Public health programs in Richmond and Henrico County are expected to work more closely together now that they have the same director, Dr. Danny Avula.

The director of the Richmond City Health District since 2016, the energetic physician also has been named the director of Henrico’s Health District after a year of serving as interim director.

Both city Mayor Levar M. Stoney and Frank J. Thornton, chair of the Henrico Board of Supervisors, applauded the decision that should boost collaboration and cooperation on everything from inoculations to services related to newborns, teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.

“Good public health practices, policies and ideas should be able to travel easily between Richmond and Henrico,” Mr. Thornton said. “The county is excited about this partnership and the ways it can serve the residents of both localities.”

Dr. Avula said that he and the staffs of the two districts “are in the process of building a shared leadership team to oversee both districts.”

He said he and the team also expect to be able to streamline some functions, such as grant writing, communications, data analysis and policy development.

“Some separation must be maintained to ensure that local funds provided by each jurisdiction are spent within the city or county,” he said. “I don’t expect that to be too much of an issue as we can just ensure that shared functions are jointly funded.”

Both local health districts are part of the Virginia Department of Health.

The decision to unify the leadership of the two districts was fueled by the difficulty of finding physicians like Dr. Avula willing to run a health district.

The state only allows medical doctors to run health districts, and state officials have noted that filling director positions has become more difficult.

That opened the door to this new approach.

“Public health has distinct functions that we will continue to provide,” Dr. Avula said.

However, he said that he and others in the field are coming to understand that health is related to “a complex combination of housing and income and concentrations of poverty and family stability.”

Dr. Avula said that realization means that the health district must involve more nonprofits and agencies and come up with strategies to deal with the complexity. He said having the two health districts work together should improve prospects for doing that across city-county boundaries.

Dr. Avula joined the Richmond City Health District in 2009 as a deputy director. He earned his bachelor’s degree at the University of Virginia and his medical degree at Virginia Commonwealth University. He also has a master’s in public health from Johns Hopkins University. He is a board-certified pediatrician and also is a specialist in preventive medicine.