The New Mexico Humanitarian Awards, held on August 13, 2023, honored Project ECHO founder and executive director Sanjeev Arora, MD, with the 2023 award. The award recognizes New Mexicans who have done extraordinary work and set an example for others by demonstrating a passion for philanthropy, human welfare, social reform, and values-based investing. This is the 15th year the awards have been hosted by the Jewish Community Center of Greater Albuquerque.
“On behalf of my team, I am deeply touched to receive this recognition from our community,” said Arora. “The work we have done together to impact New Mexico has been tremendous, but we are far from done. With this recognition, we commit ourselves to making an even greater impact on the people of New Mexico in the future.”
Arora, a tenured professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of New Mexico’s School of Medicine, launched Project ECHO at UNM in 2003 as a solution for helping all patients receive quality care faster in the state’s many rural and underserved communities.
The ECHO Model works by strengthening the capacity of frontline health care providers to treat complex conditions locally with ongoing remote support from an interdisciplinary team of experts and a community of peers. Using videoconferencing technology, Project ECHO applies a “hub-and-spoke” model to train New Mexico’s community-based clinicians in rural counties, Indian Health Service clinics, and state prisons to treat patients where they live.
Today, the ECHO Model impacts tens of thousands of New Mexicans and millions of lives around the world with programs in North America, Latin America, Europe, Africa, Australia, and Asia. Project ECHO now partners with leading organizations like the World Health Organization and leading universities and non-governmental organizations. Arora has been a pioneer in democratizing specialized medical knowledge to be inclusive of rural and underserved communities with little access to specialized medicine.
The New Mexico Humanitarian Awards is a distinguished recognition program born from the desire to raise awareness of the spirit of humanity and to inspire individuals, organizations, and businesses to pursue humanitarian goals. These awards honor those who have embodied an outstanding spirit of humanity in a local, national, or international capacity.
ABOUT PROJECT ECHO
In 2023, Project ECHO is celebrating 20 years of disseminating knowledge in rural and under-resourced areas. Founded and headquartered at The University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 2003, Project ECHO empowers local community providers to improve the well-being of people in New Mexico and around the world.