Abstract
Publisher's Note: The incorrect abstract was originally added to the publication page. This XML version has now been replaced to match the original PDF version.
Introduction/Background:
Children's Health Queensland Hospital and Health Service (CHQ) has supported virtual Communities of Practice (CoPs) since 2017 and adopted the ECHO model for this purpose. CHQ’s CoPs comprise participants from different professions and sectors, and intentionally foster interprofessional collaborative practice and team-based care as a means to improve child and adolescent health outcomes. Whilst virtual CoPs are a highly effective means of workforce development, administration is resource intensive and difficult to sustain long term.
CHQ is implementing a new CoP management platform, called iECHO, which will significantly reduce the administrative burden of sustaining these communities, streamline evaluation of CoP outcomes, and deliver significant benefits for participants.
Who is it for?
Health and social care organisations across the world are recognising that interprofessional, collaborative, and team-based models of care are an essential part of addressing service provision challenges such as equity, accessibility, and workforce shortages. CoPs can promote these models of care whilst at the same time directly benefitting participants by providing collegial support, a space for learning and sharing their knowledge, and reduced professional isolation. For these reasons organisations are increasingly using CoPs to support their workforce. However, many CoPs in existence struggle to be sustained due to a lack of support infrastructure and resourcing commitments.
The iECHO platform has been designed as a fully integrated application solution to integrate the functionality of a high-performing CoP in any sector, to provide a reliable and sustainable way for organisations to support their workforce in any location with real-time access to CoPs.
Who did you involve and engage with?
CHQ’s Integrated Care team worked with the University of New Mexico’s Health Sciences Centre, international organisations currently using the ECHO model to deliver virtual CoPs, technical experts and developers from ECHO India. CHQ and other organisations using the ECHO model were involved in the implementation testing and subsequently became early adopters of the new solution.
What did you do?
CHQ will progressively transition to the new iECHO platform from late July 2023 and will present the evaluation findings in early 2024. The transition to the new iECHO will streamline participation for >4000 individual professionals who participate in CHQ’s virtual CoPs. It will also enable point of care advice to be provided to community members and to greatly reduce the administrative burden for CHQ in sustaining CoPs long term.
What results did you get?
The iECHO CoP management platform is expected to significantly enhance the experience of participants and reduce the administrative resourcing involved in supporting CoPs.
Anticipated benefits for participants include greater privacy, data security, and reliability, as well as the simplicity of a fully integrated platform that enables them to browse, register and attend CHQ’s CoPs, access resources, and receive point of care advice from colleagues via a single application.
Anticipated benefits for CHQ include enhanced administration efficiency, and increased data automation and integrity features to measure impact in various ways including:
- attendance tracking
- geographic/impact mapping
- number of cases discussed
- learning hours completed
- aggregate participant demographics and profession distribution
- enhanced evaluation capability and customisations to measure user experience, learning outcomes, and other indicators of success.
What is the learning for the international audience?
The new iECHO CoP management platform is expected to benefit international organisations currently using the ECHO model. Other organisations that use different platforms to deliver virtual CoPs but wish to improve their ability to deliver and sustain this long term can do so by becoming a licensed ECHO hub to gain free access to the new iECHO. CHQ can facilitate the licensing process and deliver the training program for new organisational teams wanting to operate enhanced CoPs.
What are the next steps?
The new iECHO CoP management platform will be rolled out to all CHQ’s CoP throughout the remainder of 2023. Organisations who wish to become an ECHO hub should contact CHQ’s ECHO Superhub via www.echo.qld.gov.au.