Technology-Enabled Learning Collaborative Program - The proposed Technology-Enabled Collaborative Learning Program (TCLP) will strengthen the healthcare workforce's capacity and increase access to quality, evidence-based care for the focus areas of chronic disease prevention and management (CDP) and obesity management (OM), as well as expanding access to high-quality CDP and OM care in prenatal and maternal health and pediatric care. To deliver the TCLP, the ECHO Institute will use the proven community learning model, the ECHO Model, to recruit, connect, and train 1,125 healthcare professionals serving HRSA-designated rural counties and other communities with limited access to specialty care in New Mexico (NM). The proposed project will: 1. Develop and Launch a CDP Across the Lifespan ECHO Program to provide training and ongoing mentorship to primary care clinicians in NM with evidence-based practices for screening, treating, and diagnosing health issues and risk factors related to CDP and OM. 2. Develop and deliver Specialty ECHO Series that integrate chronic disease and OM content into existing NM-based ECHO programs serving priority populations and practice settings through the following ECHO programs: 1) Improving Perinatal Health ECHO Program, 2) Maternal Child Health for Community Health Workers ECHO Program, 3) New Mexico School Health ECHO Program, 4) New Mexico Peer Education Project, 5) New Mexico Community Peer Education Project. 3. Develop and Implement Quarterly Collaborative Grand Round Sessions to connect participants from the CDP Across the Lifespan ECHO and all Specialty ECHO Series. Sessions will focus on cross-program learning, collaboration, dissemination of best practices, discussion of complex cases and implementation challenges, and reinforcement of shared evidence-based competencies across CDP and OM through a statewide community of practice. 5. Implement a multi-level continuous process improvement and outcomes evaluation plan across the ECHO programs. We will track our progress toward the following objectives: 1. The CDP Across the Lifespan ECHO Program will train 600 healthcare providers (e.g., doctors, nurses, registered dietitians, physicians and medical assistants, psychologists, pharmacists) over 3 years. 2. The Specialty ECHO Series will train 525 specialty and community-based healthcare providers (e.g., midwives, school nurses, counselors, community health workers/community health representatives, peer educators, primary care providers, behavioral health providers) serving target audiences in OM and CDP in years 2 and 3 of the project. 4. Improve healthcare access in 80% of NM counties over 3 years. 5. Develop, refine, and disseminate a Chronic Disease Prevention toolkit, including resources for program replication, implementation, and quality improvement measures to scale program adoption by the end of the performance period. The project’s intended outcomes include: 1. Create a statewide tele-mentoring collaborative learning network for improving care delivery and outcomes related to OM and CDP using the ECHO model. 2. Increase providers’ reported knowledge, skills, and confidence in best practices for screening, diagnosing, and managing obesity-related risk factors and implementing methods for CDP. 3. Increase implementation of evidence-based OM treatments, including appropriate prescription of anti-obesity medications and use of OM/CDP services. 4. Decrease disparities in access to care and treatment for OM and CDP in rural and priority patient populations in NM, such as infants, children, pregnant and postpartum women, justice-impacted populations, and Tribal communities. 5. Create and disseminate a scalable Chronic Disease Prevention toolkit for the replication, implementation, and quality improvement framework of the community learning model through the national ECHO partner network, TCLP recipients, and other rural tele-mentoring providers.
