Evaluation of Technology-enabled Collaborative Learning and Capacity Building Models

Résumé du livre

Across the United States and internationally, multiple health care sites have embraced technology-enabled collaborative learning and capacity-building models. Such models use technology to connect generalist providers, often located in remote areas, with specialist teams that help train these providers to deliver care for patients with conditions that they might not feel adequately prepared to handle but are nevertheless within their scope of practice. The first implementation of this model, Project ECHO (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes), launched in 2003 in New Mexico. Project ECHO began with a focus on supporting the management of patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV) in rural regions of the state. This model has since been adapted to many different sites within the United States and other countries, and these models now address a wide range of medical conditions and other issues that providers face. This report documents what is known about ECHO and ECHO-like models (EELM). Generally speaking, the quality of evidence for the effectiveness of EELM could use improvement, but EELM mostly show positive effects in the small but growing body of research of EELM, which thus far measures more provider outcomes than patient outcomes.