Medical: Recent Episodes
MedicalMissions.com
Globally, diarrheal disease is a leading cause of mortality and morbidity in children under five years, accounting for over half a million deaths annually. Diarrhea arises mostly from contaminated food and water sources. Worldwide 2.5 billion people lack proper sanitation, and 780 million lack access to safe drinking water. Diarrhea contributes to the incidence of malnutrition in children as each episode deprives the child of optimal nutrition. In resource-poor communities, children under three years have about three episodes of diarrhea annually.
Medical missionaries from Western industrialized nations frequently encounter ethically disturbing situations when providing care in the developing world. This may be due to generally-recognized ethical principles being largely influenced by Western realities, beliefs and values. Individuals in resource-limited settings may have very different views on the risks and benefits of medical care, widely disparate access to reliable treatment, and decision-making that emphasizes honoring the opinions of the group over those of the individual. After briefly reviewing some basic tenets of medical ethics, this session will work through a number of actual cases with the goal of finding potential ways forward in each.
Trafficking in persons is one of the greatest violations against humankind. Human trafficking happens locally, nationally, and internationally; with all ages, ethnicities, socioeconomic levels and genders. While any person can be lured into exploitation, children have additional vulnerabilities due to their dependence on adults and developmental issues. This presentation seeks to address human trafficking in children and youth and how the healthcare provider can be integral in the prevention, identification, and intervention of human trafficking in this population.
Prayer support is just as vital as financial support. This session will explore how to thrive for a lifetime. You will need churches to send you, and a full and engaged prayer and financial support team.
Every day healthcare workers face a lot of stressful and emotionally challenging situations at work. Moreover the long drawn pandemic has had its impact on healthcare workers. Numerous deaths, making difficult choices due to resource constraints and overstretched days are some of the challenges that have affected health workers mentally and emotionally. With daily work demands being constant many of them are left with these issues unresolved. How then can we care for our caregivers who support the health and quality of life of their patients and their relatives? This is a taster of a program that uses large group learnings, small group sharing, peer-to-peer interactions and role-plays. This session will also provide an overview of the program that provides healthcare teams a platform to address their unaddressed pain, and emotional as well as psychological hurts Using a structured and sustained approach the program provides the supportive environment, caring community and appropriate skills for the healing of healthcare workers and equips them to go on to become better careers in the workplace. https://bit.ly/gmhc2022_mathewmulavelil_caringforthecaregiver
How do we serve in the mission field without losing our kids? Third Culture Kids or Missionary Kids live a unique life experience that at its best can form amazing faith and character and at its worst, disillusionment and unbelief. The session will address how we can try to parent well, while living and growing up in Christian systems differentiating from what is Biblical and what is cultural.
Evidence based medicine is emphasized worldwide. An important skill in the practice of evidence based health care is the ability to critically appraise the validity of published literature. This lecture will explore principles of evidence based medicine and critical appraisal of randomized controlled trial.
Mentors are instrumental in the professional and personal growth of healthcare professionals. However, mentoring relationships often fail to realize their full potential. Attendees will be encouraged and equipped to initiate mentoring relationships that provide both mentor and mentee with a rewarding experience.
A panel of those who entered full time missions after age 50 will discuss how God overcame and is overcoming objections, difficulties and fears to place them in service. https://bit.ly/gmhc2022_bond_burgess_makingamidcareermove
In this session, It will seek to help guide you on how to respond to God’s Command and Commission, The quest for discovering and following God’s will and purpose for one’s life is often an illusion to many children of the Living God, Many believers resorts to imitating others and or live a hypocritical phantom life as they are tied down to daily engagements and undertakings of everyday life, It is hoped that discovering the reason for living your life with purpose is made easier. You will discover the purpose for which God design you and gain the confidence to fruitfully be where you belong, through the power of the Holy Spirit. You will be guided through a biblical process and principles to seeing exactly God’s intent for your unique being and person, as Gods design, where you will discover that It all began with God before the foundations of the earth. Ever since, before the fall of humanity, God has you in mind, and he designed you for a purpose and through a process, but as a result of the departure of humans from God, through disbelief, you became blind and were kept ignorant of His plans for you. However, you will discover that His Deep love and Great Mercy, God called you to salvation, you became a new creature and adopted as His Child, hence He qualified you, by being a new creature in His image, He desires for you to return and rediscover His plan and purpose for your life As He God Intended. Responding to Gods Command and Commission, is a call to be ready, Dressed for service fully equipped and Lacking in nothing as you Respond through Obedience, based on a biblical Principles, These herculean task by helping you identify your uniqueness within the body of Christ, and to enable you walk confidently and victoriously where you belong in the program of God through the enabling power of the Holy Spirit. Finally, through the Scriptures and the Power of the Holy Spirit, You will be exposed and guided to God’s Command and Commission, That you begin to instantly manifest the reality of your purpose for living, Emblemed and empowered with full of Zeal, Passion and Fruitfulness, Genuinely ready for all the good works God has designed you to accomplish – Loving God with all your heart, soul and strength and loving others through your service of obedience to his Commission, Praying, Evangelizing, Discipling, Equipping and living a lasting fruit to the Glory of God. Our focus will be what it does take to be dressed, ready for service from your call to salvation to your call to service, Exploring your Meditational life, Family Life and a life of Obedience to His Command and Commission. AS YOU RESPONDING TO GOD’S COMMAND AND COMMISSION
Are you comfortable asking people for money? Do you understand the critical areas you must address if you are going to ask people to invest in you? This session will give you an understanding of the basics in fundraising that is fundamental to anyone in ministry. You will learn 5 critical things you must do in order to raise your own support. There is a solution to the obstacle of educational loans which often prevent many from going due to the amount of money that must be raised – MedSend. Additionally, you will understand how to qualify for a MedSend grant and what the Board is looking for in those who apply. Finally, you will gain and understanding of what you need to be doing right now if you are hoping to go to the field soon, next steps.
Globally, congenital heart disease (CHD) is prevalent in approximately 1.8 per 100 live births making it a substantial contributor to infant mortality. (Lancet Child Adolesc Health, 2020). This is especially true in LMIC's where access to diagnostic, therapeutic and corrective resources is limited. While many organizations exist to address these challenging statistics, for the child in rural Africa and elsewhere around the world, access remains limited. Missionary physicians and other providers often find themselves in the moral vortex of pursuing insurmountable logistics for one patient versus the many other needs they face in their respective healthcare setting. As the prevalence of CHD continues to rise, missionary health care providers are uniquely positioned to address this need while also being able to advance the Gospel through robust relationships with patients and their families.
This session will consider case studies of biomedical research in mission contexts, derive best practices in biomedical research that enhance the work of mission institutions, and describe how to get involved in biomedical research in faith-based settings. Presentation Slides: https://bit.ly/gmhc2022_marktopazian_biomedicalresearchandfaith
Grief Protocol: An Approach to Processing Suffering and Loss as Global Healthcare Workers https://www.dropbox.com/s/u7nmhonwddtk7cg/final%20grief%20protocol%20GMHC.pdf?dl=0
Clinicians encounter many ethical issues in practice of medicine. This lecture first explores ethics from the perspective of seminal studies on normal human nature including incentives, social reciprocity and token effect. The lecture will then focus on the impact of this human nature on every day medical practice, medical education, medical research and medical missions.
In this session participants will be exposed to the role rehabilitation professionals can play in addressing the needs of persons with disabilities around the world and how addressing these needs can advance the gospel. We'll explore the prevelance of disabilities in the world, and what God has to say about His love for and care for persons with disabilities. https://bit.ly/gmhc2022_roy_canclini_mrowiec_howrehabprofessionals
Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) face significant challenges to their health and well-being that are unique due to lack of necessary resources including food, water, sanitation, shelter, security, and healthcare. Caring for people in these situations requires an understanding of their unique needs as well as having realistic goals regarding what can and cannot be done for them. Our experiences in providing healthcare for the victims of disasters in Congo, Indonesia, Pakistan, Myramar, Afghanistan, Honduras, Nepal, Kurdistan, and Turkey – both natural and manmade – highlight the need to be well prepared when serving in these difficult situations. We are called to serve “the least of these,” and the victims of disasters and crises certainly qualify. Often these events, though causing much hardship and suffering, create the possibility for doors and hearts to be open to the message of Jesus that otherwise would be closed. We must be both willing and well prepared if we are to serve well when we are called to respond to those in need.
According to the WHO, in the African Region, about 473 000 children die from pneumonia, 300 000 from diarrhea, and a further 443 000 from malaria every year. Mortality in hospitalized cases of severe pediatric malaria is 9%-10%. Many efforts to prevention infection and improve nutrition so as to modulate the impact of infection are in place but when critically ill children present, correctly preparing staff and systems to prioritize effective care can make the difference. This session will discuss why children die from malaria, reading the signs and practical prioritization of care to reduce morbidity and mortality.
There is a shift happening in missions, what is God up to and what is my role? https://bit.ly/gmhc2022\_charlievittitow\_whatismyplace
In both domestic and international situations, dental needs often go unmet (for multiple reasons). Many people in poverty develop a "survivalist" mindset and only seek care when in pain. Untreated dental conditions, if neglected long enough, can turn into dental emergencies. When many patients do finally seek dental care, it is often in an emergency medical setting where dentistry is not usually available. In some parts of the world, dental care may be non-existent altogether. These emergency dental patients are often mis-diagnosed and/or go untreated in a medical setting. This lecture will serve to enlighten/empower non-dentists with some basic diagnostic and treatment skills to better manage dental emergencies in a non-dental setting. https://bit.ly/gmhc2022\_jonathanspenn\_emergencydentaldiagnosis
We will learn how moral injury is inevitable in cross-cultural healthcare, and we will learn how to prevent and manage moral injury through proven, God-honoring methods. Presentation slides: https://bit.ly/gmhc2022\_jimritchie\_protectyourselffrom
As we see an increasing number of culturally diverse patients in our US-based practices or on the mission field, our understanding of cultural influences in healthcare and our own biases is essential. How can we develop an eye to see where a patient’s values and worldview may differ from our own? We will review an approach to cultural humility highlighted by medical missions case studies. Presentation Slides: https://bit.ly/gmhc2022\_davidnarita\_culturalhumility
Like the prophet Elijah in the Old Testament, many times we as followers of Jesus who seek to make His name known, find ourselves crying out to God “I have had enough Lord”. Learning how to find God in our trials and to trust His loving faithfulness to refine us is a necessary part of our journey. Though sometimes difficult to share openly, the failures, disappointments, and hard times are important in the life of a global worker. Most often, just as in Elijah’s life in I Kings 19, the beauty and majesty and power of God meet us in these times. Sharing from her personal journey in medical missions as a general surgeon in the Middle East and in Kenya, Dr. Carol Spears will explore ways from scripture to find hope and beauty in the desert experiences of missionary service. The scripture is I Kings 19
God painted His heart for the Nations throughout the pages of His Word, from Genesis to Revelation... If we live our lives, spend our money, eat/drink, exercise, pray, and practice medicine without catching this vision, we're missing out on the greatest masterpiece ever created! We create a false dichotomy of domestic healthcare and that which is international. God doesn't see it this way and neither should we.
