We ask authors to describe their impressions regarding the implications of their accepted work, how their findings will change practice, and what is noteworthy about the work.
Project ECHO (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes): A new model for educating primary care providers about treatment of substance use disorders
Miriam Komaromy, Dan Duhigg, Adam Metcalf, Cristina Carlson, Summers Kalishman, Leslie Hayes, Tom Burke, Karla Thornton, Sanjeev Arora
Substance Abuse
Vol. 37, Iss. 1, 2016
The ECHO model is gaining recognition nationally and internationally as a model for ongoing telementoring and guided practice that can help primary care providers to hone their skills and increase their confidence in caring for patients with complex diseases. The current epidemic in opioid overdose deaths has created a need for PCPs to become comfortable identifying and treating substance use disorders, and yet graduate and undergraduate medical education typically do not focus on the skills and knowledge needed to treat SUDs effectively. This manuscript describes a teleECHO clinic that has operated for the past decade in NM with a focus on training and supporting PCPs to address SUDs. The manuscript also describes use of the ECHO network to recruit providers to participate in training to receive the buprenorphine waiver. Over the past decade NM has seen a rapid rise in the number of providers in traditionally underserved areas who have obtained the waiver to prescribe buprenorphine. ECHO may provide an effective model to train and support PCPs to address SUDs, and may also expand access to SUD treatment in traditionally-underserved areas.
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Our newly released issue is now online —> January-March 2016.
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