Projected ECHO - Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT)
Our nation is currently facing an opioid epidemic. According to the CDC, 91 Americans die every day from an opioid overdose. In 2015, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced an initiative to tackle the opioid epidemic and help save lives, and part of this initiative includes expanding access to and the use of medication-assisted treatment (MAT). MAT is the use of medications in combination with counseling and behavioral therapies for treatment of opioid use disorder. It significantly reduces opioid use compared with nondrug approaches, and increase in access to MAT can help reduce overdose fatalities. However, MAT is often unavailable to those in need because of lack of treatment programs and providers who can deliver these therapies. In an effort to expand capacity to treat people with opioid use disorder, we have adopted the Project ECHO model to help train medical providers on how to deliver MAT effectively in their respective practices.
Currently, the MAT ECHO clinic is closed for new enrollment as we are still in our piloting period; however, we hope to eventually open it up to general medical community so that we can continue to improve access to MAT.