UofL Trager Institute addresses health disparities for older adults through Project ECHO programs
December 11, 2019Rural communities represent 41 percent of Kentucky’s population and yet only 17 percent of the state’s primary care physicians work in rural areas. In addition, with only 15 geriatric medicine specialists serving the Commonwealth, older adults living in rural communities may experience difficulty finding providers trained in best-practices for the geriatric population.
[caption id="attachment_49123" align="alignright" width="300"] Participants of the first ECHO session held during the second week of December[/caption]
The University of Louisville Trager Institute is working to expand the size of the geriatrics workforce by launching a series of short education enrichment tracks, known as Project ECHO - Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes. This program provides virtual learning opportunities on topics ranging from compassionate care of older adults with dementia to age-friendly hospitals.
About Project ECHO
Project ECHO is a tele-mentoring movement dedicated to sharing knowledge and amplifying the capacity of health care professionals to provide best-practice care for the medically underserved. Launched in 2003 at the University of New Mexico, Project ECHO originally was designed to teach physicians in rural New Mexico specialized hepatitis C treatment. Today, there are more than 220 Project ECHO hubs in 31 countries, treating more than 100 diseases and conditions.
Recognizing a need for increased specialists, particularly in rural communities, Project ECHO utilizes a low-bandwidth teleconferencing platform to create hub-and-spoke knowledge-sharing networks around the world. By creating digital learning communities connecting hubs of experts with practitioners in rural communities, Project ECHO improves treatment by moving information instead of people.
UofL Trager Institute Project ECHO Tracks
Each of the UofL Trager Institute’s Project ECHO education tracks focuses on specialized skills to empower partners to improve the quality of life of adults ages 50-plus. The tracks include the following topics: care of older adults, compassionate care for persons with Alzheimer’s Disease and related dementias, opioid use disorder and alternate pain management strategies in older adults, hospice and palliative care connection and age-friendly hospitals.
Continuing education soon will be offered through several tracks. To learn more about how to join one of the UofL Trager Institute’s Project ECHO tracks visit: https://www.tragerinstitute.org/project-echo
Julie oversees digital content for the Office of Communications and Marketing. She began her UofL career on the Health Sciences Center campus in 2007. Prior to this, Julie was a journalist with WFPL (Louisville Public Media), and occasionally filed reports for National Public Radio.