Dental

At the completion of this presentation the participant should be able to: 1.value the importance of health care in trafficked populations 2. identify physical health problems that are common to trafficked individuals 3. identify the mental health consequences of trafficking that may need to be addressed.

The global dental healthcare environment is changing rapidly in many parts of the world and much too slowly in others. These changes impact both our current dental missions efforts as well as provide insight and opportunity into ways the dental profession may continue to increase its Kingdom impact. Learning objectives: 1) Articulate changes in the dental healthcare environment occurring in variou...

Although the principles of medical and dental care are the same worldwide, the need for translation, existing local health beliefs, customs, teaching methods, and other social and political factors may present barriers which have a significant impact on the effectiveness of efforts to teach healthcare professionals cross-culturally. This session will examine several of these.

This session will compare short term mission efforts which provide direct care to patients in an area to those which provide education and advanced training to healthcare professionals, which most often have a longer term benefit both to those who are taught by these healthcare professionals and to patients needing healthcare in that area.

God has called you to missions but how do you make a smooth transition from student to missionary physician? Join us as we look at steps to take during your education and training to prepare you for a career in medical missions. We’ll examine what questions you need to ask, what you should be aware of and what can you do over these next years to be equipped to move from training to ministry.

Have you longed to integrate your Christian faith into your patient care – both on the mission field abroad and in your work at home? Not sure how to do this in a caring, sensitive, and relevant manner? This “working” session will explore the ethical basis for spiritual care plus provide you with profession, timely, and practical methods to care for the whole person in the clinical setting.

Is it possible to equip indigenous believers to meet the needs of their own people so that the work continues when the short term team returns home? Jaime will share stories from the mission field regarding training and equipping indigenous Christ-followers with especially designed tools so that they can meet the felt needs of their own people, through which they develop relationships and have the...

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...

Health Care ministry in inner city neighborhoods must be incarnational – embracing our communities. Living, working and serving within the context of the community we serve draws us toward God’s love for people and helps us identify with our neighbors. Should one try to move into communities of poverty in order to serve there? How can we encourage those who grew up in our communities to stay to se...

A panel of US-based academic physicians discuss how they have cooperated with international institutions as well as on-the-field missionaries for quality research projects. They will also discuss ideas and opportunities for how they see research and projects developing in the future. Overview of their projects will be given, but much time will be devoted to answering questions from the audience.

This session will give an overview of the current picture of trafficking in persons within the United States focusing mainly on child sex trafficking, the major form of trafficking in persons within the U.S. In addition, the session will address specific ways that health professionals can become abolitionists.

Professional education programs are geared toward preparing students to do curative care in healthcare settings. In order to reach into the community with preventive healthcare requires an additional set of knowledge and skills. We will look at the principles that were operative in the 1978 Alma Ata and examine what needs to be included in the education of healthcare professionals to achieve Healt...

Best Practices in Short-term Medical Missions In recent years there has been a tsunami of short-term healthcare volunteers going into the developing world; both faith-based and humanitarian. Recent estimates tell us that 29% of students enrolled in medical schools participate in some type of short-term global health project prior to graduation. Dental, nursing, and allied health schools are also b...

Medical mission or what I prefer to call Health Care Mission remains a crucial issue for 21st century Christians. Yes, we need to be fully involved in medical missions but just as important, be effective as people of faith in secular environments where we can be agents of change and transformation. In this breakout session we will try to discern together how medical missions can help to become mor...

Without a robust biblical theology of suffering, medical missionaries will neither persevere nor bear spiritual fruit. Utilizing examples from the Bible and church history, this session will introduce the inevitability of hardships, their divine purposes, and principles for enduring and flourishing through them.

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 be safe, but is there any place in which we can be safe today? Security as we know is it is not the absence of danger, but the presence of the Lord. Being good stewards of the great blessings given to us of volunteers serving the least, the lost and the last is our obl...

Short-term missions offer a unique opportunity for sustained spiritual formation away from the distractions of a busy life in the U.S., in a setting where the traveler is often far removed from their comfort zone and power zone. This workshop presents ideas and guidelines for the trip leader in recruiting, selecting, and preparing trip participants to act as the Body of Christ in their service, an...

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 of lack of mentors—and the lack of appreciation of the resources that are available to fan into flame serving in medical mission. What is a mentor? What are the resources available? Come to this session to f...

Dental Surgery can be particularly challenging on the mission field. Often dealing with cross cultural and language communication problems, the proper positioning of the patient, proper light, possibly no x-rays, limited or no suction, sometimes limited trained assistance, and possibly not all the equipment that you might need. Many dentists do only limited oral surgery in their practices. The cha...

Review of the literature about burnout in overseas workers will include general demographics, incidence, prevalence, risk factors, and primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention interventions in a bio/psycho/social/spiritual model

Recent research in the long term effects of retaining versus removing third molars has been extensive and has had some surprising results. This session will review the development of third molars, associated pathology, indications for their removal and treatment with a focus on their management in resource limited situations.

This talk will address the current trends and updates on global (outside the USA) human trafficking issues. Themes and opportunities pertinent to health professionals will be highlighted.

The PRISM Study is a research report by the Medical Missions Survey Working Group of the Continuing Medical and Dental Education Commission of the Christian Medical and Dental Association. The survey was administered between 2010 and 2011 and represents hundreds of current full-time long-term medical missionaries. "It is hoped that this report will help missions organizations to be more strat...

What Will it Take?

Only a small minority of healthcare students who aspire to be missionaries actually serve long-term. One in five medical missionaries don’t stick with it for more than four years. There are daunting obstacles to going and to staying. Using both research data and the presenter’s experiences, this session will identify the best strategies for preparation that lead to long-term success.