We welcome a new resource offering knowledge and mentorship for area doctors who deal with complex cases involving autism patients.
The Thompson Center for Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders recently announced it is offering the resource to connect rural doctors with autism experts. The center is based in Columbia and is part of the University of Missouri Hospital system.
Autism, a spectrum of developmental disorders that impair the ability to communicate and interact, affects one in 68 children.
The ECHO Autism program started in 2015 and now is offering video conference training - telementoring, as they call it - for health care professionals. One goal is to limit referrals to specialists by giving rural doctors more training/information about the specific autism issues they are dealing with. By being able to deal with the issues themselves, doctors can avoid referrals, which can add time and money to what can be an already stressful journey for parents of children with autism.
"If I am able to interpret what's going on with a patient and provide them service quicker, I've cut their journey in half," said Dr. Jasmine El Khatib, pediatrician at Community Health Center in Jefferson City. "Now they don't have to wait up to 18 months, and they don't have to leave the community."
The Thompson Center has invited health care providers throughout Missouri to sign up at no charge for ECHO Autism's first video conference clinic training model. It will allow them to connect with autism experts from around the world through two 11/2-hour teleconference sessions a month.
"We believe all children should have access to providers who can tend to their special needs," Dr. Kristin Sohl, associate professor of child care at the University of Missouri, recently told the News Tribune. "This program is about moving knowledge, not patients."
We hope area doctors take advantage of this new resource. Doctors work to help patients with autism function at the highest possible level, and this program has the ability to help achieve that goal for patients while also making it easier for their families to provide quality care for their loved ones.