Providing healthcare in pioneer mission settings complements and demonstrates the Gospel in action, following the footsteps of Jesus. This results in both improving the healthcare of the local community—and beyond—and the planting and growth of the church. We will describe and illustrate this from experiences in Thailand, Cambodia and the Big Country in Asia. https://bit.ly/gmhc2022\_narita\_thompson\_integratinghealthcare\_ https://bit.ly/gmhc2022\_narita\_thompson\_integratinghealthcare\_handout\_
This session will help prepare participants for teaching internationally and/or cross-culturally. It will discuss differences in education methods that exist between different countries and cultural reasons for them; how these differences may impact how you teach and introduce new methods; and provide examples of ways to overcome or adapt to these differences. https://bit.ly/gmhc2022\_sharifalkenheimer\_crossculturalissues
This session is for those interested in leaving a lasting impact in one's overseas involvement. Often, the impact lasts only as long as the team is on the ground. If you would like to discover one way to have a lasting impact without creating dependency, this session is for you. https://bit.ly/gmhc2022\_jaimesaint\_fiveprinciples
This lecture will describe complex humanitarian emergencies and the common diseases encountered and the persons affected. We will also discuss mental health issues encountered by victims and the humanitarian worker as well as describe how one can stay healthy in body, soul, and spirit dealing while dealing with the stress of living in working in such a context. https://bit.ly/gmhc2022\_cathyh\_complexhumanitarianemergencies
We live in the most amazing days since Jesus walked the earth. The global church is sprinting toward the finish line of the 2000-year Great Commission race, and by God’s grace, our generation may be the one to finish it. In this session, Douglas Cobb of The Finishing Fund will explain the global effort to get the gospel for the first time to the world’s last few unengaged people groups and will present the amazing promise of Matthew 24:14 that the completion of the Great Commission will open the door to the return of Christ.
The behavioral health literature on resilience identifies religious belief and practice as important factors contributing to psychological resilience. This literature frequently advocates Eastern religious methods of meditation and exercise as means of enhancing resilience in vulnerable individuals. Much smaller literature suggests that Christian spiritual routines might enhance resilience. This presentation proposes that the ancient Christian practice of praying the psalms enhances resilience. It describes the history and methods by which Christians usually pray the psalms. Using several specific psalm examples, the presentation describes the means by which praying the psalms provides a framework to courageously face distress as well as to endure, by God’s grace, during times of hardship. Presentation slides: https://bit.ly/gmhc2022\_samueltheilman\_enhanceresilienceprayingthepsalms
Spirituality is an important component of health, and assessing a patient's spirituality is a cultural competence of healthcare professionals. This session will review the scientific evidence for links between spirituality, religious practice and health outcomes, consider what medical and nursing association guidelines say about incorporating spiritual assessments into medical practice, and describe a practical, context-appropriate framework for assessing patient spirituality in medical and nursing practice.
Breaking the Chains of Dependency: Impacting underserved communities through servant leadership Underserved communities, such as those in Africa, have been the long-time recipients of outside aid, yet there is little sustainable change. Dependency on outside resources and hierarchal, foreign leadership remains. Could following the example of Jesus’ use of servant leadership be a way to break dependency and bring sustainable change to these communities? A small, community-based health clinic in Mauritania, Africa, was a traditional, non-governmental run clinic for 15 years, relying heavily on foreign staff for leadership and decision-making. Desiring to empower local leadership and encourage ownership, a new leadership style was introduced. Using a servant leader, holistic approach along with cultural contextualization, education, guiding a shared vision, and instilling dignity and hope, in less than a year a shift happened. Personal ownership, critical thinking, shared-decision making, and local leadership are replacing previous dependency.
The 5 most common neglected tropical diseases affect over 1.5 billion people, including more than 1 billion children. Medical missionaries working in sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Asia will certainly come in contact with most of these diseases on a daily basis. It is time for us to do more than just treat them. Mass drug adminstration programs were developed to help control and eradicate these diseases. This lecture will discuss how we can be a part of the solution.
This session will describe unique needs of Millennial missionaries in the current culture. We will discuss how building relationships with God, self and others will aid in longevity on the field, contentment, struggling well, lamenting suffering and balancing stresses with supports.
Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistants can be a vital part of the mission team. We will use this session to discuss how APPs can be utilized on the field, how to prepare for missions, what to expect from your first trip, and so much more. Please join us!
A case-based, interactive review of how to diagnose and manage febrile patients in tropical settings https://bit.ly/gmhc2022\_douglascollins\_approachtofever https://bit.ly/gmhc2022\_douglas\_collins\_approachtofever\_handout\_
The missional landscape has changed. The recent global events, the shifting distribution of Christians, and the realities of what God is allowing; are presenting a whole new missional landscape. What then are the new structures, approaches, and strategies that are proving effective for missions in our days? This will be shared with a special emphasis on the emerging role of medical missions and the strategy for partnerships. https://bit.ly/gmhc2022\_florencemuindi\_ourcurrentmission
For those in training and recently finished, we will learn how to maximize this season. We’ll spend the first half tackling topics like original motivation, long-haul stamina, pearls and pitfalls of living in community, debt, vision for one’s next step to the nations, and helping the needy now tensioned with investing in education to help others later. We pray this will infuse you with the hope of Christ and give you eyes to see this refining, exciting time as He does. https://bit.ly/gmhc2022\_redican\_heidenreich\_thomas\_thetrainingyears For the second hour, we’ll divide into small discussion groups with those from your same stage of the journey (i.e., recent grads, residents, M1, M2, M3, M4, pre-med, PA, NP, RN, pharmacy, dental, PT/OT/ST, spouses). With facilitators who have gone through it before, we’ll dive into the individualized questions you have and brainstorm how God might sustain you now and lead you in the upcoming season.
We are all called to live missionally. It is the Lord's plan for all peoples to know of His glory. As nurses, we may have access to those who have never heard the Gospel. We can get behind closed doors working within communities, establish trust, pray with patients, and provide wholistic care. Nurses care for the physical, spiritual, and emotional needs of people. We can use the discipline of nursing to be the hands and feet of Jesus. We can show honor, respect, caring, and compassion to everyone the Lord brings into our path, no matter where we are serving Him. As believers, we can make disciples. Healthy, authentic disciples make healthy churches. The church is not a place, or an event, it is the people. We as nurses have extra tools in our toolbox to pray, teach, encourage, advance the Gospel, and give glory to the Lord. https://bit.ly/gmhc2022\_rebeccameyer\_roleofnursesinmissions
Many mission healthcare programs have been started by expatriates with little or no input from national partners. These programs are often supported by external funds which is one of the reasons that control is still in the hands of expatriates. Transitioning from expatriate to national leadership is increasingly important as nationalism affects national policies. This may take the form of denying visas to healthcare personnel, leaving programs dependent on national leadership and staffing. For programs to continue, it is imperative that nationals be prepared to take responsibility for administrating and continuing clinical and educational programs. This workshop will present examples from missionaries who have made this transition, are presently experiencing the transition, or are making plans to transition to national leadership. We will discuss how transitions have been successful, some of the pitfalls of making the transition without adequate preparation and potential steps to move forward in making this transition. https://bit.ly/gmhc2022\_jamessmith\_transitioningfromexpatriate\_
The missional landscape has changed. The recent global events, the shifting distribution of Christians, and the realities of what God is allowing; are presenting a whole new missional landscape. What then are the new structures, approaches, and strategies that are proving effective for missions in our days? This will be shared with a special emphasis on the emerging role of medical missions and the strategy for partnerships.
Our efforts to provide excellent, compassionate treatment for our patients can open huge doors to address their spiritual needs. This session will provide an introduction to the CMDA "Faith Prescriptions" video series, a collection of 25 episodes created to equip and inspire us to communicate the love of Christ to our patients with sensitivity and respect.
Which cancer screening programs save lives and which ones actually create harm? https://bit.ly/gmhc2022\_jeffreyleman\_cancerscreeningglobally
In this session, you'll learn the most important questions to ask when considering a potential mission sending organization. Find your best fit by attending this seminar!
This session will be a quick review of common treatments for worms, Chagas disease, Human African Trypanosomiasis and leishmaniasis which are all parasites more common outside of the United States. However with a recent increase in immigrants they are becoming more common in some parts of the United States. The brief discussion of the treatment of each of these infections will include medications, dosing, side effects and monitoring.
A medical practitioner panel from the CMDA Commission on Human Trafficking will discuss indicators of human trafficking in adults and children, root causes of exploitation, the effects of the pandemic, and tools healthcare providers can use to identify and treat victims.
This session focuses on women on mission and will highlight the role of women on mission, the challenges faced and some ways to overcome these challenges. Examples of women on mission in the past as well as present day experiences will be used to bring to life the opportunities and the difficulties as well as the great joys of a woman on mission.
In today's uncertain world, patients are dealing with more and more stress and anxiety that ultimately impacts their health. Patients sometimes have "hidden unhealed triggers" that can lead to physical impairments. III John 2 states "Above all brethren, I desire you to prosper and be in Health, even as your soul prospers." In this session, the participant will learn how to "tend to their souls" and learn to identify areas of brokenness that patients are dealing with such that they are equipped to help patients tend to their souls, in an effort to propagate physical, emotional and spiritual health.
As a health care professional on the mission field, the task of language learning is both essential and complicated. We say that language learning is a high value and priority for ourselves as missionaries, and yet it often is the first thing to take a back seat in life and ministry. Why is that? How can we do better? With over 15 years of experience in educating, training, and coaching missionaries in language and culture learning, Dr. Mullen will cast a vision for what it takes to truly become “fluent” in your target host language. She will offer biblical, theoretical, and practical advice for missionaries and missions leaders alike on how to prepare, execute, and continually improve communicative competence in a second language and cross-cultural setting.
