Project ECHO-Geriatrics: Training Future Primary Care Providers to Meet the Needs of Older Adults  

K.A. Bennett, T. Ong, A. M. Verrall, M. V. Vitiello, Z. A. Marcum, and E. A. Phelan

Journal Club entry by Annabelle Rae C. Norwood, MD, MMP Geriatrics

Tele and video conferencing are now becoming more acceptable methods in providing medical care, especially in remote or rural areas where specialist care is scarce. However, it is also now becoming a tool to provide education, such as disseminating specialist knowledge to primary care providers, as what the Extension for Community Health Outcomes (ECHO) model has done. However, there has previously been no ECHO program designed especially for residents. This innovative educational program had used case-based video conference sessions to teach geriatrics topics to family medicine residents in 9 programs that are part of a regional residency network in the northwest area of the US. This study had showed that this teaching method significantly increased self-reported geriatrics knowledge after these sessions.

Discussion Questions:

What are the advantages of this model of teaching?

What are the disadvantages and possible challenges?

Do you think this educational model can be applied to other kinds of specialist teaching during residency training?

MMC is already an ECHO hub for autism and diabetes care. How do you think we can expand this more and apply this to graduate medical education and even undergraduate medical education?

 

Reference:

Bennett KA, Ong T, Verrall AM, Vitiello MV, Marcum ZA, Phelan EA. Project ECHO-Geriatrics: Training Future Primary Care Providers to Meet the Needs of Older Adults. J Grad Med Educ 2018;10:311-5.

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