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UNMC receives federal grant funding to lead efforts to design a better response to national health emergencies. •Nebraska Examiner

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OMAHA – With a boost in federal funds, the University of Nebraska Medical Center will help lead the development of a new national planning approach for responding to large-scale health crises.

UNMC officials announced Thursday that the effort will be launched with an initial $500,000 from the National Center for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, whose mission is to advance the nation’s public health preparedness for disasters.

Lauren Sauer, deputy director of research at the UNMC Global Center for Health Security. (Courtesy of the University of Nebraska Medical Center)

The medical center and its lead clinical partner, Nebraska Medicine, will convene federal agencies and others from academia and industry to develop a more proactive plan, based on worst-case and large-scale scenarios, to meet medical and public health requirements during national emergencies. .

Such plans will reduce the need to “build on the fly” – an approach used during the COVID-19 pandemic to quickly adapt to growing needs and tight hospital space on an ad hoc basis, says Lauren Sauer, associate director of research at UNMC. Global Center for Health Security.

Any new approach, she said, will do that too identify limitless solutions and define courses of action. It will recognize that, as history has shown, rules do not always apply during catastrophic events.

“A national plan that reflects this reality will allow us to identify and seize opportunities for how we can respond more effectively in moments of crisis when minutes count,” Sauer said. “As a nation, we must develop the ability to build ‘on the fly – by design.’ ”

We must be ready to operate in an environment where rules may not apply and the mission comes first.

– Jeffrey Freeman, Director, National Center for Disaster Medicine and Public Health

The development of a more dynamic health crisis plan is part of ongoing efforts to strengthen the National Disaster Medical System, which Congress created to provide care for U.S. military casualties during the height of the Cold War.

According to UNMC, Congress in 2020 recognized that system’s limited ability to respond to large-scale catastrophes and directed the Defense Department to conduct a five-year pilot program to improve it.

Lessons have been learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, Sauer said. “We did many things right away and now recognize the need for a proactive plan for when things fall outside the norm.”

Dr. Chris Kratochvil, UNMC vice chancellor for external affairs at UNMC. (Courtesy of UNMC)

The new approach will consider a number of issues, UNMC officials said, including ways to rapidly develop and deploy therapies and options to quickly hire, train and retain more clinical staff, especially when the kind of recognized professionals are not available.

“In the most serious health crises, the one-size-fits-all approach will not succeed,” said Jeffrey Freeman, director of the National Center for Disaster Medicine and Public Health at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. “We must be ready to operate in an environment where rules may not apply and the mission comes first.”

Chris Kratochvil, vice president of UNMC, said the project is “fully aligned” with the work of the medical center’s Global Center for Health Security mission and UNMC’s commitment to national preparedness.

Freeman said: “From Ebola to COVID-19, UNMC has effectively delivered science and technology at the forefront of some of our nation’s biggest challenges, and we are confident they will do the same in this national effort .”

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