New Study Shows Project ECHO Improves Diabetes Care in Rural Settings

Project ECHO News Release (09/04/24)

Weekly ECHO telementoring sessions helped rural health care providers help people with diabetes attain similar outcomes as patients seen by endocrinology specialists working in an academic medical center, according to new research. The 5-year study, published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, included patients with type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Researchers noted a 1.2% reduction in A1c levels on average among the nearly 900 patients of ECHO-trained providers compared with a 0.6% reduction for patients treated at the academic medical center. "The ECHO Model provides a virtual community of practice so that local providers have the knowledge, confidence, and ongoing support of their peers to treat people closer to where they live," said Matthew Bouchonville, MD, first author and medical director of the Endocrinology ECHO program at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center.

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