
Professor Geneva Flexon rehearses a procedure with radiology students at Brightpoint Community College. (Photo by Jay Paul)
A Bright Future
Education and health care join forces to fill a gap in Richmond
In October 2024, the American Society of Radiologic Technologists shared a warning: Radiology technologists are becoming harder to find at medical facilities around the country, despite a high demand for imaging services at all levels of medical care. The shortage has many causes, but its biggest, and perhaps most curable, is access to education.
In an effort to turn the tide locally, HCA Virginia and Brightpoint Community College have formed a partnership that will create the first radiologic technology degree program of its type in the Richmond area, based out of HCA’s Chippenham Hospital.
The two-year program will allow students to earn an associate’s degree in radiology, a requirement for most entry-level positions, complete clinical rotation training and take the American Registry of Radiologic Technologists exam, which certifies and registers technologists in radiography. Twenty students are currently enrolled and are expected to graduate in May 2026, according to Bill Fiege, president of Brightpoint Community College.
“We’re excited to partner with HCA specifically for this program and all of our business and industry partners to help them meet their workforce needs and demands to help our community,” Fiege says. “Community is our middle name, and so our job is to be sure we’re providing the training programs that support community needs, and that’s what we’re doing.”
Fiege shares that his hope is for students to complete the program and work in the Richmond area as radiologic technologists.
HCA is investing just under $3 million for the program, with funds going toward faculty salaries, scholarships, renovations and equipment to create a new 3,000-square-foot learning environment at Chippenham’s Jahnke Road facility. Improvements at the hospital include a patient care lab, X-ray labs, classrooms and a faculty wing. HCA also assisted with developing the curriculum and recruiting faculty.
The exposure to real-life experiences and scholarship support will help students access jobs in the field in the future, says Yvette Dorsey, associate vice president of academic affairs for HCA.
“It is truly about workforce development, career pathway development in the state of Virginia and how can we be the clinical leader, the clinical partner of choice, the clinical organization that’s going to lead that charge and really find something that is sustainable that is going to give people an option and entry into health care and have affordable education such as Brightpoint to be able to do that,” Dorsey says. —Alyssa Hutton

OrthoVirginia’s new Midlothian facility (Photo courtesy OrthoVirginia)
Under One Roof
A new orthopedic care facility opens in Midlothian
After two years of planning and construction, OrthoVirginia cut the ribbon on a new care unit at Watkins Centre, across from Westchester Commons shopping mall, in September 2024. The more than 77,000-square-foot building has two stories, features 96 exam rooms, offers full-service physical and hand therapy, and has four operatories.
“It’s really about the access in the area,” says William Clinton, executive director of central and east regions for OrthoVirginia. “Everything is housed under one building, from diagnosis to surgery to follow-up.” The goal of the building is to provide a comprehensive space for patients to get all their musculoskeletal care without having to visit multiple offices.
Interior details were carefully considered, too, according to Clinton. Exam rooms are located far from the reception area to ensure privacy, and the building is painted in soothing blues and grays. With this project providing forward momentum, OrthoVirginia is already looking to add more providers and therapists to the facility.
The company’s move to centralize its care comes as Chesterfield outpaces all other Virginia counties in population growth; OrthoVirginia has already moved two office locations, at HCA’s Johnston-Willis hospital and Bon Secours’ St. Francis Medical Center, to Westchester. —Melody Yuan
Middle Ground
A new virtual program offers personalized treatment for anxiety and OCD
Aiming to create a safe space where kids with anxiety can feel comfortable, many medical professionals have eliminated office visits and instead are meeting patients in a familiar place: the internet.
Launching the new model in Virginia last August, nationwide provider InStride Health offers novel care for children, teenagers and young adults struggling with anxiety or obsessive-compulsive disorder entirely remotely, through virtual visits, chats and phone calls.
After InStride accepts a patient’s application, the patient is assigned a dedicated three-person care team, made up of a psychiatrist, therapist and exposure coach, along with a personalized treatment plan.
“It’s all going to depend on who you’re meeting with,” says InStride Virginia Territory Manager Sally Snead. Mild cases of OCD or anxiety, Snead says, might see two hours of meetings per week, and more severe cases may see five. The practice’s care is based on the principles of cognitive behavioral therapy.
Weekly sessions for a typical program run for four to 12 months and have a set end date, in contrast to psychiatric offerings intended to continue into adulthood. Session activities might include the practice of “self-coaching” through anxiety or OCD-provoking moments with an exposure coach. —MY

(From left) David Lawrence, Mission Gait Foundation founder and CEO, and Robin Yoder, director of patient reintegration (Photo courtesy Lawrence Rehabilitation - The Gait Center)
Moving Forward
A nonprofit expands specialty education for physical therapists
Walking into the offices of Lawrence Rehabilitation - The Gait Center on Staples Mill Road, it’s not hard to see the measure of the facility’s impact. The walls are covered with stories of incredible comebacks, including the first amputee to complete the Ironman Triathlon in Hawaii and a high school football quarterback who was the first in the nation to play with a lower-limb prosthesis.
The stories all highlight patients whom David Lawrence, founder and clinic owner of Lawrence Rehabilitation - The Gait Center has helped in his years as a physical therapist specializing in mobility rehabilitation. Since founding the practice in 2006, Lawrence has been focused on more than just patients. After launching the Mission Gait Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit with his wife, Carolyn, in 2016, he set a goal to better educate physical therapists and caregivers around the world on gait rehabilitation.
“The project is to create a certification for gait assessment and gait training that should be standard practice in the United States,” Lawrence says. “Right now, believe it or not, that does not exist.”
About 23 million people in the United States suffer from gait disabilities, yet physical therapists rarely receive specialized education about treatment for gait issues. The lack of available care inspired the foundation to launch the education-focused Mission Gait Academy. In May 2024, the academy introduced a new level of its certification course, which provides comprehensive training for physical therapists and assistants. It also puts them in a database designed to connect patients experiencing gait dysfunction with qualified care.
The academy offers certification courses for rehabilitation professionals in person and virtually.
Robin Yoder, a member of Mission Gait’s board, is a cancer survivor and unilateral above-knee amputee.
“Every one of us who lives with these challenges deserves the opportunity to have access to the necessary resources,” Yoder says, “and to develop the skills to live and to experience this wonderful world with confidence, curiosity and joy outside the therapeutic arena.”
To achieve its mission, the Mission Gait Foundation also focuses on reintegrating patients into daily life. Its Walking Free program brings prosthetic and orthotic rehabilitation to underprivileged areas around the world.
As for the groundbreaking certification course, Lawrence hopes that by the time his work is finished, it will be standard practice. “I would like to have it, by 2036, be part of the American Physical Therapy Association paradigm of how we train people,” Lawrence says. “That’s our goal.” —Jenna Lapp