HIV & Viral Hepatitis

Treatment and care of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection in the United States has made great advances over the last decade. As more potent antiretroviral therapies have become available, the life expectancy of individuals living with HIV/AIDS has increased dramatically and HIV-positive care has continued to transition toward a chronic disease model. In addition to caring for an aging population that is living longer, approximately 50,000 new infections occur in the United States every year. As the HIV epidemic continues to evolve, it has become increasingly important for primary care physicians to become competent in providing up to date care to patients infected with HIV, along with other chronic infectious diseases.

The HIV & Viral Hepatitis Fellowship is a 12-month post-residency program that provides specialty training for family medicine physicians in the comprehensive care of patients living with HIV/AIDS and viral hepatitis. Placing specific emphasis on provision of care to underserved and rural HIV-positive populations, fellows become proficient in management of all aspects of HIV care, including antiretroviral management, diagnosis and treatment of opportunistic infections, and primary care of individuals with HIV. In addition, they will become proficient in the diagnosis and management of hepatitis B and C.

We care for patients in both the inpatient and outpatient settings, across a wide spectrum of ages, backgrounds and ethnicities.

Additional opportunities in viral hepatitis, TB, LGBTQ health, and refugee health are available as desired.

Fellowship training is also integrated with a continued Family Medicine experience, through continuity clinic and precepting of residents.

The HIV & Viral Hepatitis Fellowship is based at the Wellness Center at Full Circle Health, a Ryan White grant recipient clinic that provides comprehensive interdisciplinary medical care to more than 600 individuals living with HIV/AIDS in Southern Idaho.

Application

One or two fellows will be selected. Applicants must be board certified, or eligible for board certification, in Family Medicine. Please submit one copy of your CV and a concise personal statement detailing:

      • Prior educational, work, and public service experiences.
      • Reasons for pursuing additional training in HIV & Viral Hepatitis.
      • Any previous experience with care of patients living with HIV, hepatitis, or other infectious diseases.
      • Career goals

A letter of support from the applicant’s family medicine residency director, as well as two additional residency faculty members are also required (one copy of each is fine). Application deadline is October 15. Interviews will be offered to select candidates in November and December. The fellow will be selected in December or January.

Email applications to:

Amy Atondo, Fellowship Program Coordinator.
Subject Line: HIV & Viral Hepatitis Fellowship Application

Direct Inquiries: 

Photo of Amy Atondo

Amy Atondo
Fellowship Coordinator
P: (208) 514-2500 x1074
AmyAtondo@fullcircleidaho.org
777 N Raymond Street Boise, ID 83704

Salary / Benefits

  • Salary: $75,847.00
  • Full benefits, including retirement package.
  • Vacation: 16 days/year. (View ACGME Family Leave Policy)
  • CME allowance: $1500.
  • AETC support for conference attendance and clinical preceptorships.
  • Licenses and dues: Idaho board of medicine, DEA, board of pharmacy, certifications (BLS, ACLS, etc.), AAFP membership, AAHIVM accreditation.

Curriculum

Fellows will participate in inpatient and outpatient care of HIV positive patients, hepatitis B and C patients, and TB patients. In addition, they will continue to maintain general family medicine skills and participate in resident teaching. Core fellowship activities include:

  • Weekly clinic schedule that includes 4-5 half days of HIV clinic, 1 half day of hepatitis C clinic, 1 half day of PrEP clinic, 1 half day of TB clinic (bimonthly), and 1-2 half days of family medicine clinic
  • Participation in University of Washington/Mountain West AETC educational opportunities, including weekly ECHO conferences for HIV and hepatitis C
  • Inpatient coverage for all HIV+ patients admitted to our residency service
  • Full participation in patient education and continuous quality improvement programs in our Wellness Center HIV clinic
  • Resident teaching in both formal and informal didactic formats, both for residents as a whole and also for our dedicated training track residents
  • Two outside externships/electives at AETC approved sites
  • National conference attendance (Ryan White, CROI, IAS-USA etc)

Training Facility

Full Circle Health – Emerald Clinic

Our Emerald clinic is located across the street from our Raymond clinic. It offers a mix of broad primary care and multiple specialty clinics. In addition to faculty and resident Family Medicine clinics, Emerald houses our Wellness Center (a Ryan White funded HIV clinic), TB clinic, viral hepatitis clinic, PrEP clinic, transgender clinic, and refugee services including both refugee screening and primary care. Emerald Clinic additionally houses our 340b pharmacy which opened summer 2013 which will include a rotating PGY-1 Community-Based Pharmacy Resident as they complete their electives required learning experiences.  Two R2s and two R3s are empaneled at Emerald each year. Attending support is mainly by the family medicine faculty who see their own patients at Emerald. This clinic offers broad training in family medicine with a specialty/infectious disease bent.

