Dental

There is little in the medical literature about applying the basic tenets of medical ethics in resource limited situations common in mission hospitals. For example, healthcare professionals are taught not to attempt medical or surgical interventions they have not be trained to do. That prohibition will be quickly violated when you are the only option for the patient. With real life stories and pra...

Untreated caries of the deciduous and permanent dentition is number one in global prevalence of disease by a large margin. This lecture will focus on strategies for caries prevention and treatment in settings with limited resources.

Faith-based medical ministries have substantial opportunities to conduct biomedical research that positively impacts the communities they serve. In addition, biomedical research can help mission organizations achieve their strategic goals. In this session missional, ethical, and practical aspects of research in faith-based, developing-world settings will be discussed.

During the main GMHC conference 2015 PRIME International's CEO, Prof Richard Vincent, presented this breakout session on ‘Compassion: Foundation for Whole Person Care’. Scientific and technical advances may be seen as the key to best medical practice, but to focus only on biological processes is to ignore other powerful influences on the causes and treatment of illness. A solely mechanistic ap...

Suppose you were born in Central Thailand 60 years ago. As a teenager you found a numb spot on your arm, later on your arm became painful and finally your hand was deformed and you couldn’t feel or grip anything. You and your family were frightened. The monks at the Buddhist temple tried to help, but their expensive poultices did not help. Your family loved you, but they felt they had no alternati...

Cross-cultural medical workers are under multiple levels of stress peculiar to their professional roles. They often serve as mental health resources to colleagues and other cross-cultural workers, have difficulty limiting the hours of work with minimal reprieve for rest and restoration. This session will focus on cognitive and behavioral tools that can improve mental and emotional self-care.

This session will discuss the role of women in health care missions today. It will include examples and personal stories that will encourage expanded vision and new perspectives on opportunities and needs.

May people talk about being a missionary in the future… "when I graduate from medical school… when I pay off my debt… when I have more experience… THEN I will become a missionary." The problem is that few are actually living the life of a missionary NOW. Being a missionary does not just magically happen when you set foot on foreign soil. In this session we will discuss the preparation of...

"Rural America" conjures up warm, innocent images from Norman Rockwell paintings. Today, however, small town America could not be further from this picture. Broken homes, epidemic drug abuse, staggering unemployment, and paralyzing depression have ravaged these once nostalgic streets. We’re not in Mayberry anymore! God has called all of us to serve, yet medical missions in rural America...

Before we can understand God's will for us, we must first understand his overarching plan to glorify himself among all nations. This breakout session will explore God's mission and our response to him, common barriers that prevent us from surrendering to God's mission, and disciplines that prepare us to do God's will.

The United States is a much overlooked field in global missions. 96 million people live in areas designated as medically underserved. All of those are communities where poverty is rampant and resources are low. Not only are those areas of great need, they are areas of tremendous opportunity where the harvest is ripe for the gospel. The Director of Christian Community Health Fellowship will share a...

This session will give a general overview of the topic of human trafficking specifically designed for healthcare professionals. It will cover both domestic and international trafficking as well as sex and labor trafficking. The session will also discuss general identifiers of human trafficking, as well as how to prepare to respond to victims of human trafficking in the healthcare setting.

This session will look at antibiotics appropriate for treatment of dental infections and for antibiotic prophylaxis as well as discussing antibiotic misuse and increasing drug resistance.

Oral Surgery can be particularly challenging on the mission field. In addition to dealing with communication and language difficulties, there are cross-cultural issues and often the lack of x-rays, proper lighting, poor suction, the lack of a trained assistant and possibly the lack of some necessary equipment. Some teams have no dentist on board and many dentists do only limited oral surgery in th...

Opportunities for mentoring , discipling and learning from majority world healthcare leaders of today and tomorrow have never been more available or diverse. Ministering healing in Jesus’ name can occur within CANs; within national nursing, medical and other allied health schools; and within a growing number of Christian university-based ,health professions schools. Making a long term commitment a...

This session will outline the advantages of medical education missions compared to direct care missions, give examples of organizations with which attendees can participate in short term medical education missions, identify challenges participants face and ways they can be overcome, and provide examples of the long term impacts recent short term medical education missions have had.

Traditional short term medical mission trips involve doing much work and seeing many patients. Many of the procedures can be taught to indigenous believers, allowing them an opportunity to learn new skills that can be used long after the team has gone home. These skills in turn allow access to areas of outreach not available to foreign workers. This breakout explores methods in use today that allo...

It is the general idea that the short-term missions is one sided. Often creating dependency- teams from USA go to the underdeveloped country to help and bring short term relief and address felt needs in the comminutes of the countries they visit. While that may be true, ‘passing on of skills’ showcases how the trend can be reversed and these very missions can impact providing long term and sustain...

Can a church in a poor and vulnerable community run a sustainable healthcare ministry in her community? Yes, if the church and short term medical team are well prepared for ministry. Here are the steps we have taken in Ghana to enable local churches run sustainable healthcare ministries as result of short term medical teams equipping them.

“Prepare your shields, both large and small, and march out for battle! Harness the horses, mount the steeds! Take your positions with helmets on! Polish your spears, put on your armor!” Jeremiah 46 If God has called you to be a healthcare missionary, you will experience one of the most satisfying – and challenging – careers in the world. You will be a warrior for God in a hostile land. Like any so...

Dr. Ralph Winter said that for every 100 people who made a mission commitment at some point in their lives, only one made it to the mission field. Why? For lack of mobilizers! The same can be said for lack of mentors. What is a mentor? What do mentors offer prospective long-term medical missionaries? Come to this session if you desire a mentor or if you desire to become a mentor. Before the sessio...

Health professionals in all settings should take a history from their patient(s). National guidelines in the U.S. recommend a spiritual assessment be included with most or all patients. Yet, surveys show that over 95% of patients say that no health professional has ever inquired of their spiritual or religious beliefs. Furthermore, most health professionals indicate that they never been taught how...

We would all like to believe that as we reach out to share our medical expertise and the love and the compassion of Christ we will all be safe, but is there any place in which we can be safe today? One question we all have to answer is: Is security the absence of danger or the presence of the Lord. But, being good stewards of the great blessing of volunteers serving the least and the last is our o...

The Kingdom of God or Kingdom of Heaven shaped every aspect of Jesus’ ministry - - his healing, prayers, teaching and even his identity . As we follow him in health care missions, the Kingdom should also define our goals, methodologies, and ways of relating with those we serve and with our co-workers. It should fuel our hope and our perseverance.

Everyone who has been on a medical mission has some embarrassing and/or hilarious stories of cultural or language blunders. Sometimes the events are just funny. Sometimes they can seriously compromise relationships and the intended impact of the whole mission, including our Christian witness. This session offers perspective, spiritual grounding and practical tools for building healthy relationship...