Project MDR TB ECHO @ NITRD

Inauguration of NITRD MDR TB ECHO Clinic

The National Institute of Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases (NITRD) under the dynamic leadership of Dr. Sarin, Director of NITRD, started the ECHO –MDR-TB Clinic to conduct weekly teleECHOTM clinics. This is a unique program for knowledge sharing on tuberculosis and has been overwhelmingly successful. The Clinic is managed by Dr. Neeta Singla & the team of experts from the Institute. The clinic involves 25 District TB Officers and all the four Drug Resistant TB (DRTB) Centers of Delhi to address the serious problem of Multi Drug resistant TB (MDR TB). The heart of the ECHO model is its hub-and-spoke knowledge sharing networks, led by expert teams who use multi-point video conferencing to conduct virtual clinics and empower primary care doctors, nurses and clinicians to provide excellent specialty care to patients in their own community. The teleECHO clinic is a 1-hour session which includes a didactic presentation by an expert from a premier institute. It is followed by case presentation by one of the DTOs from the periphery through video conferencing on ECHO platform. The cases presented are the patients in which the treating physician is facing some challenges and is looking for guidance from team of experts. The expertteam comprises of Chest Specialist, Microbiologist and specific disease specialist as per the need of the case being presented. The experts discuss the case and answer the queries raised by the participants. The panel then gives itsfinal recommendations on the case. The recommendations are then circulated

to all the participants by mail for future references. This not only helps the patient by getting the opinion of the senior team of consultants from tertiary institute of the country but also helps the participating DTOs in capacity building for management of such cases in the future. The goal of these tele-ECHO clinics is to address the complex issues of MDRTB, sharing best practices and suggesting the best treatment/ solution by combining the knowledge of every participant attending the clinic, with the aim to eventually develop the capacity of the participants (DTOs) as experts in the treatment of MDRTB over time. The MDR TB teleECHO Clinic is currently attended by 30-35 centers with approximately 150 participants joining the clinic every week. These include the State TB Training and Demonstration Centre (STDC) New Delhi, The State TB Control Office (STO) Delhi, STO offices from Assam, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra along with NTI Bengaluru and NIRT Chennai. The clinic is also attended by international participants fromUSA, Cameroon and URC West Africa& The UNION. These clinics are widely appreciated for knowledge sharing and capacity building efforts. For more details email us at nitrdecho@gmail.com