WELCOME
Welcome to the second edition of the C-TRaP Newsletter! We are so grateful for the enthusiastic response to our inaugural issue and even more excited to continue sharing timely insights, meaningful research updates, and stories from across our telehealth community.
Since our first issue launched, our center has continued to grow - spanning collaborative research, policy work, and pilot projects that push telehealth forward across different settings and institutions. In this edition, you'll find progress reports from ongoing studies, introductions to our dedicated team members, highlights of the collaborative efforts driving innovation and impact across programs. Thank you for staying connected and for the commitment you bring to advancing evidence-informed telehealth solutions. We look forward to continuing our shared learning, impact, and community building.
- Mirna and Dima
Collaboration with MTN/ECHO
MISSOURI TELEHEALTH NETWORK (MTN)
Missouri Telehealth Network has led operational, legal and regulatory, and research and evaluation efforts in telehealth since 1994. During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, our Show-Me ECHO program was one of seven ECHO Super Hub sites in the U.S. As a pioneer in telehealth, MTN has been training other states and other countries to begin ECHO in their regions. The ECHO model leads to increases in access to high quality care and better patient outcomes which decrease the per capita cost for healthcare. It also enhances the well-being of the healthcare team.
MISSION The Missouri Telehealth Network increases access to patient-centered health care for rural and underserved Missourians via telehealth by providing technical assistance to health care organizations, partnering with key stakeholders, operating telehealth programs and supporting and developing telehealth policies. The Missouri Telehealth Network exists to develop, study, and use telehealth solutions that improve access by providing high-value, patient-centered health care and medical education in Missouri and beyond. MTNs success depends on three essential elements: staff, programming, and partnerships. Our staff provides the expertise and commitment that make telehealth and ECHO services effective, reliable, and responsive to the needs of communities across Missouri. Our programming expands access to care and specialty knowledge through practical, evidence-based telehealth, research, and collaborative learning models that strengthen the healthcare workforce. Our partnerships connect health systems, universities, state agencies, and community organizations to create a statewide network that amplifies impact, shares resources, and advances health equity. Together, these three pillars enable MTN and Show-Me ECHO to sustainably improve access, quality, and outcomes across Missouri. HISTORY OF SHOW-ME ECHO
From 2014 to 2025 Show-Me ECHO organized 4161 ECHO sessions, delivering 147,033 hours of instruction, and reaching 14,123 learners. This year, Show-Me ECHO celebrates its twelfth anniversary, marking over a decade of success in leveraging technology to improve healthcare delivery.
MEET THE TEAM
We are going to introduce a few members of the team in every edition.
Rachel Mutrux, BA, joined the MTN in 2002. As a seasoned leader in telehealth, Rachel brings over two decades of experience to her role as Director of the Missouri Telehealth Network (MTN), at the University of Missouri - School of Medicine. Rachel has been instrumental in advancing telehealth initiatives including pioneering projects like Show-Me ECHO. She has also shown great leadership in MTN’s partnership in the Central Regional Telehealth Resource Center. Her expertise spans strategic leadership, operational management, and regulatory navigation, and she is recognized for her significant contributions to healthcare delivery through telehealth.
Sue Boren, PhD, MHA, FACMI, FAMIA, is the Health Management and Informatics Alumni Distinguished Professor and Program Director of the Master of Health Administration at the University of Missouri. An accomplished academic leader and researcher, she has extensive expertise in health informatics and health administration with more than 12,000 citations to her work. Her research focuses on digital health solutions to improve patient outcomes and healthcare quality. Nationally recognized for leadership in accreditation and professional organizations, Dr. Boren has been honored with multiple fellowships and awards for her contributions to advancing scholarship, mentoring, and innovation in healthcare leadership.
Join Dr. Boren's webinar on March 18th, 2026.
Title: The Current State of Telehealth: Policy, Payment, and Use This webinar shares where telehealth stands today after the COVID-19 public health emergency. It will review recent changes in telehealth policy, billing, and reimbursement, examine how telehealth use has shifted over time, and discuss what this means for everyday clinical and operational practice. Learning Outcomes: 1. Identify recent telehealth policy and reimbursement changes and how they affect day-to-day practice. 2. Recognize current telehealth use patterns, including what has declined, what has remained, and where disparities persist. 3. Use practical strategies to align telehealth services with current payment rules and organizational goals.
