MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (WBOY) — U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito visited West Virginia University’s Health Sciences Campus Wednesday alongside the Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Dr. Monica Bertagnolli.
During the visit, Bertagnolli gave a presentation titled “Visions for Enhancing the Nation’s Health,” which discussed the overall health in West Virginia and the U.S. and what can be done to improve it.
“West Virginia is one of the most important places I could think of to really help us advance the health of all people. I think West Virginia is dealing, like so many places in America, with some real health challenges and some real, I think, unfortunate loss of trust in biomedical research that have been created by this terrible pandemic we’ve just been through,” Dr. Bertagonolli said.
Capito said during her opening remarks at the presentation that Bertagnolli is the first surgeon and second woman to hold the director’s position at the NIH.
Bertagnolli said that the NIH is the largest funder of biomedical research in the world that receives its funding from the U.S. federal government.