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Project ECHO
2022 Annual Report
In 2022, Project ECHO helped more people, in more places, than ever before.
Created in 2003
To empower rural health care providers with expert knowledge and best practices, Project ECHO uses videoconferencing to build virtual communities of practice. In addition to running ECHO programs, Project ECHO at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center trains and supports ECHO partners around the world as we work together to improve lives, providing our global network of partners with free training, technical support and a suite of technology tools to help enable their success. By helping professionals learn and share best practices, from experts and each other—in health care, education and other fields across disciplines and geographies—ECHO reduces disparities and drives collaborative solutions for local priorities.
Message from Dr. Arora
Friends and Colleagues,
In reflecting on this past year, I’m struck by how much Project ECHO at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center and our 900+ ECHO partners around the world have accomplished together. In 2022, we collectively reached a significant milestone: an estimated 1.5 million people from 193 countries have logged an estimated 4 million attendances in ECHO sessions.
This immense human network has impacted many hundreds of millions of people. I want to thank all of you who have been involved in the ECHO community this past year and in years past. Your passion and expertise in addressing your communities’ most critical needs have made all the difference.
Twenty years ago, we created the ECHO Model to help solve a specific problem: how to expand knowledge about treatment of hepatitis C and access to care across the vast state of New Mexico. I could not have imagined then that this same framework would be used to speed adoption of COVID-19 best practices in the face of a global pandemic, or to help improve cancer care for women in remote communities in Africa.
The world has changed in dramatic ways since that first ECHO session 20 years ago. Today, videoconferencing technology is ubiquitous, and each day more and more communities—from rural New Mexico to Ethiopia—have access to stable and increasingly affordable internet. New technologies such as Chat GPT are becoming part of our everyday language as the pace of new knowledge accelerates exponentially.
Yet, however much our world has changed, the core reason for the ECHO Model remains—we as human beings need human connection. We are storytellers who learn by exchanging stories (cases) and tackling problems together. This is how complex problems get solved.
In the wake of the pandemic and these rapid changes in society, 2022 was a year of much introspection for me personally and our organization. Seeing a once-in-a lifetime opportunity for the world to build back stronger as we emerge from the pandemic, we embarked on a deep process of listening to our partners, ministry of health officials and our funders. We also listened closely to the broader societal dialogue about ongoing gaps in equitable access to care in many places (exacerbated by the pandemic), setbacks in educational attainment due to the pandemic and the persistent challenges of ensuring that women and girls have the same opportunities in society that men and boys around the world have long enjoyed.
As a result of these conversations and reflection, in 2023 we are redoubling our commitment to work collaboratively with all of you to build strong ECHO programs that help address problems in your communities. We will focus on expanding our understanding of how the ECHO Model can support emerging areas of need such as gender equity, and education, while continuing to expand our understanding of best practices in health care. We are also committed to introducing our newest iECHO platform to partners around the world to help make starting, running, and evaluating ECHO programs as seamless and easy as possible, allowing you to make the best use of your scarce human resources.
As you read the stories of impact in this report, I hope you will be inspired. For those of you who are part of the ECHO network, thank you for all you do every day. For those of you who are only just beginning to learn about ECHO, we invite you to join our global network and help us scale our impact to reach 1 billion people by 2025.
Warm regards,
Sanjeev
ECHO Supports United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
ECHO by the Numbers as of Year End 2022
4,003,407 ECHO Session Attendances
63 Countries Have ECHO Hubs
193 Countries Have ECHO Participants
505 Peer-Reviewed Publications Validated the ECHO Model
ECHO ATTENDANCES
There’s got to be a way to think about health care as a human right that is connected to a mechanism that works. Project ECHO is that. It’s a tremendously powerful way to extend the best care to everyone, to absolutely everyone, to leave nobody out. It makes health care as a human right be real.”
Co-founder and Former President/CEO, Institute for Healthcare Improvement
ECHO Around the World
United States
Focused on Implementing Long-Term Solutions for the Country’s Most Pressing Problems
Low- and Middle-Income Countries
A Window to Reduce Health Disparities and Build Equity
As the world continues to restore and strengthen health systems in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, demand for Project ECHO’s model in low- and middle-income countries is high. Many countries need a new solution for training and supporting local health care workers to provide essential health services and specialized care, and to be fully prepared for emerging local and global health crises. Project ECHO is that solution. We have built a strong presence in Africa, India, Latin America and the Asia-Pacific region, supporting local partners in their use of the ECHO Model for training and mentoring health providers. We now have the opportunity to leverage our global network of partners to create lasting, systemic change that reduces inequities and improves the lives of millions.
