Trivandrum Institute of Palliative Sciences (TIPS), a WHO collaborating center for training and policy on access to pain relief, works towards training medical professionals, nurses and volunteers in the field of palliative care as its core agenda.

Over the recent years, with the ongoing efforts in advocacy and training, access to palliative care services for people in Southeast Asia has increased to a large extent. However, huge gaps in services continue to exist. The main challenge faced is to connect, assess, monitor, support and educate palliative care teams dispersed across the country. Identifying the need to overcome this challenge, TIPS has collaborated with Project ECHO to connect with teams looking after patients with palliative care needs searching for clinical guidance and bridge the gaps in palliative care services.

Using the ECHO model, this project aims to facilitate clinical case based discussions, evolve best practices, provide updates and improve networking amongst the palliative care practitioners and teams, that are otherwise distanced from each other and from academic environments through the teleECHO clinics.

This teleECHO clinic is led by experts in the field of palliative care from TIPS and is joined by participants from across the country with an aim to promote team work, improved communications and practicing systematic approach to clinical questions all within a framework centered on quality and standards. The usually has 3-4 case-based discussions and a short didactic presentation. It aims to respond to clinical questions of the participants and is a very interactive session.

The first series of the TIPS ECHO has 12 sessions with didactic presentations on “Best Practices in the Pharmacological management of Pain and When Using Medical Opioids.”

The TIPS ECHO project will have a pre and post evaluation to understand and document the impact of the program on the participant’s knowledge, skills, abilities and changes in practice. A regular post session evaluation will also help identify unmet needs and help fine tune the remaining program.