Congratulations to Dr. Barbra Cave

Barbra Cave, PhD, APRN traveled to London as part of a symposium on global hepatitis C elimination during the June 2022 International Liver Congress presented by the European Association for the Study of Liver (EASL). Dr. Graham Foster (Professor of Hepatology at Queen Mary University of London, England) and Dr. Alessio Aghemo (Professor and Director of Postgraduate Residency at Humanitas University, Italy) presented goals related to hepatitis C elimination and the tools currently available to help achieve them. Dr. Cave discussed the importance of including non-specialist physicians and other healthcare providers such as pharmacists, advanced practice providers, public health nurses, and more in learning to diagnose and cure people with hepatitis C. She highlighted the Kentucky Hepatitis Academic Mentorship Program (KHAMP), a model for hepatitis C micro-elimination underway in Kentucky. Since 2018, the program has taught more than 400 healthcare providers to complete the hepatitis C care cascade to include curative treatment and after-cure care. To-date, KHAMP participants have cured more than 700 patients with a cure rate of 95.6%, which is the same cure rate as in specialty practices. KHAMP is administered by the Kentucky Rural Health Association, where the KHAMP framework has been applied to develop US-HAMP. Several states (West Virginia, Ohio, Virginia, Tennessee, Indiana, Michigan, and Arkansas) have adopted the US-HAMP elimination training program. The UofL Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition includes three KHAMP faculty members (Drs. Ashutosh Barve, Matthew Cave, and Barbra Cave). The University Hospital provides a Hepatitis C treatment clinic and supports a quality improvement program in Hepatitis C, including screening for Hepatitis C in the Emergency Room.