Asia-Pacific
Expanding in Asia-Pacific to Serve Some of the World’s Most Remote Communities
Latin America
Expanding ECHO’s Reach in Latin America Through New Programs and Partnerships
In my 37 years of program development work at RWJF, I believe the ECHO Model will prove to be one of the greatest achievements we have had the privilege of advancing.”
Nancy Barrand
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
ECHO Strategic Initiatives
Health Care
Strengthening Health Systems to Address Critical Needs
Every year, millions of people around the world die of diseases that are preventable, treatable and even curable because health care providers in their communities don’t have the knowledge and expertise needed to address their conditions. Project ECHO offers a low-cost, scalable solution that increases the capacity of health workers in under–resourced communities to provide best-practice care and education to their communities. ECHO connects hundreds of partners worldwide—governments, academic medical centers, non-governmental organizations—and enables them to train and mentor hundreds of thousands of health care providers in virtual communities of practice where all teach and all learn. ECHO health programs address more than 70 disease areas.
Maternal & Child Health
Improving Gender Equity with Project ECHO Maternal and Child Health Programs
Emergency Prepared-ness and Response
ECHO Proves Critical in Global Emergency Preparedness and Response Efforts
Education
Giving Educators the Tools to Meet Challenges and Build More Equitable Classrooms
With a proven track record in providing critical medical knowledge to communities that need it most, Project ECHO has expanded beyond health care to improve education around the globe so that every child has access to the tools and skills they need to fulfill their potential.
ECHO for Education builds virtual communities of practice for educators to solve educational challenges in dozens of communities worldwide. Educators who participate in ECHO programs learn evidence-based best practices, solve problems collaboratively through case-based learning and implement new practices in their daily work with the support of local experts. In 2022, ECHO for Education expanded programs to serve teachers and school leaders in New Mexico, India and Africa, with about 3,000 participants throughout the year.
A teacher’s beliefs, attitude and expertise can impact students’ behavior, empowering them to create gender-inclusive classrooms and promote equitable opportunities. The need of the hour for gender equity is ECHO, a technology-driven telementoring platform that can provide both the infrastructure and a model to help teachers and other professionals make a difference in classrooms around the world.”
Principal, Ambience Public School, Gurgaon
Research and Evaluation
2022 Research Highlights
As of the end of 2022, more than 500 peer-reviewed research papers have demonstrated the effectiveness of Project ECHO in improving patient outcomes, increasing job satisfaction and effectiveness of health care providers and building communities of practice that serve under-resourced communities.
ECHO Mentorship Enables Zambia to Accelerate Control of HIV Epidemic
In collaboration with the Zambia Ministry of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the ECHO Model was used in combination with in-person training to facilitate an HIV-mentoring program in four provinces in Zambia. The curriculum emphasized HIV testing, antiretroviral therapy and quality improvement procedures. Compared to the pre-mentorship period, facilities adopted more efficient and effective HIV testing procedures, increasing the number of individuals on antiretroviral therapy and increasing the rate of viral suppression from about 85% to 90%.
Boyd et al. (2022)
ECHO Participation Expands Access to Treatment of Opioid Use Disorder
Buprenorphine is the gold standard of opioid use disorder treatment, allowing patients to get care as outpatients and reducing the barrier to care and recovery. In a study involving 918 clinicians, primary care clinicians who attended ECHO were more likely, by 23%, to obtain a waiver to prescribe buprenorphine than clinicians not trained under ECHO. The ECHO-trained clinicians prescribed buprenorphine to 8% more of their patients with opioid use disorder than the number of patients prescribed by the matched comparison clinicians.
Solmeyer et al. (2022)
Telementoring for School Personnel Helps Children Return to Learning After Concussion
Return to learn (RTL) after mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) presents unique challenges for school professionals. Using Project ECHO, a multidisciplinary team of subject matter experts delivered five one-hour sessions across five cohorts of 133 school-based professionals. Participants reported statistically significant improvements in essential aspects of RTL knowledge and self-efficacy, including better understanding of how to manage a student with mTBI (44.8% to 86.9%), benefits of early return to school for students following mTBI (31.8% to 86.9%) and the importance of written RTL policies and procedures (55.1% to 97.1%).
