Omaha World Herald (Nebraska)
July 14, 2004, Wednesday
UNMC’s wide reach Omaha-based medical instruction is helping
developing countries.
When a nursing student in the Nebraska Panhandle has a question, the
University of Nebraska Medical Center can provide the answer.
With more than 75 online nursing courses available statewide, UNMC is
providing an important service.
Now the reach of UNMC, in collaboration with the Nebraska Medical
Center, is slowly being extended further — to the other side of the
globe.
In all, UNMC has some 40 cooperative agreements with medical
institutions around the world. About 15 of the agreements are
particularly active. Just a few weeks ago, UNMC officials signed four
cooperative agreements with hospitals in China while accompanying
Gov. Mike Johanns on a trade mission to East Asia.
Harold Maurer, UNMC’s chancellor, has encouraged such international
efforts, which have become reality through the work of such staff
people as Nizar Mamdani, executive director of the Office of
International Healthcare Services; Dr. Ward Chambers, associate
professor of cardiology; Sheila Ryan, a professor in the College of
Nursing; and Donald Leuenberger, vice chancellor for business and
finance.
Ryan, for example, has worked to establish links with nursing staff
in several developing countries. The connections she has forged with
Armenia are particularly impressive. The same types of nursing
courses available throughout Nebraska are now available to students
in that former Soviet republic, which remains wracked by instability.
Significant, too, has been UNMC’s efforts in Afghanistan, another
country attempting to climb out of upheaval. As noted in a
World-Herald story by staff writer Stephen Buttry, Chambers has
visited the Afghan capital five times to cement ties between UNMC and
Kabul Medical University.
It would be hard to exaggerate the severity of medical needs in
Afghanistan. The country’s infant mortality rate is the highest in
Asia. Ninety percent of women do not have prenatal care. One-quarter
of children die before the age of 5.
In the wake of decades of war, Afghanistan’s hospitals and medical
schools have enormous needs, Chambers says. Many hospitals lack
running water and electricity. The country has no magnetic resonance
imaging scanners, efficient computers are scarce, and medical
textbooks are out of date.
UNMC has the potential to do tremendous good by establishing online
medical instruction and other assistance for Afghan medical students.
These efforts display great vision. UNMC is demonstrating an
impressive generosity as it extends a helping hand to those who need
it, not just here in the Midlands, but even on the other side of the
world.