St. Luke’s Medical Center Boise Campus

For more than 100 years, St. Luke’s Medical Center Boise Campus has been committed to serving the needs of a growing region. Founded in 1902 as a six-bed frontier hospital, St. Luke’s Boise is now Idaho’s largest health care provider, and the flagship hospital of St. Luke’s Health System.

St. Luke’s Boise is known for its centers of excellence in cancer, heart, and women’s and children’s care. Among our many services, we are home to St. Luke’s Heart, St. Luke’s Mountain States Tumor Institute’s largest clinic, St. Luke’s Center for Minimally Invasive Surgery, and St. Luke’s Children’s Hospital, the only children’s hospital in Idaho.

Known for its clinical excellence, St. Luke’s Boise has been nationally recognized for quality and patient safety, and is proud to be designated a Magnet hospital, the gold standard for nursing care.

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Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center

Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise, Idaho, is part of Saint Alphonsus Health System. With four hospitals and a variety of medical clinics, we serve the full range of the healthcare and wellness needs of the people in southwestern Idaho, eastern Oregon and northern Nevada.

Saint Alphonsus is dedicated to delivering advanced medical services in a spiritual, healing environment throughout southwest Idaho, eastern Oregon and northern Nevada. Through innovative technologies, compassionate staff and warm, healing environments, Saint Alphonsus strives to provide care that is focused on patients.

Founded in 1894 by the Sisters of the Holy Cross, Saint Alphonsus was the first hospital established in Boise—bringing healthcare to the poor and underserved. Now referred to as Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center, our licensed medical-surgical/acute care 381 bed facility serves as the center for advanced medicine and is poised to support the community well into the future.

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Faculty

Abby Davids, MD, MPH, AAHIVS (she/her)

Program Director

HIV & Viral Hepatitis Fellowship Director 

Born and raised in a small town in Ohio, Dr. Davids is a Buckeye at heart. She has a background in public health and social justice, and she graduated from The Ohio State University with a dual MD/MPH in 2011.  She subsequently completed family medicine residency at the Greater Lawrence Family Health Center near Boston, working together with a predominantly immigrant and Latinx population in an FQHC setting. 

After heading west to Full Circle Health/FMRI Boise and finishing her HIV fellowship, Dr. Davids joined the faculty. She has served as the HIV & Viral Hepatitis fellowship director since 2016, and was the associate program director of the Boise residency from 2019-2023. She then became the Boise Program Director in July 2023, as Dr. Justin Glass transitioned into an educational faculty position. They continue to work closely together to help lead the program.

Fun Photo of Dr. Abby Davids and her dog Juniper

Dr. Davids is a broad spectrum family doc who loves to work with and teach residents in all settings including inpatient, outpatient, and OB. Her clinical expertise lies in the care of newly arrived migrants and refugees, global medicine, and the intersection of infectious disease and primary care. She is committed to providing culturally humble and trauma informed care, and she is grateful to be part of a diverse and passionate interdisciplinary care team. Based in the Emerald Clinic, she staffs the new arrivals, HIV, viral hepatitis, and TB specialty clinics, maintains AAHIVM accreditation as an HIV Specialist, and serves on the expert panel for ECHO Idaho’s Viral Hepatitis and Liver Care series. She also leads the Global Medicine Training Track with Margaret Mortimer.

Dr. Davids cares deeply about healthcare as a human right, immigration advocacy, equity and inclusion, planetary and climate health, reproductive justice, gender affirming care, and continuity OB care. She delights in the beauty and power of microbes and will impart her love of syphilis to anyone willing to listen! She also loves to help residents find and pursue their passions; to celebrate the joy, privilege, and vitality that comes from a career in family medicine; and to work alongside her incredible colleagues every day.

Dr. Davids speaks English and Spanish. Outside of the office she is happiest on a mountain trail, exploring Idaho’s beautiful outdoor spaces with her dog, Juniper.

Marvin Alviso, MD

HIV & Viral Hepatitis Fellowship Faculty

Dr. Marvin Alviso was born and raised in Manila, Philippines. He completed his BS in Biology from the University of Santo Tomas in Manila Philippines. He then continued on to complete his medical degree at the same University. He moved to Saginaw, Michigan in 2008 for his residency in Family Medicine at Synergy Medical Education Alliance and concentrated on HIV care for most of his electives. Dr. Alviso became a board certified Family Physician in 2010. He then relocated to Boise, ID to complete a 4th year post graduate fellowship from Full Circle Health for HIV for Primary Care. He received AAHIVM certification in 2011 and continues to carry this certification. He is currently doing HIV Primary care, family practice, and Refugee Health Screening.

