Medicalmissions.com Podcast

Regardless of your background, short-term and long-term, medical and non-medical mission workers alike are going to be faced with dental emergencies. Determining the course of action, including proper diagnosis and treatment, along with knowing when and where to refer when necessary, is important to patient health. This course will cover potential dental emergencies that may present as well as stress the importance of understanding the local health care system and the professionals working within that system.Learning objectives:1) List potential dental emergencies, presenting signs and symptoms and appropriate treatment2) Articulate the importance of understanding the local health care system when working cross-culturally

Abdominal surgery in Africa will focus on the incidence, diagnosis and the medical/surgical management of the most common clinical problems. The availability of medical personnel, facilities, and equipment will be discussed as well as the long-term need for surgical training.

Although largely framed as a legal issue, a social issue, and sometimes a geo-political issue, human trafficking is also a public health issue. Public health approaches consider all of these factors to take local information to make locally-appropriate interventions. It can also take local data to help feed our global pool of knowledge regarding this complex issue. Human Trafficking is both an individual as well as a public health issue. While direct health care is important, health professionals and organizations need to move beyond this and get involved in prevention, research, developing appropriate treatment guidelines, and monitoring and evaluation of health care interventions. We are against human trafficking because it harms people - so let's take approaches that will really work to mitigate, or even prevent, that harm.

In 2010, The Continuing Medical and Dental Education Commission of CMDA approved a working group to investigate the experience of medical missionaries with a view to providing information to assist mission agencies in setting a current and sustainable medical mission strategy. The PRISM (Patterns and Responses in Intercultural Service in Medicine) survey is a research report that summarizes those findings. This talk will involve a discussion of the salient, challenging, and sometimes surprising findings of what our full-time, long-term cross-cultural colleagues are facing today.

Excellent local training for Christian health professionals is one sure way to improve health services in many developing countries. Local schools, colleges and universities train the entire continuum of health workers – from community-based to specialty medical care professionals. Unfortunately, the quality of training is uneven in these institutions and local professionals may have not fully considered why being a Christian health professional is unique and special – making this a growing area for missions. This session will explore issues in developing robust, high quality Christian training centers for health professionals through partnerships with a network of Christian health professionals. This session explores lessons from such partnerships with US and Canadian universities involved in Uganda Christian University’s highly successful nursing and public health program, as well as other higher education partnerships. In particular, we will highlight the requirements for partnerships, the emerging

Frontline health workers are vital to local health systems, as they are often based in the community and come from within the community they serve. They include community health workers, nurses, midwives, pharmacists and others who primarily work at the community level. They help families and individuals connect to health services, and in some cases are capable of providing lifesaving assistance. Where and how are these people identified and trained? What is the emerging role for medical missions in this area? This session will explore the emerging trends, opportunities and requirements for training of front line health workers, identifying challenges of recruiting qualified workers to serve in underserved areas. Examples will come from a review of international research on frontline health workers and personal experiences shared from the East Africa context. Participants will have opportunities to share from their own experience, and help frame issues for future development.

This session will be a review of treatment of commonly seen parasitic infections while overseas. The focus will predominantly be on parasitic infections of the gastrointestinal system but will also cover some dermatological infections as well.

Deformities, both congenital and acquired, have a profound and often negative impact in the Emerging World. Deformities may be internal as well as external. Though internal deformities may not be seen they are often more severe and debilitating. The negative effects of external deformities are seen world-wide and in every culture and civilization. In the West, children born with deformities are often operated on early and may not be seen in public. Though family members may often ask “why us,” any negative thoughts are kept to themselves. In the emerging world, children with deformities, especially external ones, are often kept inside the house where they are hidden from view, and they are only taken outside with a shawl or blanket covering the deformity or at nighttime. Treatment for deformities is often not readily available in the developing world. When they are seen by other members of the community, some think the family has been cursed or that the deformed one is indwelt with an evil spirit

As a head and neck cancer surgeon, I have served as a volunteer short-term faculty member for the Pan African Academy of Christian Surgeons (PAACS) in Cameroon, Ethiopia, and Kenya for the past 6 years. In that setting, I have cared for a small cross-section of congenital and neoplastic head and neck tumors. These challenging cases require a high level of technical expertise and equipment as well as good team work for management and rehabilitation. In addition, teaching general surgery residents to manage these cases involves introduction to unfamiliar anatomy, concern for cosmetic and functional consequences and ability to make accurate diagnosis, pre-operative assessments for planning, and management of routine and complicated post-operative situations. These concerns will be illustrated with several exemplary cases, and opportunities for short-term and subspecialty faculty in PAACS will be discussed.

