Old Dominion and Norfolk State plan to launch public health school

Amid the worst pandemic in modern U.S. history, Old Dominion and Norfolk State universities want to launch a joint school centered on the study of public health.

The universities announced their intentions to develop a regional public health educational program Thursday, less than a week before the Virginia General Assembly convenes for the legislative session. The Norfolk-based institutions likely will request state funding to help support their pursuit.

They believe training students in public health will bolster the health care offered in Hampton Roads and address health disparities, especially in minority and low-income communities.

The idea of creating such a school was mentioned in a recent consultant’s report intended to make recommendations to Gov. Ralph Northam for how Eastern Virginia Medical School, Old Dominion University and Sentara Healthcare could collaborate. Northam had said in August he hoped the consultant’s proposals would offer better financial stability for the medical school and university.

But EVMS withdrew from that study a month ago, right before the report was released, after learning the consultant would urge the school to be run by the Old Dominion university system and its clinical faculty be absorbed into Sentara’s medical practices group. Such a merger would strip EVMS of its independence as a freestanding institution.

Sentara said Thursday it planned to give Old Dominion and Norfolk State grants of $2 million each to pursue the public health school. The private, nonprofit hospital system also said it would give grants of up to $3 million to support collaboration among Old Dominion, Norfolk State and the medical school. The grants will be allocated to EVMS and ODU, EVMS and NSU, “or all three as they jointly collaborate to address the public health and health inequities” in communities with health disparities.

“This generous investment will enable us to expand and tailor our health sciences program’s focus to best prepare our graduates to meet the specific health needs of Hampton Roads,” said NSU president Dr. Javaune Adams-Gaston in a statement.

ODU president John R. Broderick said the money would help ensure the two universities’ programs are “more closely aligned with other healthcare partners in the region.”

The seed money will come out of the new Sentara Healthier Communities Fund, which will also give up to $3 million combined to community service organizations in Hampton, Newport News, Williamsburg and Suffolk.

A public health school is not a new concept in Hampton Roads. EVMS and Old Dominion used to have a joint graduate-level public health program, with health management and epidemiology tracks, enrolling its first students in 1997.

About a decade later, Old Dominion added health promotion and global environmental health degree tracks, boosting the program from about 50 students a year to 80, according to EVMS records.

Community leaders have long-stressed the need for more public health education and professionals in Hampton Roads. Eastern Virginia residents have some of the worst health outcomes in the country. The region lags behind the state and nation in infant mortality, cancer, heart disease and diabetes. Most of these poor rankings reflect disparities with minority and low-income populations.

For instance, the infant death rate in Virginia and the United States was 5.8 out of 1,000 live births in 2017. But in Norfolk, the rate of Black baby deaths was 18.2.

Regarding prostate cancer, the national death rate was 19.5 out of 100,000 lives in 2015. But in Portsmouth, Black men died at a rate of 66.5 out of 100,000 — nearly four times that of white men in the city.

In 2013, the General Assembly gave the medical school and Old Dominion $125,000 to explore the formation of a combined school of public health. But they struggled to get the school off the ground because neither had the funding to meet the accreditation standard.

Three years later, EVMS, ODU, NSU and William & Mary tried to get state support to explore a consortium among existing university programs rather than create a new institute. The bid for funding was unsuccessful.

Old Dominion terminated the joint master’s degree program with the medical school in 2019, citing the funding problem and failure to meet accrediting agency requirements for a combined institute.

Dr. Theresa Emory, rector of the medical school’s board of visitors, said EVMS is supportive of the public health school plan and will be a “partner.” Dr. Richard V. Homan, EVMS president and provost, had a virtual meeting with NSU and ODU leaders a couple of weeks ago to discuss the proposal, but won’t be involved in their state funding request.

Instead, the small quasi-public medical school will seek to increase its own “base adequacy” funding of $1.74 million by $625,000 in the next state spending plan.

“Right now our focus is just to get the base adequacy we need to take care of our own house here first,” Emory said.

Elisha Sauers, elisha.sauers@pilotonline.com, 757-222-3864