Diabetes ECHO

Addressing Diabetes Disparities

TRAINING AND SUPPORT FOR DIABETES MANAGEMENT PROFESSIONALS

Diabetes ECHO is designed to provide an educational and consultative link between diabetes specialists and community clinicians throughout Louisiana. Its goal is to increase access to diabetes education in urban and rural communities statewide. Diabetes ECHO uses the ECHO model™ to develop knowledge and capacity amongst community-based providers through the use of technology to leverage scarce resources, share best practices to reduce disparities, case-based learning to master complexity, and monitoring outcomes using an automated web-based platform.

Interactively, primary care clinicians and advanced practitioners join to become experts in the care and management of diabetes and diabetes-related conditions so that their patients can receive timely treatment in their own communities with an end-goal of improved healthcare outcomes.

Each virtual session includes didactic teaching for imparting knowledge to learners and provide consultations through case review of patients living with diabetes.

ECHO functions as a “hub and spoke” model with an interdisciplinary, team-based approach. Well-Ahead Louisiana Diabetes ECHO team serves as the “hub” of specialists, including an Endocrinologist, Internal Medicine Physician, a Certified Diabetes Educator, Nurse Practitioner, Cardiologist, and a Podiatrist. All who register to join form a Community of Practice and become “spokes” of the model.


Well-Ahead proudly recognizes November as National Diabetes Month and Nov. 14 as World Diabetes Day


Well-Ahead proudly recognizes March 25 as Diabetes Alert Day


2026 Diabetes ECHO registration is open!

Registration period is Monday, November 17, 2025 to Monday, January 12, 2026. First session begins January 29, 2026 at 12 noon (CST)

Apply Now

The scheduled ECHO sessions are synchronous and interactive. It encompasses the ECHO ethos of “All teach, All learn” sharing network. During ECHO sessions, providers present de-identified patient cases to expert hub team members who mentor the learners to manage patients with common complex diabetes related conditions.

One-hour sessions are held every other week. Physicians, physician assistants, nurses, nurse practitioners and pharmacists are able to obtain continuing education credits for participation in Diabetes ECHO sessions.

110

cases presented

115

total sessions

CE credits issued

691

158

providers trained


What to Expect

Structure of an ECHO Session:

  • Introductions
  • Case presentation
  • Recommendations
  • Didactic presentation

Diabetes ECHO Objectives:

  1. Establishes a Community of Practice by engaging in a virtual community with their peers.
  2. De-monopolizes knowledge and amplifies the capacity to provide best practice care for underserved people in rural Louisiana.
  3. Provides front-line clinicians with up-to-date knowledge and support they need to manage patients with complex conditions in the patients’ own communities.
  4. Increases provider confidence and self-efficacy in treating patients with diabetes.

Download the Diabetes ECHO Participant Guide to learn more.

“I am better equipped to have those conversations with my patients and refer when appropriate. This session was extremely interactive and provided extensive information”.


Meet the Hub Team

Christine Castille, FNP-C, BC-ADM, CDE

  • About

    Christine Castille is a Family Nurse Practitioner, board certified in Advanced Diabetes Management. Christine is passionate about partnering with healthcare providers, staff, and patients to reach quality healthcare goals. As a nurse practitioner and healthcare consultant, her career has included a focus on multiple aspects of diabetes and related conditions such as hypertension, renal disease, and obesity as well as working for and collaborating with payors and ACOs. Recently Christine’s passion for supporting healthcare providers, empowering patients and researching integral aspects of patient adherence has led her to work with VMS bio- marketing.

Anthony Decuir, Jr., DPM

  • About

    Dr. Anthony Decuir was born and raised in New Orleans and attended Brother Martin High School and Xavier University of Louisiana. He attended Podiatry School in Chicago at the Dr. William M. Scholl College of Podiatric Medicine and received his Podiatric training at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. After practicing for one year in the New Orleans area, he moved to Baton Rouge, where he has practiced for the past eighteen years.

Satish Gadi, MD, FACC, FSCAI

  • About

    Dr. Satish Gadi is an interventional cardiologist who has been practicing in Baton Rouge since 2010. He did much of his training including residency, fellowship, etc. in New York and now works with the Cardiovascular Institute of the South which has been serving Southern Louisiana for 35 plus years. Dr. Gadi in addition to being a cardiologist, has a special interest in PAD—both diagnosis and management.

