A model for global health education through the Ethiopian newborn quality improvement ECHO initiative

The Ethiopian Newborn Quality Improvement (EN-QI) Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes (ECHO) promoted the implementation of Helping Babies Survive training in eight Ethiopian health facilities. The initiative incorporated U.S based Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine (NPM) fellows into the ECHO Expert Hub. This study evaluates the experiences of the NPM fellows.

This mixed-methods study incorporated objective data, survey responses, and qualitative focus group analysis from the eight participating fellows.

Fellows described benefits including mentoring, networking, career development, and quality improvement experience. Their experience would have been improved with more thorough onboarding and clarification of the fellow role at the start of the project.

This study demonstrates a model for inclusion of fellows in a virtual partnership as a low-cost and high value approach to global health work. This project was well-received and highly valued by fellows as a meaningful training opportunity.