Leaders from UNMC and around Nebraska testified Thursday in support of three UNMC proposals to boost the state through funding from the federal American Rescue Plan Act.
Read about their testimony before the Legislature's Appropriations Committee and about how UNMC and its partners would advance rural health care, push advancements in pancreatic cancer research and prepare Nebraska for future disasters.
UNMC-UNK Rural Health Complex: Read about the proposal.
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| The Rural Health Complex (at right) would be located next to the existing UNK Health Science Education Complex. |
Receiving training in rural Nebraska, John Craig, MD, says, allows health professions students to be well prepared to meet health needs of rural communities, become integrated into those communities and experience the culture of the community.
Those are among the reasons that Dr. Craig, a Minden native who now practices in his hometown, traveled to Lincoln on Thursday to testify in support of LB 721, a bill sponsored by Sen. Robert Hilkemann. The bill would provide funding toward the Healthier Rural Nebraska Initiative, providing new and expanded UNMC health science programs at the University of Nebraska at Kearney.
UNMC Pancreatic Cancer Center of Excellence: Read about the proposal.
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| The Pancreatic Cancer Center of Excellence would be housed within the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center. |
UNMC and Nebraska Medicine physicians and scientists are among the world’s leaders in developing and testing treatments for pancreatic cancer, a deadly disease that kills 200 Nebraskans annually.
Unfortunately, current funding supports only about 20% of that team’s best ideas for developing new diagnostic tests and therapies to fight the disease, said Kelsey Klute, MD, a medical oncologist at the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center.
“In other words, four out of five of our best ideas for how to better diagnose and treat pancreatic cancer are delayed or not investigated because of insufficient funding,” Dr. Klute said Thursday during testimony before the Legislature’s Appropriations Committee.
UNMC Global Center for Health Security: Read about the proposal.
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| UNMC Global Center for Health Security leaders Shelly Schwedhelm (center) and James Lawler, MD, (at left) address the emerging coronavirus pandemic. |
The Global Center for Health Security (GCHS) at UNMC/Nebraska Medicine has helped to make Nebraska a national voice on health security expertise and biopreparedness.
Now, one-time funding being considered by the Nebraska Legislature would benefit hospitals, businesses, schools, local governments and others statewide to prepare for the next disaster, whether that be another pandemic, a natural disaster or other high-impact event.
“As this pandemic has demonstrated, our health security not only impacts our personal and family safety, but our economy, education, travel, spiritual as well as our emotional well-being,” UNMC Chancellor Jeffrey P. Gold, MD, said Thursday.