Team training for the interprofessional management of opioid use disorder with the ECHO model

Expanding workforce training opportunities for opioid use disorder (OUD) treatment is a priority. We report on the impact of a 6-month-long team training program using the Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes (ECHO) model to scale an interprofessional education (IPE) intervention to primary care teams who offered medications for OUD treatment as part of their care plan. Thirteen healthcare teams participated in the program’s first cohort. We studied 52 participants’ pre-post responses to seven scales that examined individual efficacy, team efficacy, high performance teamwork behaviors, adaptive teamwork behaviors, ability to treat patients in two case examples, and stigma and harm reduction. Significant improvements occurred on six scales. Large effect sizes were observed for individual efficacy (<i>d</i> = 0.78), team efficacy (<i>d</i> = 1.25), and team’s ability to treat patients (<i>d</i> = 0.77, <i>d</i> = 0.83). Moderate effect sizes were observed for high performance teamwork behaviors (<i>d</i> = 0.69) and adaptive teamwork behaviors (<i>d</i> = 0.57). Only stigma and harm reduction did not show a change. The training program delivered an IPE-ECHO intervention that was effective at increasing the teams’ perceptions of their efficacy, functioning, and ability to treat patients. Future researchers should use objective measures to verify the team’s perceptions of their increased ability to work together.