Medicalmissions.com Podcast

This workshop will explore the challenges frequently encountered as well as how to assess and deal with health issues that specifically occur with human trafficking in low resourced areas.

Advanced reproductive technology can accomplish many things today to produce children but the salient question is should these things be done? In a country with minimal regulation available, practitioners must thoughtfully determine their own position on these issues based upon their spiritual beliefs and ethical values. This workshop will update attendees on the types of things being proposed or done today and Christian principles to be considered in examining these procedures

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 increases stress. Principles of triage in the developed world will be reviewed and practical examples from the developing world will be worked out in a group setting. Participants are encouraged to help mission hospitals develop appropriate plans for handling mass casualty and the numbers of other people that will flock to the hospital.

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.

This session will: - Provide an overview of the burden of cancer in Africa - Review the availability of treatment moralities in under-served areas of Africa - Give an overview of the oncology program that is being developed at Mbingo

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

As a world-wide phenomenon, human trafficking can be combatted in many ways. Once awareness is raised about human trafficking, health care professionals can take additional steps to fight this growing phenomenon that claims the llves of men, women and children. This session will explore various approaches and innovations in prevention, protection, prosecution, and partnership against human trafficking.

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 strategic in how they implement medical work in the cause of missions globally, and help medical missions candidates to prepare better for a career of service in medical missions."

Over half a million children die every year due to diarrhea and its complications. In this session, we will review practical aspects of managing diarrhea in children.

Even in 2012, children in southeast Asia are sick and dying due to beri beri, a nutritional deficiency due to lack of thiamine. In this session, we will discuss current knowledge about the pathophysiology, diagnosis, and management of beri beri. We will see how American medical students have contributed significantly to recent research that is clarifying how best to help affected children.

Storm the Gates of Hell

What Will it Take?

While many doors for medical mission have closed over
the past generation, many new ones have opened. Also, medical mission is no longer a Western thing. A new breed of medical missionaries is passionate to use their medical expertise to reach unreached people groups. Join us to explore these developments and get to know doctors and nurses at the cutting edge of medical mission today.

Much time and money is put into international medical missions every year, yet many efforts appear to be coming up short. Team members voice complaints that trips seemed to be little more than a vacation; dangerous issues of dependency of the host develop, and little long-term change is evident. Effective planning and organizing short-term medical missions can reduce the likelihood of such negative outcomes. This session will discuss mechanisms to plan for, prioritize, and measure desired actions and outcomes.

Medical missions planners often struggle with how
to have long-term impact from short-term missions. While local capacity building in medical education and community development seem to lead to the best sustainable change, these efforts may take decades of commitment and often require a well- funded multidisciplinary team that engages across government and private sectors. This session will discuss opportunities and challenges associated with using curative short-term missions to open doors for more effective, long-term change.