The University of Nebraska Medical Center is a leader in infectious diseases and biodefense research and the Board of Regents voted to coordinate that expertise under one umbrella by establishing the Global Center for Health Security. Their biocontainment unit served the country and the world well during by treating patients with Ebola in 2014. Associate Vice Chancellor for Basic Science Research Dr. Ken Bayles says a lot has happened at the hospital since then.
Dr. Bayles says, “There have been a lot of things going on behind the scenes. A lot of it takes advantage of the lessons that we learned with the Ebola patients and really making sure across the country other hospitals are able to better be prepared for highly infectious diseases that may occur in the future.”
Dr. Bales says they will continue to expand the work being done regarding health security and biodefense capabilities in clinical care, education and training.
It brings together programs in place and add a leadership structure to improve coordination of programs. No extra funds are being used to create the center and will operate out of its current space on campus. It will also occupy some space in the Dr. Edwin Davis and Dorothy Balbach Davis Global Center for Advanced Interprofessional Learning which is under construction.