Working in partnership with 10 major regional and national health institutions with deep experience and expertise, Project ECHO at The University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center will facilitate a new initiative focused on bolstering emergency preparedness and response capacity across the country.
Supported by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the project connects local, regional and national partners – including UNMC – in a virtual learning and action community to share best practices and to improve data sharing, coordination and communication.
UNMC’s Project ECHO team
- Angie Vasa, Project ECHO program director for UNMC, director for the Emergency Preparedness and Special Pathogen Programs at UNMC and Global Center for Health Security scholar
- Ryan Draper, senior administrative assistant, UNMC Global Center for Health Security
- Nada Fadul, MD, professor of infectious diseases at UNMC
- Jackson Gruber, regional emerging special pathogens program manager, Nebraska Medicine
- Angela Hewlett, MD, medical director for the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit and Global Center for Health Security scholar
- James Lawler, MD, associate director of international programs and innovation, UNMC Global Center for Health Security
- Angie Ling, executive director, Region VII Disaster Health Response Ecosystem based at the med center
- Stefanie Neumann, communications and website coordinator, UNMC Global Center for Health Security
The new Emergency Preparedness and Response Learning and Action Network will support 10 regional programs – each led by a regional partner – that will focus on locally relevant health care preparedness and response priorities. These 10 programs will then form one larger national network to share real-time information and best practices, align strategy, coordinate response and strengthen the Emergency Preparedness and Response workforce through training, mentorship, and shared resources.
Along with UNMC, the other regional partners participating in the network are: Cedars-Sinai Medical Center of California, Corewell Health of Michigan, Denver Health and Hospital Authority, Emory University in Georgia, Johns Hopkins University in Maryland, Massachusetts General Hospital, NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue, Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center and Children’s Hospital in Washington and the University of Texas Medical Branch.
“The network is a direct response to recent public health crises: the COVID-19 pandemic, climate disasters, and ongoing disruptions in policy and data structures,” said Bruce Struminger, MD, director of global health initiatives at Project ECHO. “These challenges both expose and contribute to fragmentation in our current preparedness and response systems that need our immediate attention.”
Angela Hewlett, MD, medical director for the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit, the George W. Orr MD and Linda Orr Chair in Health Security and a professor in the UNMC Division of Infectious Diseases, said: “Our team appreciates the opportunity to partner with Project ECHO and our expert colleagues from across the United States. We look forward to sharing our experience in biopreparedness and biocontainment, and gaining insights from our colleagues on their efforts to build stronger response networks and enhance our collective ability to address current and emerging threats.”
From the start, the network will learn from, coordinate and engage directly with other efforts underway to shore up preparedness and response in the United States and globally.
“We’re excited to support this effort — being spearheaded by the team at Project ECHO – because it’s clear-eyed about building the approach we need for the time we’re in,” said Nancy Barrand, senior program officer at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. “It builds from previous work by the ECHO team during the COVID-19 pandemic — partnering with the federal government and health organizations across the country — to share critical, real-time learning. Going forward, we need these strong learning networks in place to respond to emerging threats anywhere in the country as they arise.”