McAvoy et al. (2022)
Our [The Goradia] foundation began funding Project ECHO India in 2015 to scale their burgeoning country operations. We knew they had immense potential to grow across the country, but the scale Project ECHO has achieved in five short years is something we never could have predicted.”
Sapphira Goradia
Goradia Foundation
Funders
2022 Funders
Association of State and Territorial Health Officials
Board of Trustees of Tthe Leland Stanford Junior University
Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation
CDC Foundation
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Chronic Liver Disease Foundation, Inc.
Clinton Health Access Initiative
ECMC Foundation
Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation
F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd
Family Health Centers of San Diego, Inc.
Family Health International
Fort Defiance Indian Hospital Board, Inc.
Foundation for Opioid Response Efforts
GE Foundation
Genentech, Inc
Gilead Sciences, Inc.
HHS Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
HHS Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response
HHS Health Resources and Services Administration
HHS Indian Health Service
Hopewell Fund
JHPIEGO Corporation
John D. And Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
Johnson & Johnson Services, Inc.
Laura and John Arnold Foundation
Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust
Los Alamos National Laboratory Foundation
Medscape, LLC
Merck Foundation
Miners Colfax Medical Center
Ministry of Health of the Republic of Armenia
Montanas del Norte Area Health Education Center
National Network of Public Health Institutes
National Philanthropic Trust
New Mexico Corrections Department
New Mexico Department of Health
New Mexico Early Childhood Education and Care Department
New Mexico Early Childhood Education and Care Department
New Mexico Public Education Department
New Venture Fund
Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board
Pennsylvania State University
Pfizer, Inc
Regents of the University of California
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Silicon Valley Community Foundation
Southcentral Foundation
The ELMA Foundation
UBS Optimus Foundation
United States Air Force
United States Department of Agriculture
United States Naval Forces Africa
Valhalla Charitable Foundation
W.K. Kellogg Foundation
World Health Organization
All Previous Funders
Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education
African Field Epidemiology Network
African Society for Laboratory Medicine
Albuquerque Area Indian Health Board, Inc.
American Academy of Pediatrics
American Institutes for Research
American Society of Addiction Medicine
ASTRA Merck Pharmaceutical
Bernalillo County
Bernalillo County Community Health Council
Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Mexico
Board of Trustees of Indiana University
Case Western Reserve University
City of Albuquerque
University of New Mexico College of Population Health
Columbia University
Con Alma Health Foundation
Dallas County Hospital District
Defense Health Agency
Deloitte Consulting LLP
Department of Health and Human Services Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
Health Care Service Corporation
Health Research, Inc.
HealthInsight Management Corporation
HHS Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
Hidalgo Medical Services
High Plains Regional Education Cooperative #3
JBS International, Inc.
Liver Institute and Foundation for Education and Research
Massachusetts General Hospital
McCune Charitable Foundation
National Council for Behavioral Health
Navajo Area Indian Health Services
New Mexico Department of Finance & Administration
Nicholson Foundation
Northwest Regional Education Cooperative
PNM Resources Foundation
Presbyterian Health Plan, Inc.
Prevent Cancer Foundation
Reginald S. Lourie Center for Infants and Young Children, Inc.
Region IX Education Cooperative
Schmidt Initiative for Long Covid, LLC
Seattle Indian Health Board
Synergy Enterprises, Inc.
Tanzania Health Promotion Support
Task Force for Global Health
The Audacious Project
The EMMES Corporation
UBS Optimus Foundation UK
United States Army Medical Command
United States Department of the Interior
University of British Columbia
University of California, San Francisco
University of Florida Board of Trustees
University of Kentucky Research Foundation
University of Maryland, Baltimore
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
University of Washington
University Research Co. LLC
Virginia Department of Health
Western Sky Community Care
Support Project ECHO
Join Us in Saving and Improving the Lives of Millions Around the World.
Your generosity makes a difference. Join Project ECHO in getting the right knowledge to the right places at the right time so we can bring best-practice health care and education to everyone, helping them achieve their full potential. Backed by a solid body of research, Project ECHO’s potential is unprecedented. Put simply, we are changing the way knowledge is shared to advance human health and well-being. The result looks different in every community, but the impact is always profound.
Project ECHO is a powerful, affordable and scalable approach to significantly strengthen health systems to serve marginalized populations in the Global South. In watching the evolution of this organization, I have been particularly impressed in how they stepped up to support the global pandemic response, providing community, vital information and problem solving for local health care workers all over the world.”
Olivia Leland
Co-Impact
