PRACTICE PARTNER
Peers Helping Peers
Opportunities for guidance
in pain management
The Ontario Partnered Support Table is a group of health system agencies intent on ensuring physicians have the support
they need to feel more confident caring for patients with pain. In this issue, we examine the services offered by Project
ECHO, the Centre for Effective Practice, and the Ontario College of Family Physicians’ Medical Mentoring for Addiction and
Pain Network.
C
aring for patients with opioid
addiction and chronic pain can be
challenging in the context of a family
practice. A physician with limited
experience could understandably feel overwhelmed and
discouraged when trying to provide the best care for
patients with these issues.
There is reason to feel heartened, however. The fol-
lowing organizations have developed opportunities to
connect family physicians to other health-care profes-
sionals who can offer the guidance they need.
Project ECHO
Since its inception in 2014, nearly 400 health-care
professionals across the province have taken advantage
of the “think tank” known as Project ECHO.
The heart of the ECHO model is its hub-and-spoke
knowledge-sharing networks, led by expert teams
who use multi-point videoconferencing to conduct
virtual clinics with community providers. In this way,
primary care doctors, nurses, and other clinicians learn
to provide excellent specialty care to patients in their
own communities.
Here’s how it works. A team of experts in chronic
pain (the hub) conduct weekly two-hour videoconfer-
ences for primary care professionals (the spokes) using
the Ontario Telemedicine Network. The two academic
hubs involved are Queen’s University and the University
Health Network. Along with MDs, the experts include
allied health professionals like a pain psychologist, phys-
iotherapist, social worker, occupational therapist, phar-
macist and nurse. The spokes present de-identified cases
and get treatment suggestions. In any given session, as
many as 25 partner health-care sites attend. Spokes can
ISSUE 1, 2019 DIALOGUE
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