Stratis Health Opioid Addiction in Rural (SOAR) Project ECHO

The Stratis Health Opioid Addiction in Rural (SOAR) Project ECHO expands access to and improves the quality of addiction treatment in underserved and hard-to-reach rural Minnesota, including the use of medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD). The target population of SOAR ECHO is rural, underserved Minnesota populations, and is a rural, for-rural approach. Features of the ECHO model is physicians teaching physicians, and strategies are:

• Education plus network
• Open participation model for rural clinicians and their care teams,
• Knowledge that is continually responsive and adaptive to rural community and clinician needs in underserved and hard-to-reach patient populations. Our approach to serving the rural population is to reach the primary care clinicians and care teams,  

Actions 

• Offering access to resources and tools to support the ECHO participants through an online resource webpage within the Stratis Health website. This repository contains all SOAR ECHO session recordings, along with tools such as clinical forms and policies and procedures for treating opioid use disorder in primary care settings. Similarly, the knowledge and tools can also be adapted to suit participating clinics.  
• Providing education, peer learning, and support on addiction-related subjects for clinicians and care teams in rural and underserved areas. 

We make lives better by:  

• Expanding the availability of best practice and evidence-based practices to rural and underserved clinicians providing care to people with addiction. 
• Provide a platform for participants to learn and share trends and practices for MOUD.