Amne Borghol, PharmD, BCPS

  • About

    Dr. Amne Borghol is currently a Clinical Professor of Pharmacy in the Division of Clinical and Administrative Sciences (DCAS) at Xavier University College of Pharmacy in New Orleans and Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine (Gratis) at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, School of Medicine, Department of Medicine, section of Hospital Medicine. Dr. Borghol received her Doctor of Pharmacy from Xavier University, New Orleans, Louisiana. Dr. Borghol completed an American Society of Hospital Pharmacists General Pharmacy Practice Residency at Ochsner Clinic Foundation, New Orleans, Louisiana. She is a Licensed Pharmacist registered, in the states of Louisiana and Texas. Dr Borghol received board certified pharmacotherapy specialty (BCPS) in December 2013.

Dragana Lovre, MD

  • About

    Dr. Dragana Lovre is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Tulane University School of Medicine (Section of Endocrinology), where she also completed her Clinical Endocrinology Fellowship. Dr. Lovre is board certified in internal medicine and endocrinology. Her clinical and research interests focus on cardiovascular complications of diabetes with special interest in women’s health and obesity. She is involved in “Diabetes is Primary Program” by the American Diabetes Association, which delivers easily accessible continuing education to meet the needs of busy primary care providers, and also clinical trials in diabetes at Tulane University.

Vy Anh Mai, MD, MS

  • About

    Dr. Vy Anh Mai received a Bachelor of Arts in Biology and her Doctor of Medicine degree at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine in Kansas City, Missouri. She also obtained a Master of Science in Clinical Research Methods degree at Tulane University School of Medicine. Dr. Mai joined the Section of General Internal Medicine as an Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine and Pediatrics in 2019. Dr. Mai practices primary care at Tulane’s Uptown Multispecialty Clinic and actively sees patients of all ages. She has an interest in academic medicine and supervises residents in the Internal Medicine/Pediatrics clinic.

2023 Diabetes ECHO Schedule

DateTopic
December 14, 2023Balancing patients with T2DM and CKD

2026 Diabetes ECHO Sessions


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Accreditation

In support of improving patient care, this activity has been planned and implemented by Bureau of Chronic Disease Prevention and Healthcare Access and Project ECHO. Project ECHO® is jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), to provide continuing education for the healthcare team.

AMA Designation Statement: Project ECHO® designates this live activity for a maximum of 1.0 AMA PRA Category 1 CreditTM. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

ACPE Designation Statement:

This activity will provide pharmacists up to 1.0 contact hour. UAN JA4008231-9999-26-023-L01-P has been assigned to this knowledge based program for Pharmacists. CE credit information, based on verification of live attendance and completion of the program evaluation, will be provided to NABP within 60 days after the activity completion.

ANCC Disclosure Statement:

Project ECHO® designates this live activity for a maximum of 1.0 ANCC contact hour. Nursing contact hours will be awarded for successful completion of program components based upon documented attendance and completion of evaluation.

AAPA Designation Statement—Live:

Project ECHO has been authorized by the American Academy of PAs (AAPA) to award AAPA Category 1 CME credit for activities planned in accordance with AAPA CME Criteria. This activity is designated for 1.0 AAPA Category 1 CME credits. PAs should only claim credit commensurate with the extent of their participation.

Disclosure Statement:

Project ECHO®, in compliance with the ACCME Standards for Integrity and Independence in Accredited Continuing Education, requires that anyone who is in a position to control the content of an educational activity disclose all relevant financial relationships they have had within the last 24 months with an ineligible company.

None of the planners and presenters for this educational activity have relevant financial relationship(s) to disclose with ineligible companies whose primary business is producing, marketing, selling, re-selling, or distributing healthcare products used by or on patients.

The following planners / presenters listed below have disclosed that they have a relevant financial relationship with an ineligible company: Dragana Lovre, MD (Principal Investigator, Novo Nordisk); Satish Gadi, MD, FACC, FSCAI (Speaker, AstraZeneca); and Satish Gadi, MD, FACC, FSCAI (Speaker, Amgen).

All of the relevant financial relationships listed for these individuals have been mitigated.