Dr. Tom Bodenheimer Moderates Team-Based Care Panel at MetaECHO Conference in Albuquerque, NM

CEPC founding director Tom Bodenheimer, MD, MPH, and practice coach and trainer Sara Syer, MS, PA-C, participated in the inspiring MetaECHO Conference in Albuquerque, NM, from April 7-8, 2016. Project ECHO (Extension for Community Health Care Outcomes), which began in 2003 at the University of New Mexico, holds case conferences using video technology with primary care clinicians at distant community health centers to mentor clinicians on a range of 45 clinical conditions such as Hepatitis C, asthma, diabetes, hypertension, mental health disorders, and chronic pain. The conference featured a wide-ranging discussion between Don Berwick, MD, MPP, FRCP, and ECHO founder Sanjeev Arora, MD, FACP, FACG, emphasizing the guiding principle of ECHO: the “demonopolization” of knowledge – moving knowledge, not patients. Dr. Bodenheimer moderated a panel discussion on team-based care.

Most primary care clinicians who participate in ECHO clinics work in community health centers as ECHO focuses on access to vulnerable populations. A 2011 article in the New England Journal of Medicine demonstrated that many patients treated for Hepatitis C in primary clinics had treatment outcomes equivalent to those of patients treated in the university specialty clinic. The ECHO innovation has spread to a number of states and 12 countries; clinicians, nurses, pharmacists, social workers, and community health workers participate in ECHO clinics. ECHO clinics have been shown to benefit primary care clinicians by increasing competence and decreasing feelings of isolation.

 

Project ECHO founder Dr. Sanjeev Arora (L) and Dr. Don Berwick (R), President Emeritus and Senior Fellow, Institute for Healthcare Improvement

CEPC founding director Dr. Tom Bodenheimer with Dr. Berwick (R)

 

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