SPR perspectives: Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program: overcoming challenges to generate engaged, multidisciplinary science

ABSTRACT: The US National Institutes of Health-funded Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program brings together 69 cohorts and over 57,000 children from across the nation to address five key pediatric outcome areas with high public health impact: pre-, peri-, and postnatal outcomes; upper and lower airway health; obesity; neurodevelopment; and positive health. We describe (1) the ECHO Program infrastructure that was designed to facilitate collaboration across over 1200 investigators and support the development of a cohort-wide data collection protocol and (2) the many challenges that were overcome in rapidly launching this large-scale program. Guided by a commitment to transparency, team science, and end user stakeholder engagement, ECHO successfully launched a unified study protocol and is working across disciplines to generate high-impact, solution-oriented research to improve children’s lives for generations to come. IMPACT: Many children in the United States experience chronic health conditions or do not reach their developmental potential. The Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program brings together 69 existing cohort studies comprising over 57,000 children to identify modifiable aspects of the early environment associated with pediatric outcomes with high public health impact: pre-, peri-, and postnatal outcomes; upper and lower airway health; obesity; neurodevelopment; and positive health. We describe the collaborative, team science-informed approach by which over 1200 investigators convened to form the ECHO Program and foster solution-oriented research to improve the health of children for generations to come.