Moore Jonathan D, de Leon Gonzalez Julio, Casanova Madeline P, Rodgers Kathleen, Baker Russell T
WWAMI Medical Education Program University of Idaho Moscow Idaho USA.
Idaho Office of Rural and Underserved Medical Research University of Idaho Moscow Idaho USA.
Public Health Chall. 2023 Sep 30;2(4):e128. doi: 10.1002/puh2.128. eCollection 2023 Dec.
Idaho is a medically underserved and rural state comprised mostly health professional shortage areas for primary and specialty care. Given the state shortages and barriers to access care, the testing and treatment of COVID-19 may be improved through the implementation of telementoring education programs such as Project Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes (ECHO). The purpose of this article was to assess session attendance and self-reported healthcare clinician perceptions of the ECHO Idaho COVID-19 series (2020 and 2021), a modified Project ECHO model provided during the COVID-19 pandemic in Idaho.
ECHO Idaho developed a COVID-19 ECHO series for healthcare providers to attend in 2020 and 2021. The sessions included COVID-19 updates specific to Idaho, didactic presentations on prevention, screening, diagnosis, and evidence-based treatments for COVID-19, and case-based presentations.
A total of 664 individuals attended the 2020 series and 260 individuals attended the 2021 series, with 1752.5 continuing medical education hours being claimed. Participants reported series participation increased overall knowledge of COVID-19, knowledge of best practices for treatment, and awareness of resources available in Idaho. Further, series participation was perceived to reduce feelings of isolation, enhance access to information, and support healthcare professionals (e.g., provided resources) during the pandemic.
Results of this evaluation indicate that the ECHO Idaho COVID-19 series was a useful and valuable program to implement during a pandemic in a rural and frontier state to improve physician knowledge and specialty training.
爱达荷州是一个医疗服务不足的农村州，主要存在初级和专科护理方面的卫生专业人员短缺地区。鉴于该州的短缺情况和获得医疗服务的障碍，通过实施远程指导教育项目，如社区医疗成果推广项目（ECHO），可能会改善新冠病毒疾病（COVID-19）的检测和治疗。本文的目的是评估爱达荷州ECHO新冠病毒疾病系列（2020年和2021年）的课程出席情况以及医疗保健临床医生的自我报告看法，该系列是在爱达荷州新冠病毒疾病大流行期间提供的改良版ECHO项目模型。
爱达荷州ECHO为医疗服务提供者开发了一个2020年和2021年可参加的新冠病毒疾病ECHO系列。课程包括爱达荷州特定的新冠病毒疾病最新情况、关于预防、筛查、诊断和新冠病毒疾病循证治疗的教学讲座，以及基于病例的讲座。
共有664人参加了2020年系列，260人参加了2021年系列，共申报了1752.5个继续医学教育学时。参与者报告称，参加该系列增加了对新冠病毒疾病的总体了解、对最佳治疗实践的了解以及对爱达荷州可用资源的认识。此外，参加该系列被认为减少了孤立感，增强了信息获取，并在大流行期间为医疗保健专业人员提供了支持（如提供资源）。
该评估结果表明，爱达荷州ECHO新冠病毒疾病系列是在农村和边境州大流行期间实施的一个有用且有价值的项目，可提高医生的知识水平和专科培训。
