Children's Hospital & Medical Center
The following video is part of our ongoing series featuring physician-leaders to help the entire medical staff learn more about these colleagues:
In order to construct the new medical staff and resident lounges on LL3 of the Wiebe Tower, the current medical staff lounge will be moving Oct. 18. The temporary location for the medical staff lounge will be on LL3 of the Hubbard Tower. The temporary lounge is directly south of the main six-pack elevators and east of the entrance to the Café. Watch for posted signage.
Please click here to see the floor plan.
Children’s Ophthalmology has moved from the Specialty Pediatric Center to Cass East, at 8534 Cass Street. This is good news for our families, as well as staff, as there is now a 60 percent larger clinic space, more appointment availability and convenient patient parking.
Our Pediatric Ophthalmology providers, Paul Rychwalski, M.D.; Samiksha Fouzdar Jain, M.D.; Rachel Smith, O.D.; Lianna Ng, O.D.; and Kelsey Jennings, O.D., care for the unique vision needs of children and adolescents in a child-friendly environment with associated services on site, including Optometry and an Optical Shop.
Make plans to attend the final Physician/Provider Town Hall on Friday, Oct. 15, from 6 to 6:30 a.m. Join from a PC, Mac, iPad, iPhone or Android device:
Please click this URL to join:
https://childrensomaha.zoom.us/j/93418752183?pwd=bFkrNEpOajNvNTBZSGxQSzloS2FaZz09
Passcode: 089946
Children’s fourth quarter Town Hall sessions are Oct. 19-22 on Zoom. Please plan to join one of these calls to hear from Children’s senior executives regarding the organization’s strategic initiatives
If you would like to submit a question to be addressed during sessions, please email it to MyChildrens@ChildrensOmaha.org by the end of the day on Thursday, Oct. 14.
PLEASE NOTE: Due to ongoing COVID-19 restrictions, these town hall meetings will be held remotely. Zoom meeting information is posted below. DO NOT go to Glow Auditorium.
The fourth quarter Town Halls will be held at the following times:
Tuesday, Oct. 19
8:45-9:15 a.m.
6:15 – 6:45 p.m.
Wednesday, Oct. 20
10 – 10:30 a.m.
Thursday, Oct. 21
8 – 8:30 a.m.
12 – 12:30 p.m.
3 – 3:30 p.m.
Friday, Oct. 22
10:30 – 11 a.m.
12 – 12:30 p.m.
All town halls will use the same Zoom number, regardless of day/time:
https://childrensomaha.zoom.us/j/97778000393?pwd=Sm1MQk0vWmhiMExsc2pYT3BQeCtxZz09
Meeting ID: 977 7800 0393
Passcode: 799094
As health care providers, it is our duty to safeguard our patients’ protected information. And as professionals, it is our duty to keep private matters private. Last spring, our security team learned of multiple instances when uninvited users joined a meeting, were confronted and left the meeting without saying a word. While these incidents may have been accidents, they were suspicious enough to warrant widespread conversations regarding masking meeting details in Outlook calendar settings. Now another similar vulnerability has been brought to the fore.
This time the risk lies within Zoom. Zoom, if by some odd chance you’ve never heard of it (where have you been?), is a video conferencing platform that lets users communicate via virtual meetings. It’s a powerful tool that has, along with its competitors, allowed us to maintain productivity throughout the pandemic while also keeping safely separate from one another. Children’s has an enterprise account, but Zoom also allows individuals to create accounts of their own. Many of you have already done this, which is totally acceptable; however, individual users are often not utilizing the built-in security features that Zoom offers. This creates a security risk.
Therefore, beginning Nov. 1, all accounts created in Zoom with a Children’s email address will require the use of the waiting room feature and meeting passwords. This change will apply to all Children’s domain accounts, whether assigned through Children’s, or self-requested through Zoom. While it may not seem like much, this will make meetings as secure as reasonably possible and keep unwanted guests out.
As a reminder, Children’s encourages the use of Zoom for meetings with 50 or more participants and Virtual Care appointments. WebEx is to be used for all other use cases.
