Through the YMF Echo Project, Yeriwah will provide physicians and nurses with training and objective assessment for on the spot patient care and utilization of a guided practice to increase workforce development efforts for best practice use in primary and specialty care while reducing disparities in health in The Gambia.
The ECHO project is a lifelong learning and guided practice model that transforms medical education, treatment plans and care delivery across all locals (rural, underserved and urban). At the center of the ECHO model is its spoke knowledge-sharing networks, who are usually led by expert teams who use multi-site videoconferencing to organize and coordinate virtual ECHO clinics with community providers in rural and underserved areas. It provides a link where primary care doctors, nurses, and other providers learn to provide excellent specialty care to patients with complex conditions in their own communities.
With ECHO, there is case based learning and that is primary care providers from different sites present patient cases to the specialist teams and discuss new developments relating to their patient’s conditions, and determine treatment plans. These specialists also serve as mentors and colleagues by sharing their medical knowledge and expertise with primary care providers. There is ongoing community learning and support and overtime there is development of skills by the primary care providers to treat a variety of health conditions/diseases.
The provision of training and mentoring to primary care providers in rural communities also means more people in these areas can get easy access to both specialty care and primary care. Additionally, patients will get the right type of care at the right place and time. Which also helps reduce cost and improve patient outcomes. The availability of expert specialists and primary care providers in local communities means continuity of care to people who otherwise would not get the care they need. The ECHO Project utilizes telecommunication technology called Tele ECHO which is different from telemedicine.