska and beyond," said Jay Noren, M.D., MPH, the college’s founding dean. "Population science approaches complement the existing high quality individual patient approaches already provided by the Colleges of Medicine, Nursing, Dentistry, Pharmacy and the School of Allied Health Professions."
The college will add new dimensions to UNMC, Dr. Noren said, including increased expertise in health promotion and wellness, community health education, surveillance methods to detect infectious disease epidemics, analysis of trends in major chronic diseases and rural health issues.
It also will focus on environmental health, education of health system leaders, health services research, workplace health and safety and accident prevention.
Since beginning at UNMC on July 15, Dr. Noren has held more than 60 one-on-one meetings with experts – at UNMC, in Nebraska and nationwide – about the keys to building the best college possible. He also has appointed a 15-person Design and Implementation Task Force to assist with the college’s formation.
The UNMC College of Public Health will become the 39th accredited public health college in the United States, and the only one in the northern half of the country between the University of Iowa and the University of Washington. The formation of the college will facilitate the university’s competitiveness for federal and philanthropic funding of public health research and education.
UNMC is the only public health science center in the state. Its educational programs are responsible for training more health professionals practicing in Nebraska than any other institution. Through its commitment to education, research, patient care and outreach, UNMC has established itself as one of the country’s leading centers in cancer, transplantation biology, bioterrorism preparedness, neurodegenerative diseases, cardiovascular diseases, genetics, biomedical technology, ophthalmology and arthritis. UNMC’s research funding from external sources is now nearly $80 million annually and has resulted in the creation of more than 2,600 highly skilled jobs in the state. UNMC’s physician practice group, UNMC Physicians, includes more than 460 physicians in 50 specialties and subspecialties. They practice primarily in The Nebraska Medical Center, UNMC’s teaching hospital. For more information, go to UNMC’s Web site at www.unmc.edu.