Medical education has a potentially powerful role in global health. This breakout will explore some ways that medical education can not only support patient care but also resource and research capacity building to better care for critically ill patients in low-middle-income countries. https://bit.ly/gmhc2022\_burtonlee\_supportingglobalcriticalcare
Background. Diabetes programs are difficult to implement in low-income settings. Mentoring clinics is promising to implement initiatives. We mentored local Community Health Workers (CHWs) to implement a diabetes program for low-income Latino(a)s (N=59) with type 2 diabetes in a twophased approach, each 6-months. Methods. -Phase 1 (training, feasibility assessment): participants randomized to the diabetes program or usual care. CHW-instructors (CHW-Is) led the program, CHWs observed. -Phase 2 (mentoring): CHWs led the program, CHW-Is mentored. -The program included monthly group visits and weekly CHWs/CHWIs-participant telehealth contact. -Outcomes included baseline to 6-month clinical changes i.e., HbA1c, adherence to medications and six American Diabetes Association (ADA) guidelines, CHW pre/posttest scores, and hypoglycemia. Results. Significant outcomes included improved HbA1c levels, medication and ADA adherence, hypoglycemic events, and CHWs test scores.
This breakout session is will be a taster of the Formational Course of the Academy of Missional Healthcare and Initiative of COGI and CAPRO. Designed primarily for pre-internship students in healthcare, it is also open to young professionals. This session will provide a taster to the eight-core module mentorship course in Missional Healthcare. The session will also highlight the uniqueness of the program. The Formational course provides participants with “A missional context of learning” in an environment of Transformational learning, problem-based training, experiential sharing alongside practical role-plays and interactive group exercises. Continual learning and reflective engagement through “journaling” is a key component of the program. The full program gives broad insights into the health and development needs in a country as well the various expressions of medical missions. It also provides a deeper understanding of God’s mission pertinent to healthcare and the healthcare person.
Aspiring cross-cultural missionaries must develop the capacity to personally hear from and obey God. This ability is supernaturally achieved through the Holy Spirit by cultivating life-giving habits. Among them are bible reading, prayer, service, and participation in the Body of Christ.
This session will be a quick review of common treatments for worms, Chagas disease, giardia and leishmaniasis which are all parasites more common outside of the United States. The brief discussion of the treatment of each of these infections will include medications, dosing, side effects and monitoring.
Are you a nurse? Are you a pharmacist? A doctor? A physical therapist? A medical professional? Then you ARE a Market Place Professional! Bring your job, spread the Gospel, live in air-conditioning, and pay your own way!
There are few things as thrilling to see as a group of local believers springing up where it didn’t exist before! In this session we will take an initial thought-provoking and inspirational look at church planting among unreached peoples around the world using current, real-life stories. We’ll also hear from everyday people who went out to minister to the healthcare needs of others, bringing with them a passion to see new communities of believers emerge and thrive among the unreached.
Despite the recognition that successful mentoring experiences are usually the result of intentional and committed relationships between mentor and mentee, there are still challenges in achieving consistent, positive outcomes for mission driven Christ followers in healthcare. Healthcare missionaries, whether domestic or foreign, face unexpected challenges, failures, and disappointments, both on and off the field of service, across a broad spectrum of life, work, and ministry. This talk will focus on the essential commitments of both mentor and mentee during the early career of cross-cultural workers who serve in diverse living and working environments.
Balancing too many roles, wearing too many hats. It's tough to be a missionary doctor mom...is it even really possible? Some helpful discussion to guide us into the life God wants for each of his daughters.
The average medical student graduates with over $241,000 in educational debt! This can seem insurmountable when trying to get to the mission field. But it's not! Come and hear about your options, and why student loan debt should not stand in your way of stepping out and following God's lead into missions. We will discuss how to limit debt, grant availability from MedSend, and federal programs that can dramatically reduce your monthly payment and even eliminate your student loans.
How To Proclaim and Deliver the Content of The Gospel Message, Which is, The True Saving Knowledge of God in Christ, to The hearts and minds of the Muslims Everywhere, so they could be Saved, and in a way they could understand through the power of the Holy Spirit.
A story of how lives were transformed in a world with a widening mental health gap. The overwhelming need was met with the calling to be a caring community.
Some mission experts estimate that up to 90% of young people who consider missions cease to pursue it because of various fears and obstacles, including the fear of fundraising. Some workers view fundraising as a rite of passage or as an obstacle to overcome. Others understand God’s purposes to include each follower of Jesus in His worldwide kingdom work through going, serving, sending, praying, encouraging, and giving.
In the past, malaria killed two out of three missionaries in certain locales. Depending on the prevalence of disease, the missionary must decide on how many layers of protection are needed. Strategies include sleeping under an insecticide-treated net, avoiding outside at dawn and dusk, screening windows and doors, wearing mosquito repellent, reducing mosquito breeding sites, taking malaria prophylactic medication, and evaluating and treating every fever within 24 hours of onset. The decision about which strategies to employ should be made in consultation with medical providers with knowledge of local patterns of disease. Diagnosis may be affected by presence of prophylactic medications, test kits that only detect certain species, or variable experience of lab personnel. Recurrent malaria may be due to reinfection, recrudesence, or relapse, and diagnosis and treatment requires knowledge of disease patterns related to P. vivax and P. ovale. Testing will often be negative and disease may occur weeks to years after leaving the malarious area, making treatment more difficult, especially if the missionary is back in his/her passport country.
As we see an increasing number of culturally diverse patients in our practices, there is no doubt of the importance of cultural competency in medicine. Specific circumstances and miscommunications have been well documented. But how can we develop an eye to see where a patient’s values and worldview may differ from our own? We will review an approach to cultural competency highlighted by medical missions case studies.
Oftentimes short term mission trips sideline the indigenous church. The local church is the key to transformation and must be empowered to participate in the Great Commission. The members of the local, indigenous church are the best people to reach their community with the Gospel. They speak the same language, look the same, and understand the culture. By giving the local church the responsibility, allowing them to be in the driver's seat, we will be able to empower them with skills that will meet the biggest needs in their own community. Missions is designed to be a relay race. We will discuss seven principles to assist us in our short term mission trips to have sustained, long term impact without creating dependency.
The ability to critically appraise the validity of published literature is an essential skill for all physicians. This lecture will explore the principles of evidence based medicine with a focus on critical appraisal of randomized controlled trials.
The purpose of this session is to obtain an overview of the key elements of the new Christian Global Health in Perspective course designed to prepare both those trained in the medical professions and others about the biblical, historical, cultural and strategic aspects of evidence-based global health service. Wholeness from the perspective of shalom will form a sustainable framework upon which one can build effective transformational service among the nations, because health concerns everyone.
This session will present how combining cultural competence and critical thinking when teaching healthcare in a global setting, will be more effective if the participant’s previous learning experiences are included in teaching methods.
For those in training and recently finished, we will learn how to maximize this season. We’ll spend the first half tackling topics like original motivation, long-haul stamina, pearls and pitfalls of living in community, debt, vision for one’s next step to the nations, and helping the needy now tensioned with investing in education to help others later. We pray this will infuse you with the hope of Christ and give you eyes to see this refining, exciting time as He does. For the second hour, we’ll divide into small discussion groups with those from your same stage of the journey (i.e., recent grads, residents, MS1-2, MS3-4, PA/NP, pre-med, RN, PT/OT/ST, dental; optional spouse group). With facilitators who have gone through it before, we’ll dive into the individualized questions you have and brainstorm how God might sustain you now and lead you in the upcoming season.
Our residency and training programs prepare us for professional service. Might it make sense to give heightened attention to preparation for full time kingdom service following professional training? Join Rick, Lance, Kelsey, and Chad as together we explore the need and potential for a new equipping model for long term kingdom service. For senders and those seeking to be sent: all medical, dental, and administrators, join the conversation as we explore foundational spiritual formation, life on life discipleship as we seek to be the missionaries here and now that we want to be then and there.
As clinicians we often look at developmental milestones to guide and direct therapeutic sessions but what if there is something underlining that is impeding development? In this session, we will discuss the impact of retained reflexes (reflexes that have not integrated) and trauma on the brain. How we can support those who have experienced these and how to rewire the brain for success
Globally, over 240 million children under five years of age suffer from malnutrition. Approximately 85% of these children are undernourished, manifesting as underweight, wasting, stunting and micronutrient deficiencies or insufficiencies. Under-nutrition contributes to about 45% of deaths in children under five years of age. Children in low-income and resource poor communities and nations are at the greatest risk. Healthcare providers in these communities play a central role in limiting the effects of under-nutrition in this vulnerable population, through early identification, prompt and appropriate care and referral. In this session we will review evidence-based approaches to developing sustainable preventive and early intervention strategies to combat the leading underlying cause of childhood morbidity and mortality in resource limited communities.
Nutrition as Medicine: The Role of Food as therapy for chronic disease prevention and management
Diagnostic dilemma poses one of the challenges in the mission field due to lack of ideal or reliable tools. Integrating ultrasound findings with clinical assessments can help improve diagnostic certainty at the bedside. During this 1-hour session, we will briefly review the capabilities and limitations in assessing intracranial pressure, fractures, and acute tendon ruptures along with a more traditional assessments for pneumonia, heart failure, and DVT, among other diseases. We will also briefly compare some of the available portable ultrasound devices.
This lecture first explores ethics from the perspective of normal human nature. Then the impact of this human nature on every day medical practice, medical education, medical research and medical missions is discussed.
My family and I are Kenyan cross-cultural workers based in Kenya. We served for three and half years in Ghana. During that time, we established Hope Alive Initiatives that equips churches in poor and vulnerable communities in wholistic ministry. I have seen the impact left by short term mission teams that come to train local believers to continue ministry after the team leave. Hope Alive Initiatives is now involved in training churches in five countries: Ghana, Burkina Faso, Kenya, Malawi and Zambia.
Vaccines aren't perfect, but they prevent a lot of disease and save a lot of lives. In this session, we will review vaccination as related to those who travel internationally and to those who live in resource-limited areas. We will discuss new advances in vaccination.
Any device capable of being connected to cyberspace can be subject to surveillance, hacked, and used monitor behavior in the physical world. The lowest level of threat is probably the thief who wants to steal your smart phone. The highest level of threat is the nation state monitoring you using that same smart phone, supposing you will compromise the local believers. Between these extremes are the criminals who call your contact list, tell them you have been kidnapped and demand ransom, and the criminals who seize your data with ransomware. Mission teams may need to turn to cybersecurity professionals to develop plans for working in closed countries and nations that are fundamentally hostile to the faith or are just corrupt. Knowing when this help is needed is critical to staying safe. This session will provide participants with tools and strategies to enhance their cybersecurity.