Across United States medical schools, one quarter of medical students participate in international experiences during medical school. Most of these students continue this interest as residents. For students and residents called to international Christian faith-based missions and those exploring such an interest, this high level of general interest has lead to an array of global health opportunities at most medical schools and many residencies. This session will discuss the use of short and medium term international experiences for global health education and professional development of medical students and residents. The discussion will include models that facilitate develop of indigenous medical education and health care systems, strategies that maximize benefit and minimize disruption for in-country partners, and approaches that develop and mentor future medical education leaders.

This session will be structured around a panel of veteran missionary surgeons who will each present a case involving a common surgical emergency they have encountered in missions settings. The panel will discuss each case presented, and interactive discussion with the audience will be incorporated. Panelists will be Bill Ardill, Dick Bransford, Peter Chu, and Bruce Steffes, with John Mellinger moderating.

In this session, we will cover the interaction of factors affecting nutritional status and the principles for treating severe acute malnutrition. We will also addressimportant vitamin and mineral deficiencies in developing countries.

This session will cover the rationale for a syndromic approach to fever in the tropics. We will consider the causes of 8 common fever syndromes.

At the completion of this session, participants will be aware of: The Millenium Development Goals (MDGs); Primary, secondary and tertiary prevention of disability to achieve the MDGs; Violence, causing/resulting from disability - a new global health priority; Resources related to disability and the MDGs. The Millenium Development Goals are to monitor progress toward a 'World Fit for Children'. The 8 Millenium Development Goals are: 1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger 2. Achieve universal primary education 3. Promote gender equality and empower women 4. Reduce child mortality 5. Improve maternal health 6. Combat HIV/AIDs, Malaria and other diseases 7. Ensure environmental sustainability 8. Global partnership for development - What was surprising was that disability was not included in the MDGs! However, one billion people or 15% of the world's population experience some form of disability. It is estimated that 93 million children live with a moderate or severe disability. The Conventio

At the completion of this presentation the participant should be able to:1.value the importance of health care in trafficked populations2. identify physical health problems that are common to trafficked individuals3. 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 various parts of the world2) Discuss current opportunities to further the impact believers can have through dentistry and how these opportunities can play a key role in ongoing global mission efforts.

Western missions and service agencies have frequently been unknowing victims of their own culture’s values, communication, social norms and worldview as they seek to minister to people in other cultural contexts. Sadly many well-meant ministries and community development programs have floundered due to lack of culturally appropriate design and operation. This is not only true when we cross national and language boundaries but also includes working within a western value system while crossing barriers of culture that exist even with the United States and Europe. Recently Cultural intelligence has been identified as a way to identify cultural barriers, to find the right inroads to penetrate difficult cultures. When properly employed we can design and develop programs that naturally increase the likelihood of success. In this session we will explore issues of beliefs, values, attitudes, and behaviors that should be considered when working outside of one’s own culture. Research with youth and ministry programs in

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.

In 2001, the United Nations formulated eight goals intended, by 2015, to reverse the grinding poverty, hunger and disease that affect billions of people. These goals touch on a web of interwoven factors that contribute to the needlessly desperate circumstances in which many in the world live. As we approach 2015, how are we doing? Why does this matter to medical missions? What might God be calling us to do? The approach of this session will be: Review the 8 goals and provide a concise update on progress for each; Engage conversation around the questions, “Are these goals relevant to us as Christians in medical/health missions?” How might pursuing these goals help answer the prayer, “…thy will be done on earth as in heaven…”?; Highlight the three health-specific goals and invite participants to share examples of ways their efforts touch on these goals; Illustrate the inseparable relationship the three health-specific goals have with the other five goals; Involve participants in listing specific ways to wo