Investment needed to grow West Virginia's health care professions

Jan. 10—CHARLESTON — Digital advancements will be among the goals health care professionals are working toward this year, especially in dentistry.

Experts from the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine, Vandalia Health and West Virginia University School of Dentistry discussed what 2024 has in store for health care in the state at the legislative preview event hosted by the West Virginia Press Association last week.

"Technology is a real force multiplier today," Stephen Pachuta, dean of the School of Dentistry at WVU, said. "Most folks in this room have probably been to the dentist where they actually take a scan and send that digital image to a machine in the next room, have it subtractively manufactured, mill out a crown and then an hour later, you got it in. Whereas five years ago, it would go into mail. They would use the pressure material, you might get it back, it might fit, it might not fit."

Pachuta said technology such as digital computer aided design and manufacturing have been a game changer in the field of dentistry.

However, those aren't the only technology driven improvements that are changing how dentists deliver care. Virtual Reality headsets provide a simulated environment that aspiring dentists can train in. Elizabeth Pellegrin, vice president and chief marketing officer for Vandalia Health, said younger generations are accustomed to these technologies because of their proliferation in the video game space. As a result, the best and brightest students will demand these as part of their training regimen because VR has applications that extend beyond gaming into practical fields.

"If we don't have those technologies to offer in our medical training facilities, the best and brightest aren't going to come here or stay here," Pellegrin said.

Rural health care especially stands to benefit from the electronic revolution.

Telehealth emerged in a major way during COVID. Pellegrin said that the potential of telehealth lay in being able to connect small rural health care providers with larger hospitals and specialists who can help direct specialist treatment such as cardiology or stroke. A minimal investment in this sort of infrastructure can pay back dividends.

However, even minimal infrastructure can be complex. Pachuta, who is also a retired United States Navy Admiral, said through his experience in the military he's been fortunate to see the benefits of telehealth as it's been deployed to serve service members. However, the infrastructure itself takes hardware, software and facilities to deploy successfully.

Accessible health care requires more than just advanced technology. It also requires human capital that can provide that health care in the first place, Jim Nemitz, president of the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine, said. He wants to see the state build up its residency programs. Doing so would help the state combat brain drain, which policy makers are working hard to overturn throughout several different industries.

"The studies show that if you take a person from the state who then goes to medical school in the state and then goes to residency in the state, guess what? There's a very high probability they're going to stay in the state," Nemitz said. "It's like 80 percent they're less likely to leave."

Many medical students leave the state because they can't find the residency they're looking for or there aren't enough open positions, he said. Therefore, ensuring the state has enough residencies to fill demand is important to maintaining a pipeline of talent for hospitals to source from.

Another area of focus for the hospital system is health education, especially when it comes to dental health.

Pachuta emphasized the importance of educating pregnant mothers on how vital preventive care is, and how organizing dental visits within the first year of life is part of that. It's a mindset change, from reactive to preventive, but it's one that has a long term impact on overall health. The very idea of what good health is needs to be overhauled within the minds of West Virginians. An experience conducting a health survey during the 2023 State Fair was instructive on how West Virginians perceived what good health is.

"We asked people, 'Well what are your health conditions?' And so they would say, 'Why, I got high blood pressure. I got sugar, I got all these things," Nemitz said. "And then at the end of the survey we asked them, 'Well, do you think you're healthy?' It was amazing. The majority of people with all these health problems would say, 'Well, yeah."

It made Nemitz question what good health was for himself as an overweight person who has with high blood pressure and sugar. Over COVID, he lost 55 pounds and several of his ailments were reversed. He cited himself as an example that change was possible. As a result, Nemitz himself would like to see tobacco taxed more. Tobacco, along with sugary drinks, contribute to the majority of the state's health problems.

"Smoking, and what we do in terms of nutrition, is what's killing us," Nemitz said.

Finally, political fallout due to abortion and gender affirming care restrictions could also have an impact on the health of residents in the state.

Nemitz said he's seen a chill on both forms of care throughout the state. West Virginia banned abortion after Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022. A law banning gender affirming care for minors went into effect at the beginning of the year.

The laws on the books threaten the ability of caregivers to maintain their medical licenses if they perform certain procedures. It's affecting the care given to women and unborn babies, Nemitz said. Pellegrin added that it also impacts what medical students can learn in school, which might drive students out of state to obtain a full medical education.

These political decisions could also be counter productive to the state's desire to grow its population base. West Virginia's declining population resulted in the loss of a congressional district in 2021.

"Services that were provided are no longer being provided and people have to seek services in other places," Nemitz said. "That's a generality. I have not seen the numbers. I haven't seen a report on what this type of legislation will do. In my mind, it could have a tendency to push people away. We want to grow our population. I think diversity and embracing everyone is the way you grow your population."

Reach Esteban at efernandez@timeswv.com