Project ECHO Telehealth to Expand Capacity to Deliver Best Practice Medical Care

Project ECHO (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes) was developed at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center to educate health care professionals in underserved communities to treat chronic complex diseases, allowing patients to receive better care, closer to home, with greater convenience, and at lower cost than referral to a specialty center. Videoconferencing technology is used to create learning networks, with case-based discussions as the primary method of education. The 3-year experience of Bone Health TeleECHO, a strategy to improve the care of osteoporosis and reduce the large treatment gap, is discussed.