Medical Missions 101

Community Based Health Care

The best single resource for learning and understanding Community Based Health Care (CBHC) programs is a book entitled Setting Up Community Health Programmes: A Practical Manual for Use in Developing Countries by Dr. Ted Lankester. It is available in the US through the Hesperian Foundation (see www.hesperian.org). In Chapter 1

Poverty: A Marred Identity

New on Medical Missions 101 Blog: Systemic poverty often plagues the places where global health professionals serve. Grappling with this crushing reality can be overwhelming. Community health education is one tool that can help improve the well-being and dignity of those who suffer from the effects of poverty.

Spending Time in Her Shoes

The experience of life in the developed world is very different from that of the developing world. How can western health educators understand the lives of the people they serve? They need personal knowledge of the daily challenges that people in the local community face.

Drug dealers pass out pills in Ziploc baggies, not medical professionals

When I write a post like this it should be said I am not preaching from Sinai, at one time I violated every patient safety guideline listed here. It was only through concerted effort to study global health work and medical missions over many years did we grow in our

Medical Mission Team Paternalism to Health Development

In early 2004, my wife, Candi, and I joined Mercy Ships, an international hospital ship program that at that time also facilitated community-based projects while the ships are in port. We turned to using health development program models to design short-term land based global health initiatives after joining. Re-developing the

Putting the Lid on Adverse Drug Events: Provider Side Challenges

I have been going back and forth between addressing issues related to short-term and long-term medical missions, in this post I want to talk about this something I believe all short-term medical mission programs are concerned about to some degree, that being medication safety and adverse drug reactions. The idea

A Leap of Faith: From US-Trained General Surgeon to Missionary Bush Surgeon

There seems to be a growing passion for educating and discipling national healthcare professionals to serve the rural areas of their own country. We love this concept, and it has become central to the identity of CHSC; most CHSC missionary physicians are involved with clinical education in one form or another. But jumping from being a US-trained general surgeon to an African bush surgeon is an arduous process.

WWJD: What if Jesus went on hospital rounds with me?

New on Medical Missions 101: I know there are no simple answers for giving good care in mission hospitals or for being a good medical missionary, especially in settings that do clinical education. I also know that these environments can be extremely challenging and frustrating for professionals trained in the West. Finding people who are modeling best practices as “medical missionaries” and learning from them as a new missionary is crucial.

Foundations for Best Practices in Global Health

I am often asked about what constitutes best practices in global health. The answer is actually pretty simple in theory but maybe not in practice. If you want to identify best practices in global health work, ask yourself two questions:

Understanding the One Purpose

I have been a student of medical missions for the last two decades, and I have become increasingly convinced this statement is a foundational truth upon which all short-term missions should be built.