The pathway to healthcare missions is not a linear pathway and there is not one right way. In this plenary session, we are going to hear from experts across the spectrum of healthcare missions, from the initial exploring stage, the preparing process, and beyond. We're going to look at the many varied expressions of healthcare missions, such as the traditional long term medical missionary, but also the non-traditional marketplace worker. We'll explore short term service opportunities, medical education fields, domestic service, and disaster relief. We'll learn about what healthy preparation looks like and end with stories and lessons about thriving in healthcare missions.
In view of a changing world context, what is the future of medical missions? Does the traditional mission hospital have a place in today's world? Where does medical missions fit into globalization and urbanization and increasing populations where there is high restriction on religion? What are healthcare strategies that will work in the 21st century? This session will review the history of medical missions, where we are today, and what are the new additional approaches that will meet needs and open doors for the Gospel.
Do you ever wonder how to bring up end of life discussions without creating fear or loss of hope? What does an end of life discussion include and is it wider than creating a DNR? It is crucial to create an open atmosphere to discuss end of life beliefs, customs, and values, but how and when is this done and who can do it? This session will give you the ability to start a dialogue, set goals, and understand different resources that are available. We will discuss aspects of culture, religion, and psychology that require sensitive approaches. Every situation is unique and has its own dynamics, but in creating an open and relaxed atmosphere a plan of care for end of life needs and goals can be addressed and new definitions of hope can be explored.
Why are you heading overseas as a healthcare missionary? What's your ultimate long-term goal? Is your dream, for example, to vaccinate multiple thousands of children against preventable childhood diseases or ... do you dream of launching movements of missional-communities (churches) among a Muslim group who will share Christ with their entire people group ... AND vaccinate all their children, too? The Kingdom needs missionaries who will do both. This workshop will help you learn key aspects of what to look for when joining a team, and how to form and prepare a strategic team to go and do it together.
Parenting is challenging in any situation, but raising children while living overseas and serving cross-culturally adds new complexities. Gleaming lessons learned from 15 years of field missionary experience, and siting practical examples, the session will explore tips and tools for providing missionary kids with academic, social and spiritual success.
Characteristics of altruistic individuals, such as passion, dedication, and empathy, can under certain circumstances make them more vulnerable to experiencing psychological distress. In the last two decades, a significant body of psychiatric and psychological literature has looked at this issue. This presentation will draw from the presenter’s work with the diplomatic community and disaster relief workers to identify common stressors and stress responses among Christian workers in foreign environments. In addition, it will explain the notion of psychological resilience, describe the five resilience factors most likely to be protective against burnout and disillusionment, and will suggest ways that Christian health care workers can make use of these concepts to protect their own psychological health and well-being.
This session is intended to help non-therapists or medical professionals provide therapeutic intervention for children with common motor disabilities. Mobility and play are important aspects in the development of young children. Autism, Down syndrome and Cerebral Palsy are common pediatric developmental disabilities that can have an negative impact on movement. In this practical session we will learn common motor and developmental impairments in children with these diagnoses and how to provide and teach parents low tech exercises and activities to address these impairments.
Health Environmental and Learning Program (H.E.L.P.) (www.missonforhelp.org) is a Christian development mission and non-profit organization registered in 1999 and founded by Tim and Lani Ackerman, an ecologist and medical doctor. The Ackermans served in the Himalayas for 8 years, and while there trained Nepali Christians to lead the organization, founding an NGO. Using the model of Jesus' ministry to meet both the physical and spiritual needs of the poor, HELP's focus is to equip the national church and assist them in developing their own community. In multiple areas, Christian Community Development works through literacy, animal husbandry, health, agriculture, income generation, environment preservation, an orphanage and sponsorship program we serve the poor of the Himalayas and see Christ transform. In a grass-roots approach, trainer of trainers methods, multi-tier discipleship, and close follow up, HELP partners with hundreds of Nepali believers and leaders, bringing non-formal education, health training, pesticide-free farming, gardening, income generation, veterinary work, and ministry to the poorest of the poor, addressing social determinants of health and championing social justice through the gospel. This session will help participants understand how social determinants of health, social justice, and health equity can be addressed through the church and with discipleship
We are all "Servants in Training", "Missionaries in Training" or both. What's the difference and how might God be preparing us? Dr. Dowell will be discussing the importance of each of those seasons in our development as yielded vessels "living sacrifices". We will learn the answers to those questions, find encouragement in times of difficulty, and be inspired to answer the call along the way as we glean wisdom, and learn a few guiding principles from the lives of biblical and historical servants who have been called and used of God in times past.
Dr. and Mrs. McDonald have served in international ministry with over 30 years of experience. Offered an international career with the UN and World Bank, they took the path less traveled, and it has made all the difference…for eternity! With work experience in over 50 countries, together they have helped set up or empower scores of development projects that continue today. These include hospitals, clinics, medical training, orphanages, community centers, schools from preschool to graduate level, businesses, farms, plantations, factories, safe houses, all providing products and services for the local community and export. Trial and error have revealed ten important principles foundational to success in social enterprise. One of them of particular interest in ministry is the issue of multiple “bottom lines.” Profit, the usual bottom line, cannot stand alone. Their core value is that any effort must produce spiritual results, at least in opening doors. Results are God ordained, not man driven. For what profits a man to gain the whole world, and lose his soul? Other principles flow from this core foundational premise. How do you determine the most strategic set of needs when there are so many? And how do you prioritize? How do you find a competitive advantage? How do you diversify to minimize risk? How do you write a business plan to know viability? How do you find the “Champion” if you are not on the ground yourself? How do you avoid colonialism while creating accountability? How do you measure results? How do you avoid corruption? Be encouraged that there is nothing greater than empowering a people group sold out to Christ to become independent to leverage the gospel in their own community! The story of McDonald’s journey is there’s no greater joy than seeing men, women and children come to know the True and Living God while standing free and reaching their own through economic, social and spiritual empowerment! Phil holds a Ph.D. from Michigan State in international development and is the CEO of L.E.A.D. Inc. Rebecca is the Founder and CEO of Women At Risk, Int’l, addressing multiple risk issues in 56 countries and licensed in all 50 states to train medical professionals in anti-trafficking. As a family, they raised four children in the developing world and know the unique challenges of marriage, family, career, ministry, business, and social entrepreneurship in a cross-cultural environment. They never expected to be serial entrepreneurs. Last year Phil authored an Amazon bestselling book entitled, “unreal: Adventures of a Family’s Global Life.” Written in memoir form, the book recounts 90 stories that highlight 60 principles learned from more than 30 years of experience.
The COVID-19 pandemic has taken it’s toll on every family, from frustration with being stuck at home, to job loss, to loneliness and social deprivation. But for many families, those three factors have been the perfect combination to provide an environment ripe for trauma. For children, we see that trauma has an impact on the development of the brain that effects learning, relationships, and emotional regulation. This seminar will give you a greater understanding of the developmental impact of trauma and tools to help children and adults grow in resilience rather than destruction through hard circumstances.
Some mission experts estimate that up to 90% of young people who consider missions cease to pursue it because of various fears and obstacles, including the fear of fundraising. This session will help participants: 1. Identify various obstacles and fears relating to fundraising 2. Consider ways that God can help us overcome these barriers 3. Become aware of best resources and training materials used to help missionaries build and maintain a full and engaged prayer and financial support team 4. Know what questions to ask about support raising with possible mission agencies when evaluating where and how God will have you serve
This session focuses on women in mission and will highlight the role of women in missions, challenges faced, and some practical ways to overcome those challenges.
Advanced practice providers (APPs), such as nurse anesthetists, nurse midwives, nurse practitioners, and physicians assistants, have and can continue to bridge gaps by increasing access and quality of health care in cost effective ways especially in underserved communities in low and middle income countries (LMICs). Interviews with APPs and other healthcare professionals, personal experience living and working as an APP in LMICs, and literature reviews reveal similar results: utilizing APPs provides cost-effective health care access, improves morbidity and mortality outcomes, and enhances patient satisfaction without compromising the quality of care given in underserved areas. Challenges to APPs in LMICs include lack of access and standardization of higher education programs, role and title variability, physician resistance, limited research, and inconsistent legislation and licensing restrictions. When these challenges are overcome, APPs improve health care access in difficult to reach locations, exhibit adaptability and flexibility in challenging circumstances, and fill in the gaps of physician shortages particularly in primary care and rural locations. APPs are a vital, but underused role in health care. Enhancing APP training programs, defining roles and titles, educating health care providers and legislature writers, and promoting research in LMICs can improve the availability and implementation of APPs in LMIC and thus bridge gaps in global heath care. This presentation will provide personal perspectives from APPs who have worked around the World as well as present research that addresses advantages, challenges, and the necessity of APPs worldwide in bridging healthcare gaps.
When I arrived in Nigeria I thought my main role would be taking care of my 6-month-old daughter. When people asked before we left, “What are you going to do?” I almost apologetically said I would be a “homemaker.” Shortly after arriving I struggled to know my role as “an accompanying spouse.” I was not prepared for this undefined role and sometimes felt like a “second class missionary” because I was not in a specific ministry. It did not take long before the Lord opened up for me amazing opportunities for ministry, some in our home and others in our community. During this workshop I will share my journey, the many wonderful doors of significant opportunity God opened for me to serve using my past experiences, education and gifts to eventually serve many unreached women and children in our community and in Nigeria. We will also explore ways in which male “accompanying spouses” also got involved and had an impact in their own unique ways and the significance of culture on these decisions.
Fear, in its various manifestations, is one of the Enemy's most effective means of limiting our obedience. The Bible offers practical strategies for overcoming fear with faith--many of which are demonstrated in an Old Testament story of sex trafficking, racial hatred, and genocide.
As a health care professional on the mission field, the task of language learning is both essential and complicated. We say that language learning is a high value and priority for ourselves as missionaries, and yet it often is the first thing to take a back seat in life and ministry. Why is that? How can we do better? With over 15 years of experience in educating, training, and coaching missionaries in language and culture learning, Dr. Mullen will cast a vision for what it takes to truly become “fluent” in your target host language. She will offer biblical, theoretical, and practical advice for missionaries and missions leaders alike on how to prepare, execute, and continually improve communicative competence in a second language and cross-cultural setting.
Sending organizations spend tens of millions of dollars each year sending clinicians and support staff overseas. They invest very little in comparison on the leaders who are essential to preventing their burnout. Competent and compassionate administrative leaders are not only essential for developing and sustaining resilient healthcare and ministry teams; they also shepherd the systems that optimize human, technological and financial resources and prevent waste of resources and harm to patients. Despite its necessity, health care leadership and management training often scarce in many of the world’s most marginalized places. In this presentation, Anderson makes a case for the necessity of building leadership capacity and introduces practical tools that help address this training gap while building vibrant, sustainable mission teams.
