Extension of Community Healthcare Outcomes in Parkinson Disease (Parkinson ECHO): A Feasibility Study

Parkinson’s disease is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder and presents with a heterogeneous group of symptoms. Managing these symptoms requires coordinated care from a neurology specialist and a primary care provider. Access to neurology care is limited for those patients with Parkinson’s disease who reside in rural areas given financial and mobility constraints along with the rarity of specialty providers. To close this gap, we developed and implemented a telehealth-based Project ECHO ® (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes) program, “Parkinson ECHO,” to provide education and support for rural clinicians and allied health members. We assessed the feasibility of this tele-mentoring educational offering and the effect it had on clinician confidence in diagnosing and treating Parkinson’s disease. Participants from across Oregon (n=33), of whom 70% served rural and/or medically underserved communities, attended the biweekly sessions. The sessions focused on a topic within Parkinson’s disease diagnosis or management followed by case discussions. We assessed clinician confidence and acceptability using surveys before and after their participation in the program. The COVID-19 pandemic was an unexpected obstacle in executing this project, delaying the program by several months and likely accounting for a lower number of attendees for the last two sessions. Nevertheless, we found Parkinson ECHO did significantly increase participant confidence levels in diagnosing and managing Parkinson’s disease.