Indian Health Service: Past ECHO Programs Related to COVID-19

The pandemic of SARS COV-2 virus (COVID-19) has had a profound impact on both health care providers and American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) patients. Indian Health Service (IHS) and Project ECHO united to address the particular health struggles of AI/AN communities across the United States.

List of Past Programs

• IHS Community Health - This ECHO develops skills and knowledge applicable to the community level response to COVID-19 with an emphasis on social determinants and the public health scope of practice.
• IHS Clinical Readiness and Patient Care - The IHS COVID-19 sessions convene IHS, tribal and urban clinical providers from around the U.S., many working in rural areas with limited resources, in crucial real-time, peer-to-peer clinical learning. Sessions discuss urgent focus areas and new developments in COVID-19, including topics related to screening, treatment, management of post-infection syndromes, and vaccines.
• IHS Indigenous Community Emergency Medicine - This is a ground-up initiative to connect, learn and share cases among those who are interested in or work in emergency department settings with indigenous and Native American communities. 
• IHS Mental Health and Resiliency - Support is provided to health care providers in treating the mental health concerns of AI/AN patients and supporting peers during the pandemic crisis and its aftermath, while also managing their own wellbeing. 
• IHS Substance Use Disorder and Chronic Pain - Comprehensive pain education is provided to health care professionals, including pain assessment, non-pharmacological, pharmacological, and interventional approaches, and addiction and overdose prevention as we move forward in the time of COVID-19.