Department of Veterans Affairs Launches First National Implementation of Project ECHO Model

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On Wednesday, July 11, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), will announce the launch of a transformative model of medical education and health care delivery within the VA system that will bring high-quality, complex health care to Veterans regardless of where they live.

The new VA initiative, Specialty Care Access Network-Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes (SCAN-ECHO), is the first national implementation of the Project ECHO model, which was created by social entrepreneur Sanjeev Arora, M.D., of the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Health Center in Albuquerque, and supported by RWJF, as a way to exponentially expand the health care system's capacity to treat patients with complex, chronic illnesses.

The ECHO model makes specialized medical knowledge available wherever it is needed to save and improve lives. Through real-time virtual clinics conducted weekly in the manner of grand rounds, the ECHO model shares medical knowledge with local care providers to expand treatment capacity.

In May, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced the award of a three-year, $8.5 million Health Care Innovation grant for Project ECHO to expand its operations in New Mexico and Washington state.

RWJF believes that one day the ECHO model will be the new norm for best-practice medical care. Other government agencies, academic medical centers, health care systems and health plans are already adopting the ECHO model.