When we think of God's global mission, we cannot overlook the U.S. as a mission field. It is a nation in spiritual decline, and widening gaps between the church and groups that are becoming increasingly unreached. What works in international missions, works here. This session will focus on the medical missions movement here in the United States, how it relates to overseas medical work, and how the two go hand in hand. We will look at several case studies, and address challenges and bottlenecks in this growing movement.
The idea that missions is about going and doing for people in other countries is being replaced by seeing missions as a relay race. We need to train indigenous Christ followers with skills their people need so they can meet real needs in their communities as a door opener to share the Gospel. This training must be focused, in-depth, and self sustaining so that we do not create dependency.
This session will present the need for healthcare workers to understand that their response to women who are being abused can make a crucial difference in whether the patient feels safe or shamed. Behavior that can incite fear will be identified: Physical gestures, facial expressions, distance, tone of voice, etc. This session will also discuss how showing skepticism, insensitive questioning, and telling the patient what to do can shut down the opportunity to help her . Helpful ways to communicate concern, respect, and autonomy to make her own decisions, will be identified.
This session will explore the value of healthcare education as a form of mission experience, both in the short and long term, as well as to inspire and equip participants to explore healthcare education opportunities as an answer to God’s call to missions.
This is not our grandparents' world, with clear First, Second, and Third World nations. Accelerating worldwide social, cultural, and political changes call for reflection and alteration of our missionary strategies.
In India, it is not easy to witness to Urban dwellers about the Lord. Cannot go from door to door. Most of the church planting has been done in rural areas.Home based care gives health care workers an opportunity to develop relationships with our Urban non-Christian neighbors. More than 60 million Indians go below the poverty line each year due to medical care expenses. Often the hospital admissions and investigations are unnecessary. Home based care can help reduce health care expenses. We present what our home based care company PISCES health and Wellness is doing in India.
Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) face significant challenges to their health and well-being that are unique due to lack of necessary resources including food, water, sanitation, shelter, security, and healthcare. Caring for people in these situations requires an understanding of their unique needs as well as having realistic goals regarding what can and cannot be done for them. Our experiences in providing healthcare for the victims of disasters in Congo, Indonesia, Pakistan, Myanmar, Afghanistan, Honduras, Nepal, Kurdistan, and Turkey – both natural and manmade – highlight the need to be well prepared when serving in these difficult situations. We are called to serve “the least of these,” and the victims of disasters and crises certainly qualify. Often these events, though causing much hardship and suffering, create the possibility for doors and hearts to be open to the message of Jesus that otherwise would be closed. We must be both willing and well prepared if we are to serve well when we are called to respond to those in need.
As we see an increasing number of culturally diverse patients in our practices, there is no doubt of the importance of cultural competency in medicine. Specific circumstances and miscommunications have been well documented. But how can we develop an eye to see where a patient’s values and worldview may differ from our own? We will review an approach to cultural competency highlighted by medical missions case studies.
We’ve seen the church thrive around the world through missionary efforts. How do we leverage the impact of the global church to the nations where there is no church sharing all the things God has uniquely given us?
We have all witnessed how quickly the world has shifted and put our lives on pause. Short-term and long term sending has been halted in almost every major region of the world. In that, we have people God is calling to take the gospel to those places who are forced to wait. In this waiting, how do we walk alongside and guide our participants, donors, and teams through this unexpected season? Today we are going to walk through how to keep people engaged when we are not sending and some practical tips to help you care for and guide your team, participants, and donors in to missional living in the absence of sending. Resources Links: https://www.unitedstateszipcodes.org https://calendly.com/drewmiller/consult https://www.servicereef.com https://www.missionsmadesimple.com
In a world characterized by pandemic, poverty, war, and terrorism how do we assess risk and serve with confidence? Expand on the theology of God’s gracious and guiding divine intervention for those called to faithful service in a fallen world.
Are you a woman health professional, for whom God has opened doors for education and training leading to a career in healthcare? Is God calling you to be involved in missions? Do you also dream about having a family? Do you wonder how on earth you would ever be able to combine those roles? Relating from my personal story and experience, we will explore lessons learned from 16 years as a medical missionary in Kenya and discuss how to incorporate a family, missions ministry and a medical career.
Dental disease is the most prevalent disease world wide. When the call to make disciples is combined with the dental vocation, opportunities to care for people in new ways emerge. Join this strategic session to learn how organizations, teams and individuals can have kingdom impact through dental care.
For those in training and just finished (i.e., recent grads, residents, med students, pre-med, PA/NP, RN, PT/OT/ST, dental), we will learn how to maximize your current season. We’ll tackle topics like falling in love with Jesus, original motivation, how to suffer well, pearls and pitfalls of living in community, debt, vision for one’s next step to the nations, and helping the vulnerable now tensioned with investing in education to help others later. With leaders live from the different fields and stages, we’ll answer the individualized questions you have, brainstorming how God might sustain you now and lead you in the upcoming season.
This session will focus on the history, symptoms and treatment of flaviviruses such as Zika, Dengue and Yellow Fever. This session will be focused on symptoms to watch for, personal protection, transmission and currently available treatments. We will also take a look at medications and vaccines currently undergoing investigation for the treatment of these flaviviruses.
The average medical school debt at graduation is $232,000. The average salary of a medical missionary is $48,000. You need help! Come and learn how to bridge this gap through reducing your initial loan burden, apply for grants from organizations like MedSend, and qualify for Income Based Repayment and the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Act.
The session will provide an overview of ophthalmic conditions commonly seen in primary care practice as well as the presentation, management and referral of ophthalmic emergencies by primary care physicians. Emphasis will be placed on ophthalmic conditions that are encountered in international settings that may be less common in the United States.
In this session we will discuss how telehealth and technology can be used to improve patient healthcare in medical missions, streamline the continuity of care through digital health records and improve patient health outcome with technologies that enables physicians to continue to monitor their patients' progress long after the short-term mission trip.
- Mixing healthcare with politics: medical service opportunities in China All official services in this and many other countries are part of a broader plan, designed to support the goals of the government. Come join this discussion of how Christian medical professionals can contribute significantly and bring blessing without compromising on our core values. 2. Mixing healthcare with politics: public health opportunities in China All official services in this and many other countries are part of a broader plan, designed to support the goals of the government. Come join this discussion of how Christian public health professionals can contribute significantly and bring blessing without compromising on our core values.
Jesus commanded us to heal the sick and to make disciples. In this session I will teach you how I use a story-telling format to share the gospel, and share stories of healing and human needs ministries that were paired with disciple-making. These stories are taken from twenty-five years of medical missions experience among unreached peoples.
Have you longed to integrate your Christian faith into your patient care – on the mission field abroad, in your work at home, and during your training? Not sure how to do this in a caring, ethical, 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.
Nurses and other members of the healthcare team who serve on the mission field have the chance to be the hands and feet of Jesus as they care for the whole person. They have the opportunity to touch the untouchable, love the unloved, and be with people from a variety of backgrounds, in the same way that Jesus did. Serving others is sacred work, by showing compassion, grace, and humility with power from the Holy Spirit. People are sometimes on a search for their purpose, so this session will examine the ways nurses and other healthcare professionals can use their discipline, and all the gifts and talents the Lord gave them, to build relationships, serve others, and provide honor and dignity in a cross-cultural context. The importance of a solid spiritual foundation will be included, and culturally appropriate approaches to health promotion strategies will be explored. Some of the ways cultural values and beliefs influence healthcare practices will also be discussed. And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send Me” (Isaiah 6:8)
In this session we will look at several clinical tropical diseases seen in nationals and expatriate travelers. Real clinical cases and research studies will be described as unknowns. The challenge will be to recognize various travel related illnesses and making a diagnosis. We will explore cases of fever, skin rash, abdominal complaints, and some emerging tropical diseases around the world.
Jericho Road is a Christian federally qualified community health center in Buffalo , NY that provides care to marginalized and vulnerable populations , including many refugees from over 80 nations. Since 2009 Jericho Road has followed some of their refugee friends back home to their countries of origin and have helped them start and operate health centers that also serve the most vulnerable. Today Jericho Road operates health centers in Sierra Leone, Democratic Republic of Congo and Nepal. Each of these health centers is led and operated by local folks from those countries. By empowering local leaders Jericho Road in Buffalo has been richly blessed and our ability to demonstrate the love of Jesus has been enhanced. This workshop will focus on the lessons we have learned along the way.
While recognizing the medical limitations in the developing world, one must also capitalize on the "assets" present there. "Specialists" are rare, unavailable, and/or too expensive for most of the poor, disabled people. "State-of-the-art", while the aspiration of the west, is usually unavailable in the developing world. How do we capitalize on the assets and provide a reasonable alternative for the numerous disabled of the developing world? Some African countries have modified their medical approach and have found their solutions in alternative medical practitioners with less training and credentials but sufficient skills and judgment to reasonably meet the needs of many of the disabled. Some of these objectives were achieved in a mission hospital in Africa not because it was the first choice, but it was seemingly the only choice. Now, at that facility, a higher level of care has been achieved. However, can such a model be replicated in other settings in Africa?
This session will review the most common medical considerations you should be aware of before traveling on a short-term medical mission trip. I will review common malaria prophylaxis medications, immunizations, treatment of traveler’s diarrhea as well as other tips and tricks to know. This session is ideal for those with minimal international travel experience.
Can short-term health care teams play a key role in indigenous Gospel movements? Come hear the incredible story of God’s indigenous-led movement in a corner of Asia and the important role that short-term teams played in its advancement. Join in a discussion of the dynamics of an effective short-term partnership that bolsters indigenous work. Understand the key aspects of an “opening doors” access strategy using mobile health and dental clinics. Identify advantages and pitfalls of short-term indigenous partnerships, key contributions of short-term health care workers, and the central role of prayer and encouragement in God’s kingdom work. Christ-centered health care teams can play a strategic role in promoting sustainable indigenous ministry and Gospel advancement.
The COVID 19 pandemic has many similarities to the early days of HIV/AIDS in Uganda when I worked with the National Control Program for AIDS while advising the Uganda Protestant Medical Bureau. Communication resource, scientific advances, technology, and knowledge have all advanced. This session will compare the two pandemics and present some observations and lessons learned, both professionally and spiritually, that might be applicable to this generation of healthcare professionals as they navigate a worldwide pandemic.
Historically, the vast majority of physicians who provide pediatric care on the mission field and other resource poor settings are not pediatricians. They are brave and innovative physicians who made the determination to make a difference, drawing on available resources. Every physician on the mission field wants to be equipped to deliver quality care that is Christ-centered, patient-focused, evidence based, and culturally sensitive. Recognizing that the leading causes of death in children worldwide are mostly preventable through basic public health interventions, the mission-minded physician is presented with the perfect intersection between clinical medicine and public health practice. In this session your confidence in treating pediatric illnesses and emergencies will be enhanced as you gain a better understanding of evidence-based protocols, using clinical cases drawn from Dr Ojuola’s many years of experience providing pediatric care in various resource-poor settings.
