Ten years of ECHO chronic pain and opioid stewardship in Ontario: impact and future directions

Background: ECHO Pain is a health professions education model that uses telehealth technology to connect specialists in academic centres to healthcare professionals who work in the community to disseminate best practice knowledge and foster interprofessional collaboration to support real patient cases. Methods: This paper summarizes 10 years of ECHO Pain implementation and evaluation in Ontario. We reviewed participants' demographics, characteristics of cases presented in ECHO sessions, and the research output of this ECHO Pain program. Results: From June 2014 to June 2024, there were 529 sessions, 1527 healthcare professionals from urban and rural regions attended ECHO, and 25,898 h of continuing medical education credits were provided. We published 11 papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals using qualitative and quantitative research methods. Conclusions: ECHO Pain has been implemented and sustained in Ontario for 10 years, with demonstrated interprofessional education and an ongoing community of practice to discuss chronic pain cases. ECHO Pain is filling a significant gap in health professions education related to chronic pain in Ontario, especially for primary care professionals living in rural, remote, and underserved areas