By University of Nebraska Medical Center
The University of Nebraska Board of Regents Friday, April 24, approved next steps for constructing an Infectious Diseases Air Transport Training (IDAT) facility on the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s Omaha campus, expanding UNMC’s role in national defense preparedness.
The board approved intermediate design review for the free-standing, $17.4 million facility that will extend programs offered by the United States Air Force C-STARS (Center for Sustainment of Trauma and Readiness Skills) Omaha Unit stationed at UNMC. The facility also will house air transport modules and an aircraft fuselage for training military health personnel on transporting highly infectious patients from overseas.
“The IDAT facility will fill a critical national gap and extend UNMC’s record of partnering with the U.S. Department of War and other federal agencies,” said UNMC Interim Chancellor H. Dele Davies, MD. “Currently, there is no training facility for biocontainment air transport of infectious patients and we are honored to lead in this area.”
Construction of the facility will begin in November on an existing UNMC parking lot (Lot 62) on the southern edge of the Omaha campus. The design includes a Hi-Bay training facility, which will include a C-130 Fuselage, C-17 mockup platform, NPC-Lite (Negatively Pressurized Conex) training unit, as well as a simulator control center and classroom, simulator prep room and storage. Occupancy is expected in the fall of 2027.
U.S. Air Force Col. Elizabeth Schnaubelt, MD, director of C-STARS Omaha, said the facility would “serve as a vital national asset, dedicated to providing essential training for safe and effective aeromedical evacuation in biocontainment.”
“This project will expand the military presence in Nebraska and reinforce UNMC’s role in national defense preparedness alongside Offutt Air Force Base and USSTRATCOM,” said Chris Kratochvil, MD, UNMC’s vice chancellor for external relations and senior advisor and distinguished chair for the Global Center for Health Security. He also serves as vice president for external relations for the NU System. “We also want to express our gratitude to Rep. Don Bacon and Sen. Deb Fischer for their support of this initiative.”
UNMC is already developing training for the U.S. Air Force medical units in the NPC biocontainment module, developed by C-STARS Omaha and the U.S. Air Force, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Founded in 2018, C-STARS Omaha has been a partner with UNMC’s Global Center for Health Security in planning, exercising and responding to high consequence infectious disease events and a training program through the U.S. Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine, headquartered at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio.
The IDAT project will be funded by Community Project Funding/Congressionally Directed Spending projects funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration and Department of Defense funding sources.
“I want to thank our faculty and staff at UNMC, Col. Schnaubelt and the C-STARS Omaha team, and Rep. Bacon and Sen. Fischer for their support and tireless effort in bringing this to fruition,” Dr. Davies said. “Though housed in Omaha, the new IDAT facility will have lasting impact on all of Nebraska and the nation.”