Thank you for your cooperation, your understanding and for all you do to make our digital world safe and sound. Please contact Mark Vande Brake if you have any questions about Zoom, or reach out to me regarding any other technology issues.
Special thanks to Melissa Rappl, chief information security officer, and Mark Vande Brake, teleconference/av analyst, for their contributions to this week’s piece.
From ransomware to SolarWinds, the cybersecurity space has been as hectic as it has ever been over the last 12 to 24 months. However, for all of the emerging threats cropping up on the horizon, phishing — one of the oldest pain points in cybersecurity — is continuing to quietly wreak havoc and is as big of a threat as it has ever been.
Despite often being overlooked in terms of hype, phishing has been a mainstay in the cybersecurity threat landscape for decades. In fact, 43 percent of cyberattacks in 2020 featured phishing or pre-texting, while 74 percent of U.S. organizations experienced a successful phishing attack last year alone. That means that phishing is one of the most dangerous “action varieties” to an organization’s cybersecurity health. As a result, the need for proper anti-phishing hygiene and best practices is an absolute must.
With that in mind, here are a few quick best practices and tips for dealing with phishing threats.
Know the Red Flags
Phishers are masters of making their content and interactions appealing. From content design to language, it can be difficult to discern whether content is genuine or a potential threat, which is why it is so important to know the red flags. Awkward and unusual formatting, overly explicit call-outs to click a hyperlink or open an attachment and subject lines that create a sense of urgency are all hallmarks that the content you received could potentially be phish and indicate that it should be handled with caution.
Verify the Source
Phishing content comes in a variety of ways; however, many phishers will try to impersonate someone you may already know — such as a colleague, service provider or friend — to trick you into believing their malicious content is actually trustworthy. Don’t fall for it. If you sense any red flags that something may be out of place or unusual, click the Report Phish button on your Outlook toolbar. The email will be moved to your deleted items and sent over to the Information Security team to investigate further.
Be Aware of Vishing and Other Phishing Offshoots
As more digital natives have come online and greater awareness has been spread about phishing, bad actors have begun to diversify their phishing efforts beyond traditional email. For example, voice phishing — or vishing — has become a primary alternative for bad actors looking to gain sensitive information from unsuspecting individuals. Like conventional phishing, vishing is typically executed by individuals posing as a legitimate organization — such as a health care provider or insurer — and asking for sensitive information. Simply put, it is imperative that individuals be wary of any sort of communication that asks for personal information whether it be via email, phone or chat — especially if the communication is unexpected. Again, if anything seems suspicious, break off the interaction immediately and contact the company directly to confirm the veracity of the communications.
Phishing may be “one of the oldest tricks in the book,” but it is still incredibly effective. By exercising caution and deploying these few fundamentals, individuals and organizations more broadly can drastically mitigate the chances of falling victim to a phishing attack.
Do Your Part. #BeCyberSmart. If you have any questions or need additional information or resources, please contact the Information Security team at ITSecurity@childrensomaha.org.
The Child Health Research Institute (CHRI), a collaboration between University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) and Children’s Hospital & Medical Center, is pleased to announce Ann Anderson Berry, M.D., Ph.D., has been named CHRI’s executive director and vice president of Research at Children’s, effective Oct. 4, 2021. Dr. Anderson Berry has served as CHRI’s interim executive director since September 2019 and is also the division chief of Neonatology at Children’s and a professor of Neonatology in the Department of Pediatrics at UNMC.
CHRI is an innovative partnership between UNMC and Children’s, launched to change and save young lives. Established on June 1, 2017, by the University of Nebraska Board of Regents and endorsed by Children’s Board of Directors, CHRI is comprised of a team of dedicated clinicians, investigators and educators, coming together to improve the lives of children through research. CHRI currently includes nearly 300 members and is involved with 260 active studies, including participation in a well-publicized, national study testing the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine in children as young as 6 months old.
