Long-COVID ECHO

Program goal

Facilitate a learning collaborative in Maricopa County to share best-practices and provide expert consultation for primary care providers treating patients with Long-COVID syndrome.

About the Long-COVID ECHO

Arizona state currently has 126 Primary Care Areas (PCAs) with 82 of these areas considered to be an Arizona Medically Underserved Area (AzMUA). Furthermore, Maricopa County has 51 regions that are designated as Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSA, n.d.). With the prevalence of MUA’s and HPSA’s across the state, patient’s living within these regions experience disadvantages in accessing the care they need. These issues are exacerbated as complexity of care needs increase such as those experiencing Long-COVID Syndrome. This new and emerging clustering of symptoms has been shown to effect up to 45% of COVID-19 survivors experience a range of unresolved symptoms at 4-months post-infection, regardless of hospitalization (O’Mahoney et al, 2022). Despite its prevalence, a clear definition of Long-Covid subtypes remains unclear, increasing the challenge clinicians face in providing effective treatment and management strategies.

This Long-COVID ECHO program will disseminate the new and emerging best-practices available for treating Long COVID Syndrome at the primary care level for a variety of symptom presentations (cardiovascular, pulmonary, renal, vascular, etc.) and unique considerations for special populations (pediatrics, geriatrics, Native American, low income, rural, etc.).

Who should attend?

• Primary care teams
• Physicians, advanced practice providers, nurses, psychologists, pharmacists, medical assistants
• Family practice
• Internal medicine
• Pediatrics
• Ob/gyn
• Behavioral health
• Other clinicians interested in learning more about best practices for Long-COVID

This project is supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of a financial assistance award totaling $495,615 with 100 percent funded by CDC/HHS. The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by CDC/HHS, or the U.S. Government.