I was amazed at the center’s extraordinary leap into a world of precision learning. It offers dramatic increases in the ability to educate and train people to the highest standards.
There are two organizations within the Davis Global Center.
First, is the Global Center for Health Security (GCHS), which focuses on improving the methods for responding to and treating the most dangerous diseases.
Second, there is a remarkable, indeed amazing, organization that goes by the unusual name of iEXCEL. This stands for Interprofessional Experiential Center for Enduring Learning.
These two systems work synergistically. Each learns from and supports the other. Dr. Pamela Boyers, who leads iEXCEL, explained to me that these two entities share technology, expertise, training, and data on simulations. Some of this includes creating 3D imagery of viruses, patient lungs, medical technologies, and other practical models.
As Dr. Boyers explained to me in a note:
“The distinction between the Global Center for Health Security and iEXCEL is that iEXCEL trains all disciplines in health care at all levels of care, and the GCHS is federally funded to focus upon specialized training and research in emerging high consequence diseases—originally based on Ebola (since the infectious disease specialists at UNMC had significant experience in caring for patients with Ebola).”
The center’s emphasis on detailed visual knowledge is overwhelming when you first walk into the building. In the atrium, there is a three-story hologram that cycles models of the human brain and other aspects of human biology.
It is a 23-foot tall, 20-foot wide 8K display. It’s the tallest crystal LED display in the western hemisphere. The clear purpose of the display is to stimulate excitement and innovation in learning—and to showcase the remarkable imagery created in the center.
As with so many great breakthroughs, there are years of pioneering behind this operation. The GCHS includes a federally funded Training, Simulation, and Quarantine Center (TSQC). This was built on the shoulders of University of Nebraska pioneers in infectious disease. These were truly heroes and heroines. They were far-sighted and routinely trained to prepare for the eventuality of emerging pathogens such as Ebola—and COVID-19—many years in advance of the crisis. They were the team that helped repatriate American citizens from Wuhan, China. They are at the heart of the GCHS.
If you want proof of the enormous potential that already exists and is operating every day, you must visit the Davis Global Center. It is a transformative model of health professions education and training—combined with continuous, highly accurate simulations of health care activities.
All of this can be used in a distant learning environment, so the center’s potential reach is enormous. For example, Nebraska has five nursing education sites scattered around the large rural state. All five have virtual distance learning access to the Davis Global Center’s extraordinary simulation and advanced visual learning systems. The University of Nebraska is pioneering the use of artificial intelligence- and virtual reality-based technology to enhance learning and equip the next generation with critically important tools to enhance competence and confidence in health care and well beyond.
I was deeply impressed by the Davis Global Center for three different reasons.
First, it has a remarkable capacity for dealing with potential pandemics and emerging dangerous diseases. There is a huge danger if we as a country are unprepared for another COVID-type catastrophe. As we have seen, experimental pathogens can escape by accident or be released deliberately in biological warfare. Even without human intervention, nature routinely develops newer methods of killing animals and people. The Davis Global Center’s ability to respond and safely care for infected people—and analyze and monitor globally emerging diseases—is a major asset for the United States.
Second, the quality of precision learning is amazing. The center can reach numerous doctors, nurses, and other health care professionals to educate them about usable general knowledge and train them with specifically applied knowledge and skills. This will play a major role in reducing medically caused deaths, which are clearly far too common. Making America Healthy Again can rely on systems such as the Davis Global Center to improve medical knowledge and effectiveness. In so doing, it can improve health care access and quality and reduce cost.
Third, the combination of augmented and virtual reality imaging, advanced simulations, and focused measured learning is a potential breakthrough for learning in America. All of this can be delivered with distance capabilities. It may be that the Davis Global Center has important lessons for everyone who is concerned about the crisis in American education.
Whether you are interested in health or learning, you should visit Omaha and go to the Davis Global Center.
