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Nov 23 2011

Discovery Channel Documentary Highlights Project ECHO

Nov 23, 2011, 11:20 AM

For some years now, health care innovators have been using emerging health information technologies to transform everyday clinical care. But Pioneer grantee Project ECHO applies these technologies in an entirely new and revolutionary way:  to spread medical knowledge throughout the health care workforce, and, in the process, form collaborative practices, build new professional skill sets and exponentially expand the capacity of the entire health care system.

Project leader Sanjeev Arora, MD, of the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, developed the ECHO model to break down medical “knowledge monopolies” so that doctors, nurses and other clinicians can deliver better care to more people who need it, right in their communities. Project ECHO uses video communications technology to create real-time virtual networks for sharing the best medical practices and knowledge between specialists at a university medical center and local primary care teams. 

A new Discovery Channel documentary, Health I.T.: Advancing Care, Empowering Patients, features ECHO amongst a handful of innovative efforts using technology to transform patient care. The segment tells the story of a primary care physician living in rural New Mexico who uses technology in a new way to address her patient’s condition. View the program online or watch it on the Discovery Channel this Saturday, November 26, at 8:00 a.m. ET.

For more information on Project ECHO:

Sep 14 2011

Time to Bring Designers to the Table: Thought's From Mayo's Transform Symposium

Sep 14, 2011, 2:52 AM, Posted by Al Shar

I'm just back from an exciting Mayo's Transform  Symposium. Before saying anything about the conference, I need to mention that being a pedestrian in Rochester, MN may present a significant health danger. I'll have to remember that cars don't stop on the East Coast just because someone is ready to cross a street.

We brought some guests to the meeting both to excite and engage them in helping move our support of Project ECHO forward. I'll let others write about that aspect of the meeting.

Regarding the meeting. I didn't realize that the theme was one about design innovation more than health or healthcare. At first this was off-putting: I wanted to learn about innovation that was going to help change health, not health packaging. I was wrong. I thought that figuring out how to solve a problem was the hard part. Implementing the solution would more or less follow. That's naive. Understanding the way people and the environment react to how solutions are packaged and presented is critical in their acceptance and ultimate success.

This is a good thing and bringing skilled designers to the table is important. We know that understanding where and how a person lives is important in determining what interventions will work but it's equally important to frame them in ways that are consonant with what they think and feel. Seeing the effect of a pediatric MRI designed to look like a pirate ship ride on a child's acceptance of the study or even just a simple reframing of an intervention in a context that resonates makes a world of difference.

It's sad that a collaboration between design and medical professional, with active consumer engagement, is not more common. Designing a solution to the wrong intervention and poorly implementing the right one are wasteful at best. But when things come together well, it can be a beautiful thing.