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A traning programme for medical officers in Kolkata’s
municipal corporation boosted TB diagnosis manifold
Following pages (110–111):
Tackling healthcare issues at
the primary care level by training those at the front line
imagine a wheel with medical
experts
at its hub, and frontline health
workers, doctors or nurses as the spokes.
en imagine this configuration transplanted
into a public health crisis, for instance,
COVID 19. is is the remarkable ECHO
(Extension for Community Healthcare
Outcomes) model, which works through
telementoring and building the capacity of
healthcare providers. is was employed for
prevention, management and immunisation
training during Covid-19 and also to
successfully tackle over 30 disease areas in
India like the Hepatitis C crisis in Punjab,
train doctors in clinical care for mental
health in Chhattisgarh, enhance the National
TB Elimination Programme and more. State-
of-the-art digital infrastructure, ‘iECHO’,
technology like video conferencing, mobile
apps and virtual communities, are used to
scale up programmes to bridge gaps between
medical knowledge and its application
among healthcare providers, even those in
remote locations.
e project ECHO and its core idea of
democratising knowledge was the brainchild of
Dr. Sanjeev Arora, a leading hepatologist at the
University of New Mexico. ECHO India was
Extension for
Community
Healthcare Outcomes
(ECHO), India
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Founded by Dr.(Col) Kumud Rai in 2008
With a mission to promote equity
in healthcare, education and other
sustainable development goals, ECHO
India offers innovative solutions to
build capacities of frontline workers
at scale, disseminate knowledge and
empower professionals to implement
them effectively, bridging the access
gap faced by underserved populations.
With health at the forefront of its
portfolio, it enables and facilitates
a knowledge-sharing network
that builds workforce capacity by
connecting professionals in the
healthcare sector, thereby improving
disease management and patient
outcomes. Currently, ECHO India
extends its transformative impact
across 35 states and Union Territories
through 370+ knowledge hubs.