Project ECHO: A New Model for Educating Primary Care Providers About Treatment of Substance Use Disorders
BACKGROUND:
Project
ECHO trains and mentors primary care providers (PCPs) in the care of patients
with complex conditions. ECHO is a distance education model that connects
specialists with numerous PCPs via simultaneous video link for the purpose of
facilitating case-based learning. We describe a teleECHO clinic based at the
University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center that is focused on treatment of
substance use disorders (SUDs) and behavioral health disorders.
METHODS:
Since
2005, specialists in treatment of SUDs and behavioral health disorders at
Project ECHO have offered a weekly 2-hour Integrated Addictions and Psychiatry
(IAP) TeleECHO Clinic focused on supporting PCP evaluation and treatment of
SUDs and behavioral health disorders. We tabulate the number of teleECHO clinic
sessions, participants, and CME/CEU credits provided annually. This teleECHO
clinic has also been used to recruit physicians to participate in DATA-2000
buprenorphine waiver trainings. Using a database of the practice location of
physicians who received the buprenorphine waiver since 2002, we calculate the
number of waivered physicians per capita in US states. We evaluate the increase
in waivered physicians practicing in underserved areas in NM compared to the
rest of the US.
RESULTS:
Since
2008, approximately 950 patient cases have been presented during the teleECHO
clinic, and more than 9000 hours of CME/CEU have been awarded. Opioids are the
substances discussed most commonly (31%), followed by Alcohol (21%) and
Cannabis (12%). New Mexico is near the top among US states in DATA-2000
buprenorphine waivered physicians per capita, and has had much more rapid
growth in waivered physicians practicing in traditionally-underserved areas
compared with the rest of the US since the initiation of the teleECHO clinic
focused on SUDs in 2005.
CONCLUSION:
The
ECHO model provides an opportunity to promote expansion of access to treatment
for opioid use disorder and other SUDs, particularly in underserved areas.
- 1 ECHO Institute, University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, University of New Mexico , Albuquerque , NM , USA.
- 2 Truman Clinic, University Hospital , Albuquerque , NM , USA.
- 3 El Centro Family Health Center , Espanola , NM , USA.
- Subst Abus. 2016 Feb 5:0.
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