Category: Uncategorized

Ebola Case Confirmed – Are you Ready? National Ebola Training and Education Center

Earlier this Month, WHO confirmed a case of Ebola related death in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Although there is not a known widespread outbreak, such confirmations raise questions of  preparedness. Are you ready if there is another outbreak of Ebola or another highly contagious infectious disease? If you are not prepared, or unsure, […]

May 19, 2017

Dr. Hankins on “Why UNMC ID?”

Dr. Hankins on “Why UNMC ID”   When I started residency I had no idea what I wanted to do afterwards.  Soon I realized as an intern that every patient I saw in which we were treating for an infection, suddenly became the patients I was most interested in.  I was amazed at how quickly patient’s […]

May 15, 2017

ID Journal Club on HPV Vaccination

What Are You Reading?     At the last Infectious Diseases Journal Club, I reviewed “Quadrivalent HPV Vaccination and the Risk of Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes”, a comprehensive review published in the March 30th, 2017 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine that examined adverse pregnancy outcomes between women who received the quadrivalent HPV vaccine during pregnancy and […]

May 12, 2017

Infection Prevention and Healthcare Associated Infections

It is difficult to overstate the importance of healthcare associated infections (HAI).  Approximately 4% of patients who enter hospitals in the United States develop an infection related to their hospital care.  Although 4% may not sound like a big number, when you multiply 4% by the tens of millions of admissions to U.S. hospitals, it […]

May 8, 2017

Let’s Talk About…HIV and Stigma

Recently, Nikki Regan, APRN at the Nebraska Medicine Specialty Care Clinic, was a guest speaker for the Healthy Lifestyles curriculum at her alma mater, Ridge View Middle School (formerly Schaller-Crestland), in Early, IA. Regan led a discussion about HIV and stigma for a group of approximately sixty (very curious) 8th graders. They talked about HIV […]

May 4, 2017

Dr. Zimmer on “Why I Love ID”

Dr. Zimmer on “Why I Love ID”: I love the diversity and complexity of the field and especially enjoy working with immunocompromised populations. Seeing a variety of challenging cases and working with multiple different teams makes every day interesting. Learn more about Dr. Zimmer and the UNMC ID Division here.

May 2, 2017

Share Your Story

I was given the rare opportunity to share my story via the AAMC of how I came to be both a physician and Infectious Diseases/Critical Care subspecialist. Everyone has an amazing story to tell full of both successes and failures, lessons learned and lessons yet to come. Here at UNMC I am honored to be surrounded […]

May 1, 2017

Happy Medical Laboratory Professionals Week – Celebrating our AWESOME Microbiology team!

Work hard, play hard. Medicine is a hard job AND a team sport. We must take time out to celebrate our colleagues work and accomplishments! This week is Medical Laboratory Professionals Week, which is held the last full week of April each year.  Events are held to celebrate the critical work that clinical laboratory scientists […]

Apr 27, 2017

UNMC Study Documents Value of Blood Diversion Device to Prevent Contamination of Blood Cultures

A prospective controlled trial conducted by Rupp and colleagues in the UNMC ID Division demonstrates a significant 87.6% decrease in blood culture contamination.  Results were recently published in Clinical Infectious Diseases and are available on open access at:  https://academic.oup.com/cid/article/3099374/Reduction-in-Blood-Culture-Contamination-Through The study was conducted in the Nebraska Medicine Emergency Department and involved 971 patients and 1,942 […]

Apr 24, 2017

“After Ebola: Nebraska and the Next Pandemic”

Nebraska is a midwest state with those innate values that, in my limited experience thus far, tends to be against boasting and toward humility. Characteristics often to be proud of, but at times, humbleness verges on being a fault. The Ebola experience highlights the experience here – UNMC and NMC were ready for Ebola – for […]

Apr 19, 2017