Annual Pub 2023 FINAL - Flipbook - Page 17
SUMMER 2023 MAGAZINE
In January, an interdisciplinary research workgroup
supporting UNLV9s academic health initiative was formed
at the university. Assistant and associate deans of research
from the schools of medicine, dental medicine, integrated
health sciences, nursing, and public health, as well as
the college of liberal arts, were formally charged with
developing the physical and structural infrastructure to
support a 25 percent growth in federally-funded research
efforts.
In a guest editorial in the Las Vegas Sun, Dr. Kahn, who also
is the UNLV Vice President for Health Affairs, a position
that oversees the creation of an AHC, said there is a good
foundation in place to build such a center, including a school
of medicine professor studying the role of stem cells to 昀ght
heart disease, and a UMC Trauma Center staffed with UNLV
Health surgeons that sees 96 percent of patients estimated
to have a less than 1 percent of survival actually going home.
He also pointed out that during the COVID-19 pandemic
the medical school engineered and maintained the longest,
continuously running, curbside test sites and recruited a
blood services partner to bring convalescent plasma to the
valley to help treat the sickest people suffering from the
virus. In addition, a UNLV Health team working in UMC9s
intensive care unit (ICU) shared data with researchers at
Harvard University and the Mayo Clinic that was used by
investigators trying to 昀nd the best treatment regimens for
patients critically ill with the virus.
Partnerships, Dr. Kahn said, are vital to the success of an
AHC that he believes will one day be able to provide novel
treatments for cancer, stroke, cognitive disorders, diabetes,
and heart disease. He said the medical school at UNLV will
partner with the Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine and
a planned new medical school at the Roseman University
of Health Sciences to bring the best medical treatment to
Southern Nevada.
Dr. Kahn said the planned AHC will staff clinics for the
underserved, where patients will receive medical, dental,
mental health, and preventative services, regardless of
ability to pay.
How long before this reality waiting to happen, an AHC, is
realized?