Penny Beach, MD (she/her)

Medical Director of Population Health, HIV & Viral Hepatitis Fellowship Faculty

Dr. Penny Beach grew up in Ohio and Maryland before moving to New England, where she attended Williams College and worked for 7 years as a newspaper reporter. She then attended Dartmouth Medical School and did her family medicine residency at Full Circle Health, graduating in 2001. She spent over eight years working with mostly uninsured patients and Spanish-speaking seasonal farm workers in Nampa, Idaho before joining Full Circle Health in 2010.

She is married with two children. In her spare time she loves backpacking, playing the piano, nordic skiing, watching Boston Red Sox games, and travelling. Dr. Beach’s curricular interests include hepatology, hepatitis C, rheumatology, practice management and obstetrics.

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Sky Blue, MD

HIV & Viral Hepatitis Fellowship Faculty

Dr. Sky Blue acts as medical director and chief story teller for the Wellness Center at Full Circle Health.

The first time he helped care for a patient with HIV was in 1986 as a medical student at the University of Iowa.  Since that time he has been directly or peripherally involved in HIV care.  He completed his internal medicine residency and chief year in Phoenix, Arizona. He then completed his infectious diseases fellowship at the University of Utah.

After completing training, he was an assistant professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases and Geriatrics at the University of Utah.

Dr. Blue’s research interests have been in epidemiology and models of care, and he has been the primary investigator in numerous HIV clinical trials.

Dr. Blue moved to Boise and has been teaching and working at Full Circle Health since 1997. He taught in geriatric assessment clinic, attending on inpatient wards, and then assumed role of medical director of the HIV clinic in 1998.

He continues to work and collaborate with many pioneers in HIV care.

Ashley Carvalho, MD, MSc (she/her)

HIV & Viral Hepatitis Fellowship Faculty

Dr. Ashley Carvalho was born and raised in Boise, ID. She attended the College of Idaho in Caldwell for her undergraduate degree, and completed a Master’s in Public Health and medical school at Queen’s University of Belfast in Northern Ireland. She has wonderful memories of Ireland, its people, and its stunning beauty (everything you’ve heard is true!). But, there’s no place like home, and she was delighted to return to her home state for residency.

She completed her residency at the Full Circle Health – Caldwell Program, and subsequently undertook a fellowship in HIV and Viral Hepatitis with Full Circle Health in Boise to further her training. She is looking forward to treating patients living with HIV, treatment of Hepatitis C, and LGBTQIA+ health, while practicing full-spectrum family medicine in the inpatient and outpatient settings, and remaining involved in teaching and working with FCH’s amazing residents!. 

In her spare time, you’ll find her in the mountains with her husband Alex and two pups, Tucker and Lola. If she’s not there, she’ll be at the Flying M with a strong cappuccino and a good book. 

Stacy Lamers, DO

HIV & Viral Hepatitis Fellowship Faculty

Dr. Stacy Lamers completed her family medicine residency training in Grand Blanc, Michigan in 2004. She has been an outpatient family medicine physician with St. Al’s since 2005, and in 2017 she returned to school to pursue her Master’s of Public Health at Idaho State University. She is interested in the public health side of our work as family physicians, and is excited to join the Full Circle Health team.

Christopher Link, MD, AAHIVS

HIV & Viral Hepatitis Fellowship Faculty

Dr. Chris Link grew up in Southwest Washington and graduated from Washington State University with a degree in Microbiology. He attended University of Washington School of Medicine (Moscow/Pullman WWAMI) before completing his residency training at Kootenai Clinic Family Medicine Residency in Coeur d’Alene, ID in 2019. He relocated to Boise to complete a post-graduate fellowship in HIV & Viral Hepatitis the following year, subsequently obtaining AAHIVM certification as an HIV specialist.

Dr. Link joined the Full Circle Health faculty following fellowship, primarily providing HIV care at the Wellness Center and treating viral hepatitis through the Idaho Department of Corrections. Outside of medicine, he enjoys reading, recreating outdoors, harassing his two cats and learning about astronomy & space exploration.