This is a breakout session about sustainability in missions. When called into ministry, our passion to serve Christ and our love for people often motivate us to engage in God’s work with joy and excitement. As we hope to continue to serve the Lord and grow in our work, it is important to consider sustainability in ministry, when the work is hard, whether that be difficult work itself, disappointments, life challenges or even faith challenges. It is important to acknowledge difficulties and we may face, and consider how we can face challenges when they come. Together we will consider how God helps us sustain our faith for ministry when we are surprised by difficulties in ministry.
Faith Based Mental Health Care in Post Crisis Populations. Even when this abstract is being prepared during the active early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, signs of significant mental health problems are emerging not only in patients who have suffered with the disease, but in their families, colleagues, work associates, friends, and the health care workers that are active in prevention, sub acute care, acute care, rehabilitation care, and post pandemic phase of life changes. Strategies are already being developed for population surveillance and early intervention after the worst of the crisis has resolved. This session will address the strategies being developed during the pandemic for post pandemic care and what has been learned over the months following the peak of the pandemic
Missionaries and other overseas Christian workers are subject to unique stressors, and providing proper support for this group requires a commitment from sending organizations. Despite the fact that in the past mental health problems in missions have been neglected, missions organizations have developed an increasing capacity for supporting missionaries. This presentation describes best practices for behavioral health support. We will discuss how the organizations we have worked with have reduced stigmatization, developed sound procedures for evaluating, supporting, and triaging missionaries and their families who develop psychiatric problems. We will review current medical thinking about resilience, compassion fatigue, vicarious traumatization, and burnout and discuss how these concepts can be used to inform medical support for expatriate Christian workers. (This is Part 1 of a 2 part presentation)
Christian healthcare professionals working in cross-cultural settings need to understand medical anthropology from a perspective that goes beyond the classical "knowledge-attitudes-practices" model. This session will cover essential questions about how people of different backgrounds can understand the body, illness, health and healing as well as highlight some of the challenges in walking the line between "cultural relativism" and Biblical truths.
Strategic indigenous medical training to impact the Church Planting Movement and the Kingdom of Heaven.
Learn about GMH (Global Mental Health) and resources for integrating this into your general medical and global health practices - through clinical vignettes from our practice in LMICs.
Sending organizations spend tens of millions of dollars each year sending clinicians and support staff overseas. They invest very little in comparison on the leaders who are essential to preventing their burnout. Competent and compassionate administrative leaders are not only essential for developing and sustaining resilient healthcare and ministry teams; they also shepherd the systems that optimize human, technological and financial resources and prevent waste of resources and harm to patients. Despite its necessity, healthcare leadership and management training often scarce in many of the world’s most marginalized places. In this presentation, Anderson makes a case for the necessity of building leadership capacity and introduces practical tools that help address this training gap while building vibrant, sustainable mission teams.
How do I know if it's Sensory? Screenings and clinical observations to identify sensory processing delays.
God's timeline is different for each of us. This session will look at the particular challenges and blessings of entering medical missions in "Round Two."
Are you in Medical School? Pre-Med? Mid-level Training? Come hear practical steps to make your dream of serving a reality. When you have a heart for God’s people and a passion for medicine, how do they connect? How do you prepare? This workshop is extremely practical when you know you want to use your medical vocation for Kingdom purposes.
This session will describe the challenges and issues involved in the initiation of a new residency program in a country open to this type of development. We will draw on the experience gained in starting a new family medicine residency program in both Ecuador and Rwanda, as well as the observed experience in other countries.
This break-out session will describe how global learning experiences affect the practice of healthcare students and professionals after they return home, beyond cultural competence.
Explore a strategy used to transform lives physically and spiritually. Participants in this session will engage in participatory learning activities that investigate the Community Health Evangelism model and its application to wholistic individual and communal health.
Working as a single in your home country is hard. It is as hard or harder working as a single overseas. God provides for the single just as He provides for a couple. Are you single? Are you satisfied? Or are you waiting? Living in 'the in between' is hard mentally and spiritually. There is hope in the journey!
Andrew and Deborah Wynn have been helping missionary doctors acquire and source affordable medical equipment for Christ-centered medical missions for over 4 years. They will give a talk and practical demonstration on the tips and tricks in acquiring the highest quality medical equipment at the best prices and showcase a variety of important medical tools useful for practicing in remote conditions. Whether physician, students, nurses, or administrators, all are welcome. Please bring lots of questions!
Our generation faces the reality of a world where 3 Billion will spend a lifetime never hearing the good news of Jesus. We are simply not in the neighborhoods and marketplaces where the majority of these unreached live. We dream of a different reality - a follower of Jesus imbedded in every community. A follower of Jesus in every place of work - embracing their God-given design to reflect the glory of God to those around them. Join us for this session as we dive into the open opportunities around the world and how real professionals are being intentional in strategic cities.
This breakout session will discuss key issues surrounding health effects of prenatal exposure to opioids and provide information on some of the successful approaches to treating withdrawal in these children.
Sharing personal experiences from 16 years of field medical missionary service, the session will highlight lessons learned on the journey to balance medical practice, mission ministry and motherhood.
Come for a hands-on session with ultrasound! We will be going over the basic principles, application via the eFAST exam (Focused Assessment with Ultrasound in Trauma), and hands on time with procedural models. We will also be providing IV, LP, and Central Line Models to practice on. All are welcome. This is a basic introduction to ultrasound.
This session will look at the reality of suffering in this world and how to reorient our hearts and minds to face it well.
Explore the role of women in missions, challenges women face, and ways to overcome challenges
In this roundtable discussion, several staff of Lawndale Christian Health Center and a local ministry leader, all residents of North and South Lawndale neighborhood, will share their experiences and discuss the principle of Relocation in the context of Christian Community Development.
Clear communication is essential in any effective healthcare environment. Working in another language adds a whole new layer of complexity to the communication process. Learning another language can seem like a daunting task, especially if you had a negative past experience with a foreign language, or it can be viewed as an exciting adventure. This session will focus on practical tips that engage your internal motivations leading to appropriate language proficiency for kingdom impact.
“Service is the sign of true love. Those who love know how to serve others. We learn this especially in the family, where we become servants out of love for one another. In the heart of the family, no one is rejected; all have the same value.” – Pope Francis
The money spent for missionary work to cover their costs of a mission trip to fly to Central America to repaint an orphanage would have been enough money to hire two local painters and two full time teachers and purchase new uniforms for every student in the school. When White Saviorism becomes more important than the people, what are we left with?
On the flip side, there is a need, and we can all help. What can we do to make sure we are working responsibly and sustainably?
Step 1: Knowing the context and identifying the key needs.
- Ensure the identified needs and assets of the community, as determined by a wide range of community members, are upheld and prioritized within the program aims and objectives.
- A host partner that defines the program, including the needs to be addressed and the teaching of volunteers
- Ongoing leadership of programs by nationals
- Driven by demand and built with synergistic partnerships
Step 2: Defining your values and principles
- Respect for governance and legal and ethical standards
- Make local community members partners in the relationship and rely on local knowledge in all stages of developing, implementing, and evaluating the program/experience
- Reciprocity: promoting an environment in which the human rights, dignity, values, customs, and spiritual beliefs of the individual, family, and community are respected.
Step 3: Enabling Sustainability
- Provide fair compensation for all direct and indirect costs associated with the program and its projects, such as transportation, housing, food, clean water, translators, and other staff, supplies, electricity, and fuel
- Symmetry of priorities and resources between visiting volunteers and host community members assisting them
Step 4: Selecting the most suitable candidates
- References must be obtained and candidates must be evaluated in stressful, complex, and culturally diverse settings
- Candidates must value diversity of opinion, beliefs, culture, and perspectives
- Appropriate screening for qualifications, experience, and background checks
- Scenario based interview questions
Step 5: Preparing them to serve
- Ensure that faculty, staff, or chaperones working with the programs are properly trained in working with host communities
- Ensure that the chaperones understand the social, economic, and cultural contexts of the project at hand and are prepared to help students navigate and reflect on the cultural, economic, social, and physical differences they encounter
- Orientation at every stage of the process
- Extensive orientation pre-deployment and in country
Step 6: Evaluating and learning
- Develop an appropriate mechanism for evaluating outcomes and local impact
- Regularly evaluate and assess all partners to ensure that goals and responsibilities are being met
- Regular program evaluation for impact
- Monthly report for facility/medical volunteers
- End of service report with recommendations for program development
- Emphasis on extensive storytelling from those in the field/volunteers
- Training attendance sheet
- Volunteer satisfaction survey
Let’s continue to work together to leave a legacy to God’s global family.
About Marcia Grand Ortega:
Marcia Grand Ortega has over 10 years of international experience working in project management, communications, and evaluation in the private, academic and not-for-profit sectors. Before joining CMMB HQ, she volunteered with their Peru programs. During that time in 2015, she had the opportunity to meet with beneficiary families both in Trujillo and Huancayo and work with the incredible community health workers, volunteers, and staff involved in providing healthcare services that truly changed lives. It was this experience that brought Marcia to New York in 2016, where she took on the role of manager for the international volunteer program. In the last 2 years, Marcia has relaunched the medical mission program for health professionals available to serve only for a short-term, and has coordinated medical teams visiting Haiti and Zambia, while recruiting and deploying another 30 clinical volunteers to the field for long term service.
A review of the lessons learned from surveys of mission hospitals in 7 developing countries to identify the key best practices that have been successful at improving the spiritual ministry of the hospital, involving staff more fully and improving effectiveness of evangelism with patients and families.
Living "incarnationally" (among a culture different from your own), especially among marginalized people (the poor, immigrants, etc.) is a proven way to face your own cultural biases, muster courage, learn greater dependence on the Holy Spirit, and develop meaningful relationships with people very different from yourself. Besides being good for your soul, it's ideal preparation for international healthcare missions.
About 25 years ago, while sharing an early morning cup of coffee with my dear friend and practice partner, family physician John Hartman, MD, he asked, “Walt, how come we don’t bring our faith to work with us more often?” It was a question the Lord used to convict me of the fact that although my personal relationship with God was the primary and most important relationship in my life, more often than not I tended to leave Him at the door when entering the hospital or medical office. The question was the catalyst for this talk: Spiritual Interventions in Patient Care.