“It is an honor and a privilege to lead the Child Health Research Institute. The culmination of a decade of visionary work by numerous leaders, CHRI is uniquely positioned with the support of both UNMC and Children’s and their unique and complementary resources to serve children and their families through impactful research,” says Dr. Anderson Berry. “The talent and ingenuity of the faculty and staff of CHRI will provide countless innovations in child health research in the years to come, and I am thrilled to play a role in facilitating that work.”
“Pediatric research is a powerful part of Children’s mission to improve the lives of children; it helps us discover breakthroughs, unlock cures and restore childhoods,” says Chanda Chacón, Children’s President & CEO. “I am inspired by Dr. Anderson Berry’s commitment to this innovative work, and excited to see how the CHRI team’s work will continue to advance the field and enhance outcomes.”
“Dr. Anderson Berry’s leadership will greatly benefit CHRI as it moves forward in its crucial mission to support innovative and collaborative research to improve the health of all children,” says UNMC Chancellor Jeffrey P. Gold, M.D. “She is not only a talented researcher and caring physician in her own right; she also is a committed and passionate leader. We are excited to see how this important partnership between UNMC and Children’s will grow and flourish under her guidance.”
Dr. Anderson Berry earned her medical degree at Creighton University School of Medicine. She completed her residency in Pediatrics at the Creighton-Nebraska Universities Pediatrics Residency Program and her Neonatology fellowship at University of Utah School of Medicine in Salt Lake City. Dr. Anderson Berry received her Ph.D. in Medical Nutrition through the Medical Sciences Interdepartmental Area program at UNMC. She leads an active research group with Corrine Hanson, Ph.D., associate professor, Medical Nutrition Education Division in the College of Allied Health Professions at UNMC.
Physician/Provider Town Halls are October 13-15
Mark your calendars for this opportunity for physicians and providers to engage with physician executive leaders and hear what is happening at Children’s. See the Physician/Provider Town Hall schedule below. The sessions will all contain the same content. All sessions are available via Zoom.
Wednesday, Oct. 13
6 – 6:30 pm
Thursday, Oct. 14
12 – 12:30 pm
Friday, Oct. 15
6 – 6:30 am
Questions are encouraged and will be addressed at the meetings. Please email your questions to ThePulse@ChildrensOmaha.org by Tuesday, Oct. 12, with “Physician Town Hall” in the subject line.
Join from a PC, Mac, iPad, iPhone or Android device: Please click this URL to join. https://childrensomaha.zoom.us/j/93418752183?pwd=bFkrNEpOajNvNTBZSGxQSzloS2FaZz09
Passcode: 089946
All Staff Town Halls are Oct. 18-22
These quarterly sessions are a great way to hear from Children’s senior executives regarding the organization’s strategic initiatives and stay up to date on what’s happening throughout the organization. If you would like a question addressed during the upcoming Town Hall sessions, please email it to MyChildrens@ChildrensOmaha.org by the end of the day on Thursday, Oct. 14.
PLEASE NOTE: Due to ongoing COVID-19 restrictions, these town hall meetings will be held remotely. Zoom meeting information is posted below. DO NOT go to Glow Auditorium.
Monday, Oct. 18
8:45 – 9:15 a.m.
Tuesday, Oct. 19
6:15 – 6:45 p.m.
Wednesday, Oct. 20
10 – 10:30 a.m.
Thursday, Oct. 21
8 – 8:30 a.m.
12 – 12:30 p.m.
3 – 3:30 p.m.
Friday, Oct. 22
10:30 – 11 a.m.
12 – 12:30 p.m.
All town halls will use the same Zoom number, regardless of day/time:
https://childrensomaha.zoom.us/j/97778000393?pwd=Sm1MQk0vWmhiMExsc2pYT3BQeCtxZz09
Meeting ID: 977 7800 0393
Passcode: 799094
Have you noticed anything new along West Dodge Road? A decade after the installation of the iconic “Imagine” sculpture at 84th Street & West Dodge Road, featuring children holding colorful umbrellas, local sculptor Matthew Placzek has added six more joyful faces outside the Hubbard Center for Children. We love the hope and optimism they represent, and we know they will be enjoyed by our patients, families and community for years to come!
