HCV Training and Certificate Program

Coming Soon

HCV Training & Certificate Program

HealthHCV’s HCV Training & Certificate Program^TM

HealthHCV designs and implements medical and consumer education and training programs to improve the ability of organizations, professionals, and individuals to address the needs of people living with viral hepatitis. HealthHCV recently designed a new HealthHIV’s HCV Training & Certificate Program^TM, which will be launched in the coming months. This innovative training will:

Provide primary care physicians with self-paced, online curriculum for developing new skills and competencies to optimize the quality of care they provide to patients infected with HIV and HCV;
Include an HIV/HCV co-infection module; and
be expanded to HCV mono-infection modules.

What is HealthHIV’s HCV Training & Certificate Program^TM?

The HealthHIV’s HCV Training & Certificate Program^TMis a professional development course to help primary care physicians (PCPs), hepatologists, HIV care providers, and allied health professionals interested in improving hepatitis C virus (HCV) prevention, care, and treatment to develop new skills and professional competencies in order to optimize the quality of care they provide to patients infected with HCV. By participating in this online, self-paced, certificate program, participants will be able to apply immediately lessons learned and best practices. Why Is HealthHIV’s HCV Training & Certificate Program^TM Needed?

In June 2013, the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) released a recommendation for screening of HCV in persons at high risk for infection, and one-time screening for adults born between 1945 and 1965; in consensus with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) 2012 recommendations. The recommendations highlight an increasing role for PCPs in HCV prevention, care, and treatment. Additionally, the increased effectiveness and simplicity of treatment regimens for many patients and the growing number of HCV patients are two other significant factors leading to an expanded role for PCPs in managing HCV care.

Who Can Participate in the Certificate Program?

The program is designed to meet education needs of PCPs (Medical Doctors, Doctors of Osteopathy, Nurse Practitioners, and Physician Assistants), hepatologists, HIV care providers, and allied healthcare professionals (i.e. social workers) who treat and care for patients with HCV.

How is the Program Structured?

The program is structured as an online, self-paced curriculum for providers on the Brainshark web platform. All participants will receive a certificate documenting their completion of this online program from HealthHIV. The curriculum structure and implementation are based on HealthHIV’s existing, successful HIV Primary Care Training & Certificate Program^TM and LGBT Health Training & Certificate ProgramTM.

Is Continuing Education Credit Available?

The curriculum will be designated as enduring material for continuing medical education (CME) credits, as well as continuing education (CE) credits for pharmacists and allied health professionals for select activities. Participants will be granted between 0.75 and 1.00 credit per activity. Participants will claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the educational activity.

What is the Certificate Program Based On?

The program is based on HealthHIV’s STEP (Staged Training to Engage Providers) Model. The model provides a staged framework for integration of HIV care into primary care. At its core, this dynamic model classifies community health centers and other primary care delivery sites, based upon where they fall in the spectrum of HIV care delivery. The model stages organizational-level of HIV care integration alongside provider HIV care implementation.

modules

HealthHCV’s HCV Training & Certificate Program™

Modules

HCV1 Screenshot

What Are the Core Learning Modules?

There will be five initial modules that must be completed before participants take the final program exam and receive their certificate. The module topics were identified through HealthHCV’s State of Hepatitis C CareTM national survey fielded in Spring 2015 that included a provider educational needs assessment. Below is a list of the proposed modules and their learning objectives:

Module 1: HCV Prevention in Primary Care – Foundations Course

• Describe HCV surveillance data and the implications for individual and public health
• Summarize current recommendations for risk-based and birth cohort screening
• Utilize the most appropriate HCV testing in different clinical settings
• Summarize methods to reduce HCV transmission

Module 2: Trends in HCV Care and Treatment

• Identify new, FDA-approved HCV therapies and describe key implications
• Review considerations in selecting treatment, including assessment of insurance barriers

Module 3: Core Skills for HCV Treatment Management in Primary Care Settings

• Identify appropriate patients and methods in your practice to screen for HCV
• Describe methods to assess patients’ willingness and readiness to begin HCV treatment, and determine when to initiate HCV treatment
• Discuss methods to assess and promote adherence of HCV patients to treatment
• Describe methods for coordination of care between primary care and specialist settings

Module 4: Treatment Considerations for Special Populations

• Assess patients’ health literacy and health beliefs
• Employ evidence-based techniques to foster open patient-provider communication
• Identify barriers to treatment readiness and adherence and methods to overcome these barriers
• Discuss monitoring HCV patients not on treatment

Module 5: Assessment and Treatment Decisions in HIV/HCV Co-infection

• Identify indications for the treatment of chronic HCV infection and reasons to consider delaying HCV treatment in patients with HIV/HCV co-infection
• Explain the reported safety and efficacy of currently available treatments for HCV in patients co-infected with HIV
• List HCV/HIV drug combinations to avoid based on potential for drug-drug interactions
• Select guidelines-recommended monitoring for patients being treated for HCV/HIV coinfection.

Future Modules

• Best practices for addressing treatment access barriers and payer restrictions • Strengthening collaborative HCV care management to improve patient linkage and retention in care; maximizing billing and reimbursement for HCV prevention, care and treatment; and • Innovations in HCV research.

For more information, please contact Marissa Tonelli at [email protected].