WV AMP
West Virginia Academic Mentoring Partnership
How It Works
WV AMP is a free telementoring partnership designed for primary and addiction care providers to link with disease experts for training. WV AMP is designed to build a mentorship platform that is accessible to primary and addiction care providers caring for high-risk individuals throughout West Virginia, so that individuals with diseases can be cared for and cured in their own community.
Since March 5, 2020, WV AMP has...
These numbers demonstrate that with guidance and support, PCPs who have never previously treated HCV can achieve the same rate of cure as a specialist (95-99%).
Wetzel County
Tyler County
Monongalia County
Berkeley County
Jefferson County
Taylor County
Harrison County
Ritchie County
Wood County
Since March 5, 2020, WV AMP has...
These numbers demonstrate that with guidance and support, PCPs who have never previously treated HCV can achieve the same rate of cure as a specialist (95-99%).
WVHAMP Provider Spotlight
Tammy Sauls MSN, APRN, FNP-BC, DNP
"I am a family nurse practitioner in a mental health clinic. I treat the medical needs of patients that have psychiatric and substance use disorders. My clinic has patients from Fayette, Mercer, Raleigh and Summers Counties. I have been in the medical field for forty-four years, starting at the hospital as a ward clerk and eventually as a RN and then a NP. I have worked with patients who have chronic medical conditions and substance use disorders for years. I have seen how SUD affects my patients and leaves them without any support, emotionally and financially. Many of my patients are homeless, so treating them is challenging because they leave the area and then return wanting treatment again.
Working with the West Virginia Hepatitis Academic Mentoring Partnership has been wonderful. They are so helpful, and knowledgeable which has allowed me to educate my patients about hepatitis. I have had sixteen submitted consultations with three cures so far. This program has been beneficial for the patients in my area because of the limited number of providers in the area treating hepatitis.
I have encouraged other colleagues to work with the WVHAMP program because the need is so great in our area."
The valuable training and mentorship that the medical professionals of the West Virginia Hepatitis Academic Mentoring Partnership has provided me, has allowed me to now further my work in addiction medicine by helping patients to regain an aspect of their health that they have long given up on. With the valuable guidance that WVHAMP has provided, I have been able to cure eleven patients who have reached SVR 12, and I have had two who were HCV not detected at end-of-treatment who were lost to follow-up. I also currently have six other patients who have reached presumed cure at end-of-treatment and are awaiting SVR 12 labs, twenty patients are preparing for treatment, and two have been referred to a higher level of care for their specialized liver needs.
Telling someone they have a chronic illness is a horrible feeling, but being able to tell someone they are cured is one of the best feelings in the world.
WV AMP Course Goals
- Recruit primary and addiction care providers practicing in Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), Addiction Care Clinics, and rural community clinics in high-risk communities throughout West Virginia.
- Establish a primary and addiction care workforce trained by experts to screen, diagnose, treat, and follow up with the goal of curing persons with diseases throughout West Virginia, including high-risk, rural, and low-resource settings.
- Remove barriers to care for individuals diagnosed with diseases.
- Increase the number of West Virginians living with diseases who are successfully linked to care and cured.
WV AMP Course Objectives
- Understand strategies to identify persons with diseases.
- Understand epidemiology, screening, diagnosis, management, treatment, cure and prevention.
- Understand the burden of diseases in high risk groups in West Virginia and throughout the Appalachian Region.
- Understand staging of liver disease and disease counseling and transmission risks.
- Understand recent and evolving changes to West Virginia’s Medicaid Program and how these changes impact disease treatment in West Virginia.
- Understand how the increase disease is related to the growing opioid epidemic in West Virginia and the U.S.
- Have knowledge of injection drug use and describe the ways to enhance access to screening and treatment services for substance users.
- Understand the infrastructure necessary to support hepatitis care, treatment and cure in primary and addiction care settings.
- Identify screening for diseases during pregnancy and the potential for perinatal transmission.
- Understand procedures for screening, testing, treatment and cure of babies born to mothers with diseases.
What is Expected
- Participants will make a commitment to participate in trainings for at least 12 months. This training prepares providers to evaluate patients and submit consultations.
- Interested providers apply to attend the WV AMP day-long online Cycle 1 training.
- After Cycle 1 training, providers are invited to participate in the evening educational webinars every month. Providers will present challenges and patient cases to their peers and WV AMP Mentorship Team for feedback and guidance.
- Complete the half-day WV AMP Cycle 2 training. That covers additional relevant topics.
- Submit a WV AMP Consultation Form for each patient that has been fully evaluated through the secure/online WV AMP data system.
- Mentors review the Consultation Form, advise on the proposed treatment regimen and approve the treatment plan.
- Mentors provide backup for complex cases as needed.
- Participants will be provided a one-year membership to the West Virginia Rural Health Association.
- Participants will have access to WV AMP training materials/tool kit on the West Virginia Rural Health Association website via a designated link.
- WV AMP planners have applied for Continuing Education Credits for participation.
Stay up to date on all of our upcoming events and training sessions!
WV AMP Trainings
In addition to our hepatitis trainings, we are now offering PCPs the knowledge and guidance to diagnose and treat HIV as well.
- 2022 West Virginia Rural Health Association