Project ECHO: Building Workforce Capacity to Improve Care for Patients with Kidney Disease

Abstract

The Extension for Community Health Outcomes (ECHO) “hub and spoke” model is a proven continuing education model for developing primary care providers’ ability to offer specialized medical care at their practices (“spokes”) under the ongoing mentorship of interdisciplinary teams of specialists located at academic medical centers (“hubs”). Project ECHO is the virtual mentoring platform whereby hubs based at academic medical centers offer ECHO programs on a variety of health topics of concern to local communities. This chapter discusses how Project ECHO could be adapted to build workforce capacity and scale best practices for improving outcomes for end stage renal disease, including a high-level overview of the steps to becoming an ECHO partner. Strategies for including patients as direct participants in nephrology ECHO programs conclude the chapter.KeywordsProject ECHOTelementoringWorkforce buildingHealthcare accessSpecialized care