Click to Register now
PROJECTS UPDATE
How research work improves telehealth and patient care:
- Data from telehealth services and ECHO sessions being properly categorized/coded
- Statistical analysis to identify trends and patterns
- Evidence revealed for ways to improve
- Policy changes to enhance telehealth
- Better health care for patients
Catch us at the next SEARCH conference
C-TRaP: Turning Evidence into Better Care for Everyone, Everywhere in the Era of AI, poster presentation SEARCH 2026 – The National Telehealth Research Symposium, June 2–3, 2026 Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
Work Accomplished
Conference abstracts: "From Necessity to Norm: Preliminary Trend in Telehealth Utilization Among Missouri Medicaid Beneficiaries, 2017-2025" under review "Assessing Prescribing Behavior Change After Pain Management ECHO Participation" under review "Explainable Schema Mapping for Harmonizing Telehealth Case Presentation forms Using Retrieval-Augmented Generation" under review Oral presentations: 2026 National Telehealth and Virtual Care Conference March 26-27, 2026 Nashville, TN Presentation topic: Telehealth and AI Presenter: Dr. Mirna Becevic
Manuscripts: Conference manuscript, "Explainable Schema Mapping with Retrieval-Augmented Generation and MedGemma" under review Webinar: March 2026, "The current state of telehealth: Policy, Payment, and Use", Dr. Sue Boren (Please see "Meet the Team" under Dr. Boren's bio for details) Click to Register now
Midwest HIV Response and Action Summit
Wednesday, April 22, 8:00 am - 4:30 pm CT, in person in St. Louis
Dr. Dandachi will be presenting about "Telehealth to Advance HIV Care in Missouri". Register today to join.
Graduate students who play important roles
"I was born and raised in Bangladesh and completed my undergrad at Khulna University of Engineering & Technology (KUET). I am currently a Computer Science PhD student at the University of Missouri. My research passion lies in federated learning, large language models, and computer vision, with a particular focus on applying these technologies toward solving critical challenges in healthcare. What excites me most about the projects at C-TRaP is the opportunity to work with real-world clinical data and interdisciplinary teams to develop scalable, privacy-preserving, and data-driven solutions that can directly impact patient care and public health. After completing my PhD, I plan to pursue a research-focused career in academia."
PARTNER'S CORNER
"I have jumped around a lot from place to place. I grew up in Northern California, studied for a year in Japan (where my homestay mother taught me how to prepare Japanese foods), worked on a California dairy farm and a Montana ranch and as a California State Assembly Fellow before driving an Italian sports car to Los Angeles for graduate school. My dissertation research was done back in Tokyo for a year, studying how scientists collaborate together. My first faculty job was in Michigan where I met my wife. We then moved our kids to Oregon, Ohio, Colorado (working for Kaiser Permanente), then back to Michigan. Our kids are now doing their own things on the US East Coast and in the Navy (he’s floating around somewhere). Studying telehealth has been illuminating and enabled me to meet and work with terrific smart people!" Dr. Dearing is the Brandt Endowed Professor and former Chairperson of the Department of Communication, Michigan State University (MSU). His research focuses on the diffusion of innovations, including the adoption and implementation of new evidence-based practices, programs, technologies and policies by health care and public health professionals. He has been PI for research grants from NSF, EPA, NCI, AHQR, and numerous private foundations. He is a fellow of the International Communication Association. He co-leads a study assessing the implementation of Project ECHO at 40 sites in North America. Dr. Dearing is the Co-Investigator of project 4, which is primarily located in MSU. His team's work focuses on understanding the factors that influence the adoption and sustainability of the ECHO model.
DISCLAIMER
The Center for Telehealth Research and Policy (C-TRaP) is funded by the Office for the Advancement of Telehealth (OAT) in the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under cooperative agreement number 1 U3GTH55162‐01‐00. The funding supports this website as well as all publications and presentations advanced from listed research projects. These contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of HRSA or any other funding agency.
Credits:
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