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
Dr. Melissa Welch DNP, FNP-BC
I am Dr. Melissa Welch DNP, FNP-BC, and have served as a primary care provider at Shenandoah Community Health Center in Martinsburg, WV for the last 17 years. I have lived in West Virginia for the past 32 years and have been in healthcare since 1994. I am also an active Maryland National Guard member at the 175th Medical Group in Baltimore, Maryland. I received my undergraduate degree at Mountain State University and my doctorate from Shepherd University in West Virginia. I have had extensive public health experience throughout my career. I served as the Director of Congregate Care Service for Maryland Department of Health under Governor Larry Hogan during the COVID-19 State of Emergency pandemic. I currently care for an array of special populations in the Eastern Panhandle and with the National Guard. My most recent endeavor to help the local community has been starting a Hepatitis C Treatment Program and providing a Suboxone Bridge Program in conjunction with the behavioral health unit here at the Community Health Center. I am proud to be a part of a team who has worked hard to bring hepatitis C care to this special population in the great state of West Virginia.
I accepted a
position at Cabin Creek Health Systems in January 2018. I work in a small
clinic inside the Kanawha Charleston Health Department. The clinic was started
in an attempt to see folks who came through the Harm Reduction/Syringe Exchange
Program. There was a need for primary care services including care for chronic
diseases, birth control, treatment for abscesses, sexually transmitted
diseases, and other infectious diseases including HIV, Hep B and Hep C. I was
shocked at the number of patients who tested positive for hepatitis C.
I had the
opportunity to participate in the first WVHAMP training in March 2020. Since
then, I have 29 patients that have finished treatment and have been cured, 7 in
current treatment, and have at least 5 that are in the process of getting started
with treatment. It is so gratifying to see the patients and tell them they no
longer have hepatitis C because they have been cured.
Most of the
patients I see have contracted hepatitis C through injection drug use.
Addiction, a chronic medical disease, is cunning, baffling, and powerful. It is
often accompanied with other physical, mental, and social problems. While there
are currently so many programs and efforts to treat patients with substance use
disorder, there is still so much work to be done.
In addition
to working, I have served on the board of Hospice of Southern WV since 2005. I
live near Beckley, am married, have two grown sons, three grandchildren, and a
rescue dog named Ladybug. I enjoy reading, gardening and have recently been
taking painting classes.
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