ECHO autism adult healthcare: Training community clinicians to provide quality care for autistic adults.
A 6-month Zoom club lifted doctors’ confidence in treating autistic adults, but lesson tweaks were needed before knowledge grew.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Waldron et al. (2023) ran a 6-month Zoom-based ECHO program. They trained community primary-care doctors to treat autistic adults.
The team met weekly. Each session had a short lecture plus real patient cases. Doctors asked questions and shared ideas.
What they found
After the course, doctors felt more confident. They also liked the program. Knowledge scores did not budge at first.
The team rewrote some lessons. In the second group, knowledge finally went up. Confidence stayed high for both groups.
How this fits with other research
Mazurek et al. (2020) tried a similar 12-week ECHO for teens. Doctors again felt braver, but quiz scores stayed flat. The adult version repeats that pattern.
Mazurek et al. (2019) used ECHO to help doctors spot autism in toddlers. They mixed hands-on labs with Zoom calls. Pure Zoom worked for adults, so the model keeps evolving.
de Jonge et al. (2025) trained parents via ECHO. Caregiver knowledge and confidence both rose fast. The doctor version needed two tries to hit the same mark.
Why it matters
If you coach adult patients, you can borrow the ECHO slides. Share them with local family doctors. One hour a week on Zoom can cut long wait lists. Start with confidence-building cases first. Add knowledge checks later if scores look flat.
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Email one local PCP the free ECHO Autism Adult slide deck and invite them to the next cycle.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
Autistic adults experience significant unmet healthcare needs, with opportunities for improvement in both the systems and the practitioners who serve this population. Primary care physicians/practitioners (PCPs) are a natural choice to provide comprehensive care to autistic adults but often lack experience in serving this population. This pilot study developed and tested an Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes (ECHO) Autism model adapted from our previous work, focused specifically on training PCPs in best-practice care for autistic adults. The project was informed directly by the perspectives and preferences of autistic adults, caregivers, and PCPs. Two consecutive cohorts of PCPs participated in ECHO Autism Adult Healthcare sessions. Each cohort met 1 h twice a month for 6 months, with 37 PCPs (n = 20 in Cohort 1, and n = 17 in Cohort 2) participating. Based on findings from the first cohort, adjustments were made to refine the session preparation, curriculum, conduct of the ECHO, resources, and evaluation. After participation in the ECHO Autism program, PCP self-efficacy and satisfaction improved, while the number of perceived barriers did not change. Knowledge did not improve significantly in Cohort 1, but after adjustments to the training model, participants in Cohort 2 showed significant knowledge gains. While attention to systems of care is critical to addressing barriers in healthcare in the autistic population, the ECHO Autism Adult Healthcare model is feasible and holds promise for improving PCP satisfaction and self-efficacy in working with autistic adults.
Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research, 2023 · doi:10.1002/aur.2996