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Background: Project ECHO® networks at Children's Health Queensland Hospital and Health Service (CHQHHS) are communities of practice designed to mitigate services and systems fragmentation by building collaborative partnerships addressing priority child and youth health needs. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people experience the negative impacts of fragmentation in addition to historical challenges of absent or culturally inappropriate health services. Access to culturally safe and responsive services can be improved by engaging Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Workers and similar roles in an online community of practice, supporting the integration of cultural and clinical knowledge and self-determination of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander consumers in decisions affecting their health. Analysing professional support networks and knowledge sharing patterns helps identify enablers and barriers to partnerships. Using social network research, the multilevel network inclusive of ECHO network members and their colleagues was studied to identify interdisciplinary and cross-sector advice exchange patterns, explore the position of cultural brokers and identify common relational tendencies. Methods: Social network theories and methods informed the collection of network data and analysis of advice-seeking relationships among ECHO network members and their nominees. Registered members from two ECHO networks were invited to complete the Qualtrics survey. Networks analysed comprised 398 professionals from mainstream health, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community Controlled Health Organisation, education, disability and child safety service settings. Results: Brokers were well represented, both those who hold knowledge brokerage positions as well as cultural brokers who incorporate clinical and cultural knowledge enabling holistic care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients (38 individuals, 17% of network). Professionals who occupy brokerage positions outside the ECHO network tend to be more connected with co-members within the network. Conclusions: This study is the first application of contemporary social network theories and methods to investigate an ECHO network. The findings highlight the connectivity afforded by brokers, enabling the coordination and collaboration necessary for effective care integration. Inclusion of cultural brokers in an ECHO network provides sustained peer group support while also cultivating relationships that facilitate the integration of cultural and clinical knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Children’s Health Queensland (CHQ) established a telementoring hub in Queensland, using the Project ECHO® model, to pilot and scale a range of virtual communities of practice (CoP) to empower the Australian workforce to integrate care. Description: The establishment of the first Project ECHO hub in Queensland facilitated the implementation of a variety of child and youth health CoP that strategically aligned to the organisation’s approach to integrate care through workforce development. Subsequently, other organisations nationally have also been trained to implement and replicate the ECHO model to effect more integrated care through CoPs in other priority areas. Discussion: Findings from a database audit and desktop analysis of project documentation highlighted that using the ECHO model was effective in establishing co-designed and interprofessional CoP to support a cross-sector workforce to deliver more integrated care. Conclusion: CHQ’s use of Project ECHO highlights an intentional approach to establishing virtual CoP to build workforce capability to integrate care. The approach explored in this paper highlights the value of workforce collaboration amongst nontraditional partners to foster more integrated care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]