The IUPUI Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes (ECHO) Center brings together providers from around the state and country to share knowledge, allowing doctors and providers to learn from their peers, advance their skills, and practice at the top of their license.
Andrea Janota, interim director for the ECHO Center, said that the center had seven groups, with five of them being medically focused. When the pandemic hit, they knew they needed to build another one that was focused on the current public health emergency.
It normally takes at least a month to launch a new ECHO group, but the COVID-focused program was up and running in less than a week. “It was a big lift, but it was amazing how many people came together to make it happen,” Janota said. They launched on April 1, with more than 200 providers signing up to attend in the first 24 hours. The ECHO ran every week for the first 10 weeks and is now operating on a bi-monthly schedule. More than 800 providers from around the state, country, and world have signed up and participated.
The COVID-19 Response ECHO gives providers the opportunity to interact with one another, hear from expert panels, listen to COVID case presentations, and learn more about screening, testing, and caring for COVID patients, infection control, proper use of PPE if there are shortages, data curves, and other relevant topics.
Darya Sanchez is a junior studying medical humanities and health studies, and she worked as an LHSI intern with the ECHO Center in 2019. Although her internship was complete at the end of the academic year, she stayed on to continue her work. She coordinated meetings, took notes on the ECHO discussions, provided data entry, and learned how interwoven the public health community is. “The fact of advancing and promoting public health and better practices is such a connected goal,” Sanchez said. “There are so many ways that providers interact with patients, they really are a cog in the machine of a patient’s overall care.”
Janota plans to host an LHSI intern this fall. Due to the ongoing pandemic, the internship work will be remote, unless they can meet safely, and will provide support for the continuing ECHO groups. “This program provides a great opportunity to work with students,” Janota said. “To put into practice the things they are learning in the classroom is an incredible opportunity and one that is very valuable to both professional and personal growth.”