Wednesday, September 5, 2018
Virginia governor discusses opioid crisis with Liberty student-doctors
Wed, 05 Sep 2018Tobi Walsh Laukaitis | Staff Writer, External Communications Office
Liberty University College of Osteopathic Medicine (LUCOM) student-doctors heard from Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam on Wednesday about ways that future physicians, like themselves, can lead the way in stopping opioid addiction.
The visit to Liberty’s Center for Medical and Health Sciences was part of a lecture tour to all medical schools in the Commonwealth; the governor closed the tour at LUCOM.
Northam expressed his appreciation for the opportunity to speak to student-doctors about the growing opioid crisis and called Liberty a “great university.”
“It wasn’t that long ago that I was in your shoes and in your seat as a medical student,” said Northam, who served as a doctor in the U.S. Army and spent years in the private sector as a pediatric neurologist at the Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughters in Norfolk, Va. “You are in medicine at an exciting time. … These diseases that I was taking care of in my career, I really believe that in your careers, cures will be found.”
Northam introduced Ryan Hall of Covington, Va., a 25-year-old recovering heroin addict, for a discussion from a patient’s perspective.