echoes®: news from our tele-ultrasound platform

Every week, the echoes® program connects pediatric cardiology experts in France with cardiologists from La Chaîne de l'Espoir's medical network in several countries, during live remote ultrasound sessions.

A quick look at what echoes® is…

echoes® is a tele-ultrasound program, launched in 2015, linking specialist doctors from La Chaîne de l’Espoir with doctors in countries where healthcare systems are more fragile. It concerns pediatric cardiology and more specifically cardiac valvulopathies, pathologies affecting the heart’s valves, and all congenital heart pathologies, i.e. malformations affecting children from birth.

Thanks to echoes®, local doctors can obtain a second opinion remotely and in real time, in order to confirm or refute the diagnosis of children suffering from cardiac pathologies.

In addition to diagnosing and monitoring patients, this program has a lasting impact, as it helps to and skills of local medical staff in the long term. in the long term.

Which countries are connected to echoes®?

The echoes® program has been going from strength to strength since its launch in 2015. Every week, consultations are held with health centers in 11 countries in Africa and the Middle East:

Benin,
Togo,
Ivory Coast,
Burkina Faso,
Mali,
Mozambique,
Madagascar,
Afghanistan,
Cameroon,
Jordan,
Guinea,
Cameroon,
Guinea,
Jordan

What are the key figures to remember?

Since 2015, local medical teams have been supported in diagnosing an ever-increasing number each year: 273 in 2020, 707 in 2021 and 912 in 2022.

Every week, some 18 Chaîne de l’Espoir specialists in France, Spain, the United States and La Réunion connect with medical teams in the 11 countries equipped with the echoes® platform.

How does the training program work?

In February 2022, La Chaîne de l’Espoir also extended the platform’s functionalities and set up a training and exchange program to improve and facilitate medical collaboration during echoes® sessions. Courses are given once a month, remotely, by our association’s volunteer medical experts. They bring together French-speaking users of the platform from connected countries. These training sessions cover two themes: congenital and valvular heart disease.

What are the next steps for echoes®?

The program aims to extend its activities to new therapeutic areas such as locoregional anesthesia, prenatal diagnosis and vascular surgery. More and more countries are connected to the platform.

In 2022, Cameroon and Guinea joined the 9 other countries benefiting from this technological tool. And 912 children were seen in consultation by 23 connected medical experts.

In future, new countries such as Mauritania, Comoros, Niger and Chad should also be equipped to start sessions.

The platform will also be enhanced with new features to optimize its use.