For many people, including professionals working in healthcare, having access to up-to-date information changes over time, especially once someone graduates from a program of study.
Maintaining clinical knowledge can be challenging unless one is employed by an academic/research institution, an organization that supports continuous learning and research, or one that offers access to research and reference tools. With this in mind, there is an educational format to become aware of—an ECHO program.
ECHO stands for Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes. It is an approach to learning for professionals that decentralizes knowledge to amplify best practice care for underserved people all over the world. There are many types of education that are delivered in this format: a multi-week virtual meeting that combines current information in a didactic learning format and case studies for discussion.
ECHO programs are often hosted by different types of organizations and academic institutions—each one has its own agenda/topic, schedule, frequency for meeting—and many offer continuing education credits (CEUs). A big advantage to learning in this way is that it connects people from all over into a conversation together, typically in a live/synchronous session with opportunities for question/answer time.
A few sessions that are particularly useful for our studies in Illinois LEND include the ECHO Autism in Primary Care, hosted by Advocate Children’s Hospital in Chicago. Another is About Autism in Toddlers, hosted by the Dr. Amy Wetherby at Florida State University. Both series are packed with useful information. (A quick Google search can help you find these and many more!) Different types of clinical people attend these—consider joining a session if your schedule permits!
Please consider searching for an ECHO program that aligns with your areas of interest.
To learn more about Project ECHO, the model for learning (“all teach, all learn”) and its founder: https://hsc.unm.edu/echo/what-we-do/about-the-echo-model.html
Reference
ECHO Institute at the University of New Mexico. (2023). https://www.uicc.org/membership/echo-institute-university-new-mexico
