This past week I had the pleasure of visiting Riverside Health System and the Children's Hospital of the King's Daughters (CHKD) and meeting with some of the area's finest medical professionals.
These facilities and their superb staffs are playing a vital role in the development of new, cutting edge medical technologies and are excellent service providers to locals in need of treatment. In the case of CHKD, they are the facility of choice for pediatric care in Southeastern Virginia.
At Riverside Health System, I had the chance to see some of their exciting state-of-the-art medical technology, including the Gamma Knife, a very rare top-notch piece of equipment that allows for non-invasive brain surgery. There are only a handful of these in the entire country. I also saw the Cancer Center, Emergency Room, and School of Health Careers. My visit re-enforced my support for more investment in Health Information Technology.
My tour of CHKD gave me the opportunity to witness first-hand a multi-jurisdictional Child Abuse Task Force meeting that brought together law-enforcement, attorneys, medical professionals, and others to collectively work on child abuse cases and issues. My tour included a visit to the Children's Surgery Center at Oyster Point. I enjoyed our discussions about pediatric health care issues and was very impressed with CHKD's comprehensive facility and broad range of medical professionals.
I also had the pleasure of visiting the Thomas Jefferson Lab National Accelerator Facility and the NASA Langley Research Center. Both of these facilities have some truly amazing things going on and it was exciting to see what they are doing.
The Department of Energy's Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, or Jefferson Lab (JLab), is a basic research laboratory built to probe the nucleus of the atom to learn more about the structure of matter. During my visit, I got to see the Jefferson Lab Free Electron Laser, which offers great opportunities for both basic and applied research. The technology being used at JLab is truly innovative and I was very pleased to have the chance to see it up-close.
At the NASA Langley Research Center, I was amazed at what I saw. I saw the National Transonic Facility, which is used to study improved aircraft and spacecraft safety, performance, and efficiency. Later, in the Flight Test Hardware Facility, I got to see a mockup of Orion, which is being built to be NASA's next vehicle to the moon. Most of my visit dealt with Langley's work in space exploration, which was very helpful to me as I continue to learn about this exciting field. I am looking forward to working with the great folks at NASA in the future.
Last week was a great week. Meeting so many wonderful people at these important facilities and witnessing the great work they are doing was very beneficial for me. I will be getting out into the district as much as possible and visiting more of the facilities that make the First District such a unique and wonderful place to work and live.
