About Oregon ECHO Network

From left: Jonathan Betlinski, Stephanie Hyde, Ferrik Cope, Maggie McDonnell, Leah Brandis, Tiff Weekley, Briana Arnold, Tuesday Graham, Maryan Carbuccia Abbott, at the MetaECHO conference in Albuquerque, NM.

The Oregon ECHO Network (OEN) is a statewide utility for Project ECHO® (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes) programming and support services.

Annual Report

Download a copy of our 2022-2023 Annual Report

Download a copy of our 2021-2022 Annual Report

Publications

Click here for a list of publications by Oregon ECHO Network and affiliated ECHO teams.

Hosting

The Oregon ECHO Network is hosted within the Oregon Rural Practice-based Research Network (ORPRN) at Oregon Health and Science University. ORPRN is a statewide network of primary care clinicians, community partners, and academicians. The organization’s mission is to improve health outcomes and equity for all Oregonians through community partnered dialogue, research, coaching, and education.

ORPRN leadership believes the ECHO model helps ORPRN fulfill its mission to improve the health of rural Oregonians by promoting knowledge transfer between communities and clinicians.

Vision

The primary aim of the OEN is to increase access to specialist expertise intended to improve participants’ knowledge, skills, and processes to deliver care, and increase the number of local experts through clinician expert mentoring and peer-to-peer learning.

Intended clinical outcomes include:

Overall improved patient health and reduced health disparities
Improved patient satisfaction with their care
Reduced number of unneeded specialty referrals
Reduced medical errors
More effective, comprehensive holistic care and case management through participants’ access to multidisciplinary specialist teams

Diversity Statement

As a project within the Oregon Rural Practice Based Research Network, Oregon ECHO Network is committed to building and sustaining a diverse, equitable, inclusive and anti-racist organization. We do so by evaluating how we develop and support our workforce, the partnerships we uphold and how we engage in community-partnered dialogue, research, coaching and education throughout Oregon.

Model

The Project ECHO tele-mentoring education model was originally developed at University of New Mexico to build the capacity of primary care clinicians to manage health conditions that they typically refer to specialty care. Today, this model is also used to educate clinical teams and other participants on topics ranging from practice transformation to improving clinical workflows to training community health workers. Using a simple webcam, specialists and healthcare experts connect to a group of remote participants in interactive video sessions to discuss de-identified cases and learn evidence-based approaches to manage complex conditions and improve quality of care.

Programs

The OEN provides program offerings determined and supported by a collaborative group of community partners. Below is a list of services that the OEN provides to support network-sponsored programs and the expansion of ECHO program offerings throughout the state.

Technical assistance/resource library
Participant engagement and recruitment
Centralized communications, e.g. website, calendar of opportunities, e-newsletter
Curriculum development support
IT support
Continuing Medical Education Credits and Maintenance of Certification Part 2 for internal medicine physicians
Program evaluation
Relationship-building with national and international ECHO hubs