Project ECHO
Transforming how medical knowledge can be shared and translated into everyday practice.
Project ECHO uses a telehealth model to bridge the gap in health care for rural and underserved communities.
Founded and directed by Sanjeev Arora, MD, distinguished professor of medicine at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center in Albuquerque, it links primary care clinicians with specialists through real-time learning made possible by inexpensive videoconferencing technology.
Funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation since 2009, the program's novel approach allows physicians, nurse practitioners, and other clinicians to jointly manage complex illness and promotes the use of best practices in care, while enabling patients to receive treatment in their home communities.
Project ECHO initially trained primary care clinicians to treat patients with hepatitis C. Since then, teleECHO clinics have broadened to address HIV, chronic pain, mental illness, complex care, endocrinology, and other common, costly health issues. The model is being replicated at dozens of academic medical centers, community health centers, military health centers, prisons, and other types of host sites across the country and around the world.
The Project ECHO model for lifelong medical learning and collaborative practice is helping to build a Culture of Health by linking primary care clinicians with specialist care teams, to deliver quality treatment to patients with complex, chronic disease.
Grants and Grant Programs
RWJF supports programs to help everyone in our nation have the opportunity to live healthier lives.
Related Content
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Report
Project ECHO: Bridging the Gap in Health Care for Rural and Underserved CommunitiesApril 24, 2014
Project ECHO uses videoconferencing to link specialists with isolated primary care clinicians to jointly manage complex illnesses and promote best practices. Clinics address hepatitis C, HIV, chronic pain, endocrinology, mental illness, and more.
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Journal Article
Outcomes of Treatment for Hepatitis C Virus Infection by Primary Care ProvidersJune 9, 2011
Project ECHO (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes), a disruptive model of health education and delivery, makes the medical resources of academic medical centers available to treat and improve outcomes for rural HCV patients.
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Journal Article
Partnering Urban Academic Medical Centers and Rural Primary Care Clinicians to Provide Complex Chronic Disease CareMay 19, 2011
Project ECHO enables specialists to partner with primary care clinicians in underserved areas to deliver complex specialty care to patients.
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Building the capacity to scale the Project ECHO model nationally
Fri Apr 19 00:00:00 EDT 2013
This project will build the infrastructure and products necessary to rapidly scale the ECHO Model nationally. The ECHO Model provides best-practice care for safely and effectively treating chronic, complex disease in rural and underserved areas, and for monitoring the outcomes of such treatment for continuous quality improvement.
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Using ECHO (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes) to train primary care providers in best practices for complex health conditions
Thu Feb 12 00:00:00 EST 2009
In rural or underserved places across America, millions suffering from serious chronic illness have severely limited access to specialty care. Treatment is often postponed and requires travel to facilities hours from home.