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Department of Psychiatry

Project ECHO

Project ECHO® Hub: UNC Center for Excellence in Community Mental Health’s North Carolina Clozapine Network

The NCCN is excited to announce that our parent organization, UNC Center for Excellence in Community Mental Health, has recently become a Project ECHO® Hub. The NCCN will be the first program hosted via this new Project ECHO® Hub. We plan to launch our inaugural Project ECHO® NCCN meeting in Spring 2023.

At this time, the NCCN is limiting our program to providers, clinics, healthcare facilities and/or managed care organizations that reside within North Carolina. If you or your organization are located within North Carolina and are not already a designated site participant and wish to become one, please contact the NCCN via the NCCN Consultation line.

The NCCN plans to offer our Project ECHO® program nationally in late 2023. If you or your organization would like to become a designated site participant, then please contact the NCCN via the NCCN Consultation line and we will contact you with information on how to enroll as a designated site participant when the national program approaches its launch date.

The ECHO Model 

Inspired by the way clinicians learn from medical rounds during residencies, the ECHO® Model® has evolved into a learning framework that applies across disciplines for sustainable and profound change.

We call it “all teach, all learn.”

ECHO® participants engage in a virtual community with their peers where they share support, guidance and feedback. As a result, our collective understanding of how to disseminate and implement best practices across diverse disciplines continuously improves and expands.

How it Works

During an ECHO® session, participants present real (anonymized) cases to the specialists—and each other—for discussion and recommendations. Participants learn from one another, as knowledge is tested and refined through a local lens.

This continuous loop of learning, mentoring and peer support is what makes ECHO® unique, with a long-lasting impact far beyond that of a webinar, e-learning course or telemedicine care.

Our knowledge-sharing model brings together specialists from multiple focus areas for a robust, holistic approach.

Guiding Principles 

  • Amplification – use technology to leverage scarce resources
  • Best practices – reduce disparity
  • Case-based learning – master complexity
  • Data – monitor outcomes to increase impact

The Multiplier Effect

By participating in ECHO® programs, a single specialist contributes to the development of 20 or more local experts, who then go on to apply their newly acquired knowledge to improve the lives of people in their communities. This inclusive, nonhierarchical philosophy is at the heart of the ECHO® Model® and informs every ECHO® program.

For more information on Project ECHO® visit: https://hsc.unm.edu/echo/