Project ECHO Effectively Educates Providers in Managing Pediatric Pain

A study published in BMC Medical Education found that an online education model called Project Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes (Project ECHO) effectively trained healthcare providers (HCPs) on pediatric pain management.

According to the study, addressing pediatric pain often requires a multi-modal management approach, thus driving a need for HCP education.

However, a frequent challenge that HCPs face revolves around accessing these education services and obtaining interprofessional training. Project ECHO is a model that aims to counter this issue by providing online education on pediatric pain. Researchers noted that Project ECHO could improve access to pediatric pain knowledge among the HCPs who provide care in community and hospital settings across rural and urban environments.

The study assessed a no-cost Pediatric ECHO for Pain program, which offered TeleECHO sessions, including didactic and case-based learning, as well as foundational education. 

Researchers conducted a three-fold study that reviewed the level of feasibility of Project ECHO regarding pediatric pain education, measured preliminary program impacts on HCP performance, and determined HCP engagement with the program both pre- and post-pandemic.

In total, 85 TeleECHO sessions and two cycles of core competency sessions took place. The TeleECHO sessions included a mean of 34 attendees, with attendance varying from six to 138 participants each month. A total of 37 individuals registered for the core competency sessions, with each session having an average attendance of 13.

To identify education gaps within Project ECHO, researchers had participants engage in surveys at baseline and six months to review performance. This used a seven-point Likert scale to assess outcomes. They also measured participant engagement before and during the pandemic.

At the six-month mark, participants rated their satisfaction with the program, rating the sentence "the program is an effective way for me to learn" as 5.8 on average on a scale of one to seven, with seven denoting "strongly agree."

Among core competency participants, 90 percent said their global knowledge regarding pediatric pain management improved, and 36 percent reported that this led to practice change.

In addition to this, 81 percent reported improvements in global confidence in the management of pediatric pain.

Further, among TeleECHO participants, there were significant improvements in topic-specific knowledge scores across all categories from baseline to six months, including assessment, managing chronic pain, and pharmacotherapy.

Based on these findings, researchers concluded that Project ECHO is a feasible and effective method for virtually educating HCPs on managing pediatric pain.

Prior studies have shown that pediatric patients are also satisfied with telehealth-enabled care.

A study from March 2022 found that pediatric orthopedic patients were largely satisfied with virtual healthcare. For the study, researchers gathered a sample of 1,686 patients and guardians and provided a survey asking about their experience with the visit.

The survey indicated that the overall visit satisfaction rate was 85 percent, with 89 percent claiming that they experienced ease with video communication, 86 percent stating that the video connection was adequate, and 90 percent reporting that the audio connection was strong.