An innovative telehealth program hosted by the University of Iowa Department of Psychiatry is helping the direct support professionals, community agencies, and health care providers who support and serve adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) by providing free expert guidance and support.
Iowa’s IDD Project ECHO uses videoconferencing to create a collaborative “all teach, all learn” environment where medical and care providers can share skills and best practices related to the treatment of adults with IDD.
“The goal and the vision of this initiative is to improve overall health care outcomes for adults with IDD in Iowa by opening a space for everyone involved in caring for adults with IDD to share knowledge and learn from each other about best-practices for care and support,” says Jodi Tate, MD, clinical professor of psychiatry with UI Health Care and the founder and director of Iowa’s IDD Project ECHO.
Based on a nationally-renowned community health care model and funded entirely by Molina Cares, the full name of the program is “Iowa’s IDD and Complex Care Needs Project ECHO” (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes).
“Project ECHO is a commitment to the people of Iowa that we will invest in the well-being of those who live in the communities we serve,” said Jennifer Vermeer, president of Molina Cares of Iowa. “Meeting the needs of the IDD population takes a skilled workforce developed with the education and training they need, and I look forward to future collaboration and investment from partners in this proven approach.”
The need for Iowa’s IDD Project ECHO
Individuals with an intellectual/developmental disability (IDD) have high rates of emergency room visits and increased mortality and morbidity as compared to those without IDD. The complex health care system and the lack of training for health care providers and support professionals contribute significantly to these disparities.
As a psychiatrist with more than 20 years of experience, Tate specializes in treating adult patients with IDD. She started Iowa’s IDD Project ECHO to improve the capacity to support and care for adults with IDD in communities across the entire state through sharing expertise, learning from each other, and building collaboration and knowledge with all of Iowa’s stakeholders
“We’re trying to work together to make the system work better for patients and providers,” Tate says. “We’re trying to work together to make it better.”
A success story by the numbers
Since the program launched last fall, Iowa’s IDD Project ECHO has:
Hosted a total of 23 sessions
With 147 unique participants
in 62 organizations
spread across 34 Iowa counties
and three other states: Georgia, North Carolina, and Nebraska
“I feel like we’re off to a great start,” Tate says.
The medical and care providers who have attended an ECHO session appear to agree.
In a survey completed by 92 of the 147 participants 100% reported that the ECHO sessions were relevant to their work
When asked if they would use what they learned during the Iowa IDD Project ECHO session, 72% responded, “definitely yes,” with another 23% answering as “probably yes.”
And when asked how likely they were to recommend Iowa’s IDD Project ECHO to other colleagues, 82% responded as “extremely likely.”
How Iowa’s IDD Project ECHO works
Any medical or care provider who works with adults with IDD can register and submit a de-identified case on the IDD Project ECHO website.
Selected cases are discussed during virtual meetings that are held twice monthly for the providers. During this time, providers discuss and consult on a de-identified case with the Project ECHO hub team, an interdisciplinary panel of health care specialists focused on IDD and Project ECHO participants. The virtual sessions are free for the attendees.
The Iowa IDD Project ECHO hub team is composed of 11 members from a variety of medical and institutional backgrounds. Tate brings a clinical psychiatric perspective, while other members offer insights according to their own specialties, including behavioral health, social work, family medicine, occupational therapy, and case management from Iowa Health and Human Services and Iowa’s managed care organizations.
The Project ECHO hub team and participants listen to each case, ask clarifying questions, and offer recommendations tailored to that specific case.
Jennifer Simmering is the service director of Crossroads, Inc., a Muscatine-based non-profit that provides housing, employment, and other services for adult IDD patients.
She’s also a member of the Iowa IDD Project ECHO hub team.
“Project ECHO has been a fantastic experience and one I'm excited to help extend to my counterparts at other organizations,” Simmering said. “Having the opportunity to bring many different specialties and perspectives to the table to focus on the needs of one individual is something we talk about a lot in disability services but are rarely able to deliver on because of time, money, and staffing constraints.”
The origins of Project ECHO
The original Project ECHO was founded by Sanjeev Arora, MD, at the University of New Mexico in 2003 with the goal of increasing rural access to treatments for hepatitis C.
The success of this evidence-based, interdisciplinary, lifelong-learning model has inspired the creation of 8,700 offshoot Project ECHO programs in more than 200 communities around the world, with more than 8.6 million participants having attended an ECHO session so far.
The Iowa program, launched in September 2024, is the result of a collaboration between University of Iowa Health Care, the Iowa Department of Health and Human Resources (HHS), the Iowa Association of Community Providers (IACP), Molina Healthcare, Iowa Total Care, and Iowa Health Link.
There are a handful of other Project ECHOs in the state of Iowa including the Behavioral Health (BH) ECHO and the Hepatitis C (HCV) ECHO, both of which are managed by the Iowa Primary Care Association.
Looking ahead
Now in its second year, Iowa’s IDD Project ECHO is building on feedback from the program’s first year. The team has refined and expanded their curriculum to better meet the needs of professionals across the state. The hub team has extended invitations to a broader audience — including physicians, advanced practice providers, therapists, nurses, and anyone involved in providing health care services or support to adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
“All are welcome to join us in this collaborative effort to improve care, share expertise, and strengthen support systems for individuals with IDD throughout Iowa,” Tate says.