Daniel Mueller, MD (he/him)

HIV & Viral Hepatitis Fellowship Faculty

Dr. Dan Mueller grew up in Western NY state where he did his undergraduate degree at the University of Rochester in anthropology and history and medical school at SUNY Buffalo. He moved out to Idaho for residency training at Full Circle Health Boise where he also completed a geriatrics fellowship. He now works at Full Circle Health Raymond clinic as associate clinic director and is a faculty member of the Geriatrics Fellowship Program, as well as faculty member of the HIV & Viral Hepatitis Fellowship Program. Dr. Mueller enjoys providing patient care and education around outpatient primary care, geriatrics, evidenced-based medicine, liver disease and treatment of addiction. Outside of clinic he enjoys running, biking, backpacking, and camping with his partner Sadie in the Boise foothills and surrounding national forests in Idaho.

Current Fellows

Angela Bangs, MD

HIV & Viral Hepatitis Fellow 2023-2024

Dr. Angela Bangs was born in Texas and led a nomadic life throughout her childhood. She completed her undergraduate studies in public health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Go Heels!) with a desire to serve vulnerable populations. After working for several years in Raleigh, North Carolina on behalf of the NC Medicaid program, she married her high school sweetheart and moved to her husband’s hometown of Bozeman, Montana to work at the MT Office of Rural Health/AHEC. Her travels throughout rural Montana and her work with the state’s critical access hospitals led her to complete a post-baccalaureate pre-medical program with the intention of becoming a rural, primary care physician. She attended the University of Washington’s Montana WWAMI program as a TRUST scholar given her interest in rural and underserved populations.

She loved receiving strong, full-spectrum family medicine training at Full Circle Health; she loved it so much that she served as a chief resident for the program.

She is thrilled to continue her training at Full Circle Health in HIV/Viral Hepatitis and hopes to bring her skills to a rural/underserved area in the Mountain West. Her professional interests are in full-spectrum family medicine including non-surgical obstetrics, behavioral health, reproductive health, and advocacy.

Dr. Bangs and her husband Tyler love the outdoors and exploring the Boise area. They spend their free time hiking, biking, trail running (slow jogging in Angela’s case), swimming, paddle boarding, skiing, discovering and experimenting with new recipes, and attempting to keep all their plants alive.

Paige Ely, DO

HIV and Viral Hepatitis Fellow 2023-2024

Dr. Paige Ely grew up in San Diego, California.  Receiving an academic scholarship, she moved to Missoula to attend University of Montana, where she fell in love with her now husband and the Northwest. She majored in Sociology with an emphasis in Inequality and Social Justice. After college, she served at Missoula Food Bank as an AmeriCorps VISTA, working on food insecurity research with the public health department, community education, and coalition building.  Through community development work in Panama and Paraguay and volunteering with medical groups in Honduras and India, she has seen the gross discrepancies in health outcomes and access.  This has prompted a lifelong interest in global health and improving health access.  

She attended Pacific Northwest University for medical school, wanting to attend an osteopathic (or DO) school to get excellent medical education and the additional tool of osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT), which uses hands-on treatment to help improve some patient’s pain and range of motion.  Dr. Ely spent an additional year completing an undergraduate fellowship in OMT, to further improve this hands-on skill. During that undergraduate fellowship, she spent a significant amount of time at the free clinic providing OMT for migrant  farmworkers. She incorporates OMT nearly daily into family medicine practice.  

She completed residency at Full Circle Health (previously Family Medicine Residency of Idaho) and loves taking care of families of all ages, from pregnancy to childhood to adulthood.  She is thrilled to be selected for the HIV fellowship and continue her general family medicine clinic at Emerald Clinic, seeing patients from many different countries and cultures.  As a National Health Service Corps Scholar, Dr. Ely will work in an underserved area after fellowship.  

Languages: English, Spanish

Medical Interests: HIV, Hepatitis, Tuberculosis, global health, immigration/refugee health, women’s health, musculoskeletal/osteopathic manipulative medicine

Past Fellows

Ashley Carvalho, MD

HIV & Viral Hepatitis Fellow 2022-2023

Stacy Lamers, DO

HIV & Viral Hepatitis Fellow 2021-2022

Christopher Link, MD

HIV & Viral Hepatitis Fellow 2019-2020

Martha Franz, MD

HIV & Viral Hepatitis Fellow 2018-2019

Sarah Henkle, MD

HIV & Viral Hepatitis Fellow 2017-2018

Maia Pinsky, MD

HIV & Viral Hepatitis Fellow 2017-2018

Abby Davids, MD, MPH, AAHIVS

HIV Primary Care Fellow 2014-2015

Matt Messerschmidt, MD

HIV Primary Care Fellow 2012-2013

Marvin Alviso, MD

HIV Primary Care Fellow 2011-2012

Rebecca Kinney, MD

HIV Primary Care Fellow 2010-2011

Clay Roscoe, MD

HIV Primary Care Fellow 2008-2009