ECHO Film made by St Gilesmedical launched at the Norther Ireland Parliament Buildings (Stormont).

 ECHO Film made by St Gilesmedical launched at the Norther Ireland Parliament Buildings (Stormont).

The team at St Gilesmedical in Berlin and London have been working for the last 6 month on a film entitled ‘All Teach All Learn’. In it we describe the ECHO Project and how it has spread from Northern Ireland (NI) with the support of Hospice UK to the rest of the UK and beyond.

At the heart of Project ECHO – it is all about moving knowledge, rather than people. The idea is to deliver specialized medical education and mentoring virtually to rural and underserved communities. In return, doctors, nurses, and allied health professionals feedback local experiences. The result is a cycle of teaching and learning bringing best practice to patients and their families.

Filming took place at multiple locations across NI involving a mixture of medical, nursing, and managerial interviewees. Of note, Dr Frances O’Hagan, Chair of the BMA NI General Practitioner Committee, gave a frank assessment of the local challenges in delivering effective healthcare.  Next, we moved to Sheffield to interview staff connected with  St Luke’s Hospice (Dr Sam Kyeremateng). Finally, we travelled to the House of Lords where Baroness Finlay of Llandaff gave her personal views regarding the value of ECHO. Further interviews were included from USA (Professor Sanjeev Arora, the originator of ECHO), Switzerland and India.

Professor Max Watson MBE, a palliative care physician based in NI and ECHO Champion, hosted a successful launch event in the Long Gallery at Stormont. This was attended by some of the film’s contributors, ECHO staff and governmental representatives.

We will be providing a link to the film shortly.