Research findings, a desire to provide high-quality care, and simple common sense, all underscore the need to integrate spirituality into patient care. It is highly ethical for healthcare professionals and healthcare systems to assess their patients’ spiritual health and needs and to provide indicated and desired spiritual interventions. Clinicians and health care systems should not deprive their patients of the spiritual support and comfort on which their hope, health, wellbeing, and longevity may hinge.
Before you get started, I must share this caution from Stephen Post, PhD: “Professional problems can occur when well-meaning healthcare professionals ‘faith-push’ a patient opposed to discussing religion.” However, on the other side of the coin, “rather than ignoring faith completely with all patients, most of whom want to discuss it, we can explore which of our patients are interested and who are not.” Simply put, a spiritual assessment can help us do this with each patient we see. We can potentially gain the following from a spiritual assessment:
- The patient’s religious background,
- The role that religious or spiritual beliefs or practices play in coping with illness (or causing distress),
- Beliefs that may influence or conflict with decisions about medical care,
- The patient’s level of participation in a spiritual community and whether the community is supportive, and
- Any spiritual needs that might be present.
Several fairly-easy-to-use mnemonics have been designed to help health professionals, such as the “GOD” spiritual assessment I developed for CMDA’s Saline Solution:
G = God: − May I ask your faith background? Do you have a spiritual or faith preference? Is God, spirituality, religion or spiritual faith important to you now, or has it been in the past?
O = Others: − Do you now meet with others in religious or spiritual community, or have you in the past? If so, how often? How do you integrate with your faith community?
D = Do: − What can I do to assist you in incorporating your spiritual or religious faith into your medical care? Or, is there anything I can do to encourage your faith? May I pray with or for you?
However, this and other spiritual assessment tools fail to inquire about a critical item involving spiritual health: any religious struggles the patient may be having. A robust literature shows religious struggles can predict mortality, as there is an inverse association between faith and morbidity and mortality of various types.
Sir William Osler, one of the founding professors of Johns Hopkins Hospital and frequently described as the “Father of Modern Medicine,” wrote, “Nothing in life is more wonderful than faith…the one great moving force which we can neither weigh in the balance nor test in the crucibIe - mysterious, indefinable, known only by its effects, faith pours out an unfailing stream of energy while abating neither jot nor tittle of its potence.” You can experience that driving force of faith when you apply these principles of spiritual assessment in your practice of healthcare, thereby allowing you to minister to your patients in ways you never imagined possible, while also increasing personal and professional satisfaction. One doctor recently shared with me, “Ministering in my practice has allowed God to bear fruit in and through me in new and wonderful ways. I can’t wait to see what He’s going to do in and through me each day. My practice and I have been transformed.”
Brain drain of healthcare workers is a huge challenge in low income countries, particularly in rural areas, and yet these locations represent arguably the greatest healthcare needs in the world. This session will discuss rural medical education as a potential solution to brain drain in raising up compassionate, competent healthcare workers in the local setting.
This session will address five common misconceptions about missions that are based on assumptions and conspire to prevent people from exploring their own fit in mission.
this session will describe the magnitude of human trafficking in the US and globally. It will look at the typical health problems of this group , clues that a patient may be a trafficked victim, and suggestions for treatment principles for them
Using a Functional Medicine Model as a Paradigm to Help Our Patients with Chronic Illness Improve
A Partnership with long term missionaries, Indigenous evangelists and a short term medical training team in one of the most persecuted areas in the world brings light to the darkness.
Do you participate in short-term medical relief trips? In this session, relief organizations and volunteers (both medical and non-medical) will be challenged to think deeply about the practices they employ in the field and the impact they make on foreign patients/communities. We have high standards for health care in the United States, but there currently exists no standardized way of assessing the methods implemented and services offered by short-term medical missions in the field. This session hopes to build off of participants' brainstorming and also introduce participants to a novel self-assessment framework to assess the efficacy, sustainability, and long-term impact of your organization(s).
Come for a hands-on session with ultrasound! We will be going over the basic principles, application via the eFAST exam (Focused Assessment with Ultrasound in Trauma), and hands on time with procedural models. We will also be providing IV, LP, and Central Line Models to practice on. All are welcome. This is a basic introduction to ultrasound.
Working as a single in your home country is hard. It is as hard or harder working as a single overseas. God provides for the single just as He provides for a couple. Are you single? Are you satisfied? Or are you waiting? Living in 'the in between' is hard mentally and spiritually. There is hope in the journey!
Through sharing personal experience and case studies, current demographics, trends, treatment and challenges of HIV care will be discussed
As we consider the commission that Jesus gave his followers, while realizing that over 3,000,000,000 have never heard the name of Jesus, there is too much work to be done for us to not work together. While there are many ways we are different, we have One God, One Savior, One Spirit, One Body and One Mission. If we are going to fulfill the Great Commission, we must not only work together, but we also must empower indigenous, national Christ followers to further the Great Commission. Only by handing the baton off to them will we be able to fulfill this commission. We must do God’s will, God’s way.
When we understand the Mission we have been given, we will understand the only way to accomplish the Great Commission is by doing it together -- across language, culture, national and other boarders with those who love and follow Christ.
The session we are featuring today explores unique ways to partner and empower people around the world.
Family physicians, nurses and primary care providers regularly encounter “extracurricular” situations when practicing in developing countries especially in sexual and reproductive health (SRH) and clinical needs, a “golden platter of opportunities” sort-of-speak. New estimates for 2014 show staggering gaps in SRH and basic clinical services fall far short in developing nations with gaps between countries regions. Yet SRH is significantly underrepresented in medical and nursing education, and in continuing medical education (CME) programs in some developed and most developing countries. Grab your gear for this session will describe clinical, cultural, systems and contextual realities of SRH and clinical unmet needs in developing countries, zooming on the Middle East. You will find out that “you can do it” regardless of your clinical background. This session will introduce you to tools to equip yourself culturally, clinically and from a public health perspective. You will present opportunities for short and long term interventions.
We fool ourselves if we think we can enter the Enemy's territory on behalf of God without thorough spiritual preparation. Potential healthcare missionaries must be grounded in robust spiritual habits of seeking and hearing from God.
Objective of the session is to inform other Medical Missionaries, other doctors and other Missionaries about Evangelism through caring for people living with HIV and AIDS in Zimbabwe.
Emerging and Re-Emerging Vector-borne Viral Illnesses - Chikungunya, Dengue, Yellow Fever, Zika
Many times in the missions world, we follow culture by implementing solutions borrowed from others in our same field. But what if we created in such a way that changed our industry? With more than 3.5 billion people living without access to the good news of Jesus, we need to start changing the way we look at solving our challenges. At this session, you will learn a process and tools to bring your God-given creativity to the way that you approach the challenges you face at home, work, or on the missions field.
Do you want to "live on mission" with your patients regardless of whether you are stateside or abroad? This session will present proven and practical methods that will help you assess and address the spiritual needs of your patients in a professional, ethical, and compassionate manner. These tools have been utilized in secular and faith-based healthcare settings worldwide. Bob serves as executive director of Medical Strategic Network, which for 33 years, has been equipping healthcare students and professionals to care for the whole person.
Over the last 7 years, in partnership with short term teams, Hope Alive Initiatives has been able to set 6 community clinics in Northern Ghana. These clinics are run in a sustainable way by their respective churches. In this session we will share the lessons we have learnt to help you in ministry.
Short term missions usually involve a team of people contributing their skills to an indigenous people group. When that team leaves the work often ends. This session will present an innovative alternative to that model, where sharing knowledge and skills with local believers empowers them to serve their people group long after the teaching team leaves!
Values and assumptions vary widely from culture to culture. This gives rise to potential conflicts and barriers in the communication process. This session looks at Not the American values and assumptions which can create misunderstandings, damage relationships, and even pose significant danger in the delivery medical treatment in a cross cultural context.
Samaritan’s Purse disaster response has expanded to include an Emergency Field Hospital (EFH). This workshop will demonstrate what we have learned in adapting modern surgical and medical techniques to a disaster environment. Our EFH is a self-contained modular tent-based system which can adapt to the particular need. Whether it be an earthquake, tsunami, typhoon, or refugee crisis, we can respond very quickly with this airlift relief hospital.
During this session some of the unique challenges and opportunities for women in missions will be presented. Participants will gain understanding regarding overcoming obstacles and barriers and how best to prepare for mission service. The presenter will illustrate the ideas through her own story.
Bonded labor is still a massive issue in the Subcontinent and despite all the technological advancements in the field of brick making, in Pakistan and India, still the centuries-old skill of manual brick making is used. The laborers are paid very less and are totally deprived of not only the health facilities and clean water but also the gospel. They don't know the Lord and they are bound to work regardless of the work conditions. We are working with the unreached groups like these in Pakistan and we exclusively share the good news of Christ's love with them through medicine and health care education. God has given me the burden to take my family medicine practice and skill of public health out in the remote areas of Pakistan to reach out to these unreached and untouched people who are neglected not only by the society but also the so-called top most Christian leadership of the country. We have seen excellent results as not only improved health status but also people being won for Christ.
Short Term Missions in the "Spiritually Darkest" areas of the world are becoming a challenge as access is being denied to western missionaries. The Lord has provided a model to equip indigenous believers with medical skills that will provide opportunities to share the Gospel. These believers know their language and culture that allow access to evangelize and transform communities in the name of Christ. Dr. Tom McKechnie founder of Teach To Transform and Kingspride Hammond founder of Alabaster Project in Ghana will discuss the impact of this model as an evangelical tool.
It is a privilege to be called by the Lord to serve him in Medical Missions. Keeping our spiritual health is vital to walking in the journey of caring for others, particularly in difficult circumstances for the patients or for the ministry. This session will be a time of considering the many ways difficulties in ministry might have us lose our focus or joy as we serve. We will look at ways to keep our spiritual and emotional health in difficult circumstances as well as how Scripture leads us to lean on the Lord during these times and other helps that we might have during these times.
This interactive session will help attendees to better understand the current opioid crisis and possible public health responses. Attendees will leave the session with evidence based plans for approaching opioid abuse in clinical as well as community settings. The session will engage participants using technology and discussion.
Operation mobilization medical in Disaster Response -- Opening and operating an emergency field hospital in a disaster setting has many interesting challenges. Operational areas such as base operations, procurement, communications, staffing and others must function differently when in disaster response mode. This session will talk through some of those challenges and lessons learned from several of our past responses.
This session will discuss how triage fits into the overall plan for patient treatment in disaster settings, and how it is an imprecise art. There will be a discussion about who should be a triage officer. Consideration will be given to the necessity of designing incident specific triage, or multiple triage areas. Factors of pre and post triage flow is discussed, as will be the limitations and challenges of international settings.
