Medical

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...

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...

Healthcare missionaries serving in emerging cultures confront a complex set of ethical issues that may not be obvious at first glance. This session will discuss the unique ethical challenges of ministering to underserved populations, with an emphasis on resource limitations, cultural taboos, and human justice.

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

This session will focus on positioning, interventions and education needed for optimizing the care for non-ambulatory patients. Specific education will be given on serial casting, seating evaluations, and basic interventions to improve quality of life.

Medical missions are often challenging because of cross-cultural exposure to unfamiliar diseases in settings with limited diagnostic resources. Common tropical illnesses are generally unfamiliar to US trained providers. This session will present real cases from Africa and Asia focusing on tropical skin diseases, HIV, diarrhea, fever and malnutrition. History and visual clues along with simple lab...

In many countries there are large numbers of blind people whose sight could be restored with a low cost effective surgery. Many other could have avoided going blind if their problem had been recognized early and prevented. In this session we will discuss why many of these people may never get the eye surgery they need and how effective community eye care can change this situation in much of the de...

Many Non-Surgeons are called upon to manage trauma or minor surgical procedures in the ER or clinic. This is particularly true in the developing world. Accurate suturing skills are an important part of wound closure and management which can be performed very well with a little training in good technique. This session will include a discussion of: • the basics of wound healing • correct knot tying...

Nearly all global under-five mortality (U5M) (99%) occurs in developing countries. The leading causes of U5M worldwide, pneumonia and diarrheal illness, account for 1.396 and 0.801 million annual deaths, respectively. While important advances in prevention are being made, advanced life support (ALS) management in children in the developing world is often incomplete due to limited resources. Existi...

Triage by definition means that resources are too limited to handle the extent of the disease being presented. It is always a difficult and stressful situation for the healthcare provider who sometimes must allow some to die so that others might live. Practicing in the developing world, with its much more severe limitations, often changes the application of triage principles in a way which increas...

Abdominal pain in the tropics includes many of the same diseases as elsewhere but there are conditions that are unique. Using a case-based approach, some of the more common of the conditions that cause acute abdominal pain will be discussed. Approaches to diagnosis and treatment, especially those that are not obvious to the practitioner from N. America, will be discussed in an interactive style.

Teaching Life Support in resource limited ares, Why, What and How. In this session we will discuss what is appropriate to teach in resource limmited areas, who should be taught and proven methods for teaching. Experiences will be shared from Ecuador, Cameroon, Kenya and Nepal and Madagascar

Tuberculosis remains a global public health threat. This session will provide public health updates from the field on some new approaches to TB diagnosis and treatment in developing countries, as well as some recent advances on such topics as child TB, community-based TB, TB-HIV, and MDR-TB.

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...

Storm the Gates of Hell

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.

Objectives: (1) Describe the six key indigenous partner groups needed for effective medical missions (2) Discuss three common challenge areas for medical missions: Missiologic Point of View, Curative Care Perspective, Surgical Care (3) Explore WHO guidelines relevent to the use of oral medications in medical missions

Glenn Schwartz will speak about the issue of healthy sustainability in the Christian movement. He gives historical insights into how the dependency syndrome in cross-cultural missions develops and, more importantly, how it can be overcome. This presentation will also include several short case studies about mission-established hospitals and how they moved toward local sustainability. His primary e...

Medical missions is constantly changing. The enterprise of medical missions has brought health and opened the doors for the gospel in countless countries. This rich history continues today. In Africa, forty to seventy percent of health services are still provided by church and mission facilities. How do we build on the achievements of yesteryears and achieve success in the years to...