AMPP — Membership and Program Systems for a National Physician Association

A common operating foundation for programs that were still being defined.

Project Overview

Organization: Association of Med-Peds Physicians (AMPP)
Context: National medical professional association
Project Period: April 2023–present
Services Provided: Requirements, design and development, membership architecture, workflows, integrations, testing, documentation, training, and support
Systems Delivered: Public website, registration and physician validation, AMPP Core, member and mentor directories, events calendar, classifieds and business directories, webinar archive, paid membership, communications integrations, and staff administration
Scale: 1,084 members; approximately 600 active during the past year; four staff users
Verified Results: Approximately 350 physicians registered for the initial launch; approximately 400 records automatically validated; 13 mentorship matches completed

The Initial Need

AMPP began with a broad concept for a professional network serving physicians trained in both internal medicine and pediatrics. Leadership wanted members to find one another, reconnect, access mentorship, develop professionally, and remain involved after residency. The organization had few established programs and no central membership infrastructure.

Without a shared system, records, applications, communications, and future services would have been distributed across forms, spreadsheets, shared drives, and personal email. AMPP needed more than a public website: it needed a foundation for programs still being defined. The first deadline was its April 2023 conference.

Requirements and Initial Launch

I gathered requirements through meetings, email, demonstrations, and conversations with physicians at different career stages. Recent graduates often needed guidance on compensation, finances, career direction, self-advocacy, and mentorship. Experienced physicians sought leadership development; senior physicians wanted structured ways to mentor and contribute.

The initial launch included the public site and identity, registration, physician validation, a member directory, email infrastructure, and conference registration. Approximately 350 physicians registered. Roughly 20 encountered account-creation issues, primarily password emails during the surge.

Shared Membership Infrastructure

As programs grew, I developed a modular platform instead of disconnected applications. Its seven primary systems are the Member Directory, Mentor Directory, Events Calendar, Classifieds Directory, Business Directory, Webinar Archive, and AMPP Core.

AMPP Core connects each program to the same MemberPress database. It identifies the logged-in member, retrieves information, prefills applications, associates program records with members, and handles common email functions. Each program can have an administration experience tailored to staff while relying on one authoritative record, identity logic, access model, and communications layer.

Registration and Validation

NPI numbers validate physician identity at registration. Once approved, a physician is trusted and does not undergo repeated checks during normal use. Records are tied to professional identifiers rather than arbitrary internal numbers. Duplicate and incomplete registrations are detected, competing records are prevented, and exceptions are routed to staff. Approximately 400 records have been automatically validated, with very few requiring manual review.

Mentorship System

The mentorship system builds on the common record while adding a mentor-and-mentee workflow. It recognizes the member and prefills existing information, then collects position, career stage, training, practice setting, interests, goals, mentoring domains, current challenges, preferences, and pre-participation survey information.

Staff receive a direct review link. Approved mentors appear in the directory; staff review mentee preferences, professional characteristics, domains, and mentor capacity before approving a pairing.

Decision Support with Human Review

Ranked suggestions compare structured fields using defined criteria. An LLM separately reviews free-text responses for relevant topics, similarities, and contextual alignment. The recommendation supports staff review; it does not make the pairing decision.

After approval, the system supports introductions, follow-up communication, later surveys, renewal or closure, and relationship history. Approximately 15 applications have been submitted, 13 matches completed, and approximately 15 mentors represented.

Integrations and Operations

The platform connects with Mailchimp and Discourse. Custom functions enroll members in communications and create private community groups. Because a visible site can continue working while an external action fails, I developed connection-health and debugging functionality to locate failures and monitor external connections, email, and integration delivery.

Staff Administration

Four staff members operate different parts of the system. They manage records, applications, matches, events, webinars, listings, and communications. I documented the major systems, trained staff, tested realistic scenarios with dedicated accounts, and continued revising functionality from staff and member feedback.

Post-launch work has primarily extended stable systems. For example, a request for multiple listing terms required extending the publishing workflow so a selected term could be inherited and stored with the resulting listing.

Paid Membership

Paid membership launched in January 2026: New Graduate provides a one-year free introduction; Early Career is $50 annually; Established is $150; and Senior is $250. The structure is too new for meaningful renewal or retention reporting.

Current Operation

• 1,084 total members
• Approximately 600 active during the past year
• Approximately 400 automatically validated records
• Four staff users
• Approximately 15 mentorship applications and 13 completed matches
• Active Mailchimp and Discourse integrations
• Staff-managed events, webinars, directories, applications, listings, and communications

The original website and membership system established AMPP’s central member record. Later programs have been added around that foundation as the organization’s services developed.