Innovative COVID-19 Programs to Rapidly Serve New Mexico

Abstract

Project ECHO (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes) at the University of New Mexico is a telementoring program that uses videoconferencing technology to connect health care providers in underserved communities with subject matter experts. In March 2020, Project ECHO created 10 coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) telementoring programs to meet the public health needs of clinicians and teachers living in underserved rural and urban regions of New Mexico. The newly created COVID-19 programs include 7 weekly sessions (Community Health Worker [in English and Spanish], Critical Care, Education, First-Responder Resiliency, Infectious Disease Office Hours, and Multi-specialty) and 3 one-day special sessions. We calculated the total number of attendees, along with the range and standard deviation, per session by program. Certain programs (Critical Care, Infectious Disease Office Hours, Multi-specialty) recorded the profession of attendees when available. The Project ECHO research team collected COVID-19 infection data by county from March 11 through May 31, 2020. During that same period, 9765 health care and general education professionals participated in the COVID-19 programs, and participants from 31 of 35 (89%) counties in New Mexico attended the sessions. Our initial evaluation of these programs demonstrates that an interprofessional clinician group and teachers used the Project ECHO network to build a community of practice and social network while meeting their educational and professional needs. Because of Project ECHO’s large reach, the results of the New Mexico COVID-19 response suggest that the rapid use of ECHO telementoring could be used for other urgent national public health problems.

Educating health professionals about COVID-19 with ECHO telementoring

“…It is quite possible that the digital librarian reinforces the notion of ECHO as a trusted source for evidence-based knowledge. 25 , 26 By entering the SME's articles and other resources into the Zoom chat immediately, the participants may be comforted by the knowledge that the hub teams’ information updates are peer-reviewed and evidence-based. 2) Thirty minutes of robust Q/A by the interdisciplinary hub team of infectious disease, primary care, epidemiology and laboratory science is provided to an engaged group of participants following the didactic session.…”

First Responder Resiliency ECHO: Innovative Telementoring during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Additionally, 239 of them have attended ≥4 sessions, 60 have attended ≥10 sessions, and 15 have attended ≥21 sessions. These are very high returning rates, not only compared to other successful Project ECHO programs but also to other virtual learning environments which focus on medical and public health initiatives [ 28 ]. This suggests that these participants find this program is satisfying a previously unmet need.…”

Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes (ECHO) Telementoring in the Military: Where We Are Now, Opportunities and Challenges

“…When in-person patient and clinician safety are paramount, such as during the COVID-19 pandemic, the ECHO model has proven to be successful for specialty care consultation. 15 …”