University of Nebraska Medical Center


The University of Nebraska Medical Center is a public center of health sciences research, patient care, and education in Omaha, Nebraska. Founded as a private medical college in 1880, UNMC became part of the University of Nebraska System in 1902. Rapidly expanding in the early 20th century, the university founded a hospital, dental college, pharmacy college, college of nursing and college of medicine. It later added colleges of public health and allied health professions. One of Omaha's top employers, UNMC has an annual budget of $741 million for 2018 to 2019, and an economic impact of $4.8 billion.

History

A private medical college was established in Omaha, in 1880. Renamed the Omaha Medical College the following year, it became part of the University of Nebraska system in 1902. A university hospital opened in 1917. In 1968, the University of Nebraska united its health sciences, forming the University of Nebraska Medical Center campus. In 1991, a technology transfer office was created, known as UNeMed. In 1997, the UNMC hospital merged with the nearby Bishop Clarkson Hospital to become what was later renamed Nebraska Medicine.

Academics and rankings

In 2019, UNMC's primary care program was ranked eighth of 185 medical schools by U.S. News & World Report. Other programs that also received a national ranking include the College of Public Health ; Research ; the physician assistant program ; and the College of Nursing master's program and doctoral program. The College of Nursing's graduate online nursing program tied at 66th with eight other institutions out of 178 ranked schools, and the nursing administration/leadership program, known as the LEAD program, was ranked 12th in online nursing administration programs, according to U.S. News & World Report.
UNMC was named a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program Top Producing Institution for the 2019-2020 academic year by the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.
UNMC's commitment to research has resulted in the addition of the twin state-of-the-art Durham Research Towers and the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center, opened in June 2017. Federal research grants totaled $138 million in 2018-19.
The Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center, a $370 million project, the largest project ever at the University of Nebraska, opened in 2017. The Buffett Cancer Center is a joint project with UNMC’s primary clinical partner, Nebraska Medicine. and includes three areas dedicated to cancer: the Suzanne and Walter Scott Research Tower, the C.L. Werner Cancer Hospital, and a multidisciplinary outpatient treatment clinic. It is one of 69 centers designated by the National Cancer Institute.
Colleges and institutes:
Construction projects under way in 2019 include:
Projects completed in recent years include:
During the 2014 Ebola epidemic, the federal government tapped Nebraska as one of three units prepared to accept highly infectious patients in the United States. Today, UNMC/Nebraska Medicine has the largest operational biocontainment unit in the nation.
UNMC’s academic, local, state, and federal partnerships have expanded with the initiation of the National Ebola Training and Education Center. the Special Pathogens Research Network and the National Training, Simulation & Quarantine Center. These organizations and additional alliances are housed under the Global Center for Health Security.
In 2016, the Global Center was awarded a $19.8 million grant from the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Preparedness and Response in the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. The four-year federal grant — which has renewable options for an additional 21 years — enables UNMC to teach federal health care personnel procedures in treating highly infectious diseases.
The University of Nebraska Medical Center created the Global Center for Health Security in 2017. The goal of the creation of the center is to transform and centralize "infectious disease response and biodefense research." Among the reasons behind the move were concerns about outbreaks of viruses, infectious diseases, and an environment where a biological terrorist attack is a possibility.
In 2016, a UNMC team of researchers was awarded a five-year research grant from the National Institutes of Health totaling nearly $20 million, through the Institutional Development Award program and the NIH's National Institute of General Medical Studies. The grant will focus on developing early career researchers into independent scientists and increasing the infrastructure and other resources needed to support clinical/translational research around the region. The grant will create the Great Plains IDeA-CTR Network, a collaboration involving nine institutions in four states: Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Kansas

Novel coronavirus epidemic response

In 2019, UNMC and Nebraska Medicine were enlisted to support a federal operation that evacuated 57 Americans from Wuhan, China, during an epidemic of novel coronavirus. The group were placed in quarantine at Camp Ashland, a Nebraska National Guard facility near Omaha.

Notable alumni