Daily headlines of disasters and crises can overwhelm or prompt us to action. This session will empower participants to effectively contribute to international response efforts through knowledge and application of life-saving and dignity-upholding elements as outlined by the international response community in the “Sphere Handbook: Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Humanitarian Response.” Participants will explore legal, ethical, and Biblical principles for responding well.
Serving as a medical provider in a disaster requires some preparation. Serving in a conflict zone takes that preparation to another level. Are you ready to serve? Let’s talk about that.
This session will cover the topic of sourcing medicines for missions. We will discuss the following: counterfeit medication, substandard medication, risks and benefits of obtaining medication in the united states and transporting it overseas versus obtaining the medication in developing nations, how to source medications that will be used in developing nations.
Public health measures such as vaccines and clean water are certainly critical and foundational to transforming health in a limited resource setting. However there are times as a long term medical missionary when the huge health disparities between specialty medical care in the developing and the developed world motivate one to initiate specialized treatment programs where none exist. We will discuss the factors to consider in beginning and sustaining these programs in extremely limited resource settings with examples from neonatology, hematology, and oncology at Kibuye Hope Hospital, a 170 bed teaching hospital in rural Burundi.
Nearly all Christians acknowledge the Bible as God's word, but many disciples, including aspiring health care missionaries, struggle to consistently apply its power to their lives and ministries. Come be encouraged to systematically read, love, and be transformed by the Holy Spirit's most powerful tool. Your future fruitfulness depends on it.
This session will discuss removing educational debt as an obstacle to missionary service
Neonatal survival in resource-limited countries is much lower than in industrialized nations. Twin pregnancies and breech presentations are at higher risker for poor neonatal outcomes. Birth asphyxia and prematurity are the two of the leading causes for neonatal deaths. Risks factors for stillbirths and early neonatal deaths such as post-term pregnancy are discussed. Treatment of birth asphyxia with hypothermia is highlighted as well as treatment of respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) with bubble CPAP. Specific patient case scenarios from the Zimba Mission Hospital Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) have been collected. Cost-effective strategies modified for the developing world can improve neonatal outcomes.
Single medical professionals are resilient in a cross-cultural setting and have the opportunity to be highly effective in service. The greatest challenges impact the personal home life of the individual. Applications to increase resiliency in the personal life will be explored with attention given to the relational and sexual domains of life. The worship will include a presentation followed by designated time to pose questions and dialog about the material.
The experiences that mold oneself are commanded by the Lord. We can’t chose where we are born, our skin color, or our primary language. Coming from the inner city of Caracas, Venezuela through the plantations of Georgia, winding through the Ozarks, and culminating with the hoods of Memphis, these experiences have served to equip me with the tools that are needed for the job. God placed in my heart a desire for the underserved, uninsured and undocumented of North America and he has given me a variety of experiences to wade through the waters of entrepreneurship. Come see how God can use my experiences to catapult you into your own adventure, where it is God who gets the glory.
This session will address systems solutions to short-term mission (STM) drug-related quality of care problems. The quality of care various STM systems are capable of providing varies tremendously: -Well designed STM systems enable physicians, pharmacists and other providers to deliver high quality care and have the greatest possible impact for patient health and for the Kingdom. -Inadequately designed STM systems provide poor quality care and often cause more harm than benefit regardless of the training and expertise of team leaders and providers. We will assess mistakes made and lessons learned on over 45 global STMs, as well as 15 years long-term missions clinic practice in an area frequented by STMs. STM systems based on the work of missionary mentors, Jesus’ teaching and evidence based guidelines will also be reviewed.
The need for surgical subspecialist exists in the third world. So, why is it that many surgeons think that mission work is only done by primary care teams? Why are students afraid to enter a surgical subspecialty if they also have a passion for missions? This session is geared towards students who have a passion for both a surgery subspecialty and mission work. It will also target practicing surgeons searching for opportunities to serve. Many models of service will be presented to show how practicing surgeons are using their skills and also teaching their skills to others abroad. The session will wrap up with a question and answer session with a panel of surgeons sharing their experiences.
Intended for Physical Therapist and Occupational Therapist s to learn how to prepare for and then serve in a therapy clinic on a short term ( 1-2 weeks) medical missions trip. This session will teach needed preparations and expectations of a short term physical therapy medical mission trip.
This session will have many practical tips on how you can bring your spiritual faith into your everyday clinical care. These Bible-based principles have been taught around the world in the author's "Saline Solution," "International Saline Solution," "Grace Prescriptions," "Workplace Grace," and "Going Public with Your Faith" books, conferences, and small-group courses. After this session, you'll be able to share Christ and His Grace with each patient you serve and each colleague you meet.
This is a Student Focused session for medical, dental, pharmacy, nursing and all other health related future practitioners. This session is open to all beyond students, please feel welcomed and come. As you contemplate life after “medical training” short term missions might be in your plan. Many students choose their area of medicine with that life goal. Intentions can be good but often obstacles get in the way and many years could pass before that first trip is realized. Don’t wait for that one day to start. Serving the Lord through short term medical missions has many blessings. The rewards the Lord bestows for those that are obedient to this calling are life changing. Come and hear from a seasoned short term medical missionary things he has seen and learned.
Knowledge of good health practices often does not change health behaviors. This session will share proven ways to motivate people to change their health behaviors using non-financial incentives as demonstrated in a community health program that has changed the health of 1.2 million people. These techniques are applicable in both the USA or abroad.
The Christian community has long used medical skills as a means to share God’s love. Often our default thinking includes a missionary doctor in an established clinic, but God is presenting more opportunities for Christians to answer the call to serve the critical needs of others through emergency responses. How can we use the skills and resources God is already preparing so that His love may be shared with those caught in the ditches of life? This session will communicate some of the biblical principles that support emergency responses, showcase ways that these responses are having an impact for the Gospel, and describe some unique components of successful disaster response efforts.
One of the most-cited (or unspoken) barriers to missions service, especially for young couples, is concerns of raising children on the mission field. Hear from a doctor and nurse on how they are raising a thriving family among unreached Muslims in the impoverished Sahel in Africa.
Missionaries and others who travel to provide humanitarian aid or disaster relief must ensure their personal health and well-being before, during, and after travel. Preparation for safe and healthy travel is critical, particularly when individuals may be traveling to a resource-limited environment. Outbreaks of infectious disease have been documented among missionaries, including both short- and long-term missionaries. Recent examples include dengue infections in multiple groups of missionaries to the Caribbean. Missionaries may face challenges such as working long hours under adverse or extreme conditions, and medical missionaries may be exposed to infectious diseases as part of their work. Missionaries with medical backgrounds may also find themselves in the position of monitoring the health of other missionaries in their group. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offers recommendations and resources for safe and healthy travel.
This is a practical application of principles for the treatment of one of the most common problems that univerally is found in all cultures. That is mechanical spinal pain. This workshop is directed toward the Non-PT with application for all medical professionals that are seeing patients with back or neck pain. The method is designed to enable the patient to learn how treat and prevent recurrence of their symtoms.
How do you keep up with the demands of ministry while balancing the needs of family, not to mention your own needs? How do you keep doing more with less? How do you protect yourself from burnout while advocating for the least of these? How do you establish boundaries without neglecting the needs of your community? These are some of the questions Dr. Thomas and his wife, Jessie hopes to explore as they shares lessons from the field. Dr. Thomas serves as the Chief Medical Officer at Dayspring Family Health Center answering a call to serve vulnerable and marginalized communities. Jessie serves as the National Director of Student Programming at Christian Community Health Fellowship (CCHF.) They have three teenage children. Serving their family and discipling their children are some of their top priorities. They are also active leaders in their local church. Despite the busyness and numerous challenges of ministry and family life, they have learned the importance of balance, boundaries, and rest. If you are experiencing burnout or having a difficult time keeping “afloat”, this session may give you some insights on how to maneuver through the ups and downs of missional living.
Providing a safe delivery in developing nations represents a priority in global health. Even with supervised facility-based deliveries, complications are common and alternative resources can be a challenge. Several simple and practical management options for the intrapartum patient can increase her chances for having a healthy delivery.
Let’s be honest, the eye is scary, delicate and complicated. Most of us don’t want anything to do with it. Too bad! As a medical missionary, chances are you will be forced to sooner or later. No worries! We will simplify the anatomy, examination, diagnosis and treatment for the most common scenarios so that even you can care for eyeballs while preserving the patient’s sight and a bit of your dignity.
According to the United States Census Bureau, nearly 1 in 5 people in the United States have a disability. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that in the U.S., 27.1 percent of years lived with disability (YLDs) are caused by mental and behavioral disorders. In other words, we are continually interacting with individuals with physical, mental, and emotional disabilities within our local communities, including our churches. The Bible tells us that “the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor” (1 Corinthians 12: 2-23), yet these “less honorable” individuals are often missing from our communities, if not ignored and rejected altogether by local churches. This presentation will look at mental health and disability from a biblical perspective and discuss the ways the Lord uses mental health and disability for His glory. We will share challenges and joys in helping and treating individuals with mental health and disability. We will share the spiritual lessons the Lord has taught us through our work as Christian health professionals in our respective work places. We hope to raise awareness of mental health and disability and to encourage and challenge fellow Christians.
Whether or not they should, tens of thousands of Muslims from diverse corners of the Muslim world are transferring allegiance from Mohammed and the Qur’an to Messiah Jesus and His Kingdom ... while still identifying themselves as Muslims. You'll meet many of them. Taking your medical skills to the Muslim World? What's your objective? Healthy Orthodoxic Christian Converts who ascribe to our Creeds? Healthy Orthodoxic and Orthopraxic Believers (some still remain in the fold of Islam) who transfer their allegiance to the Son of God and live/obey all He commands? It's easy to focus on the former and pay too little attention to the latter. You'll learn of Insider Movements of "Muslim Believers" who focus on both.
There is no shortage of need all around us on a daily basis, in addition to people who have health care needs in rural or remote areas. Is it possible to meet every person’s health care needs while partnering in medical missions? How could we multiply our efforts to meet people’s needs? How can the local church participate in meeting people’s health care needs? Is it possible to train the local church to be the front line in caring for their communities health care needs while partnering with health care professionals for the more serious cases? This session will address how health care professionals can partner with local Christ followers to maximize our efforts for the sake of the Gospel.
According to research, more than 80% of the world live in Creative Access Situations – places that do not welcome missionaries or religious workers. Yet there are still many living in those areas that do not have access to or have not heard the good news. What are some of the opportunities and challenges of serving in a Creative Access Context? How can we share the good news of Jesus in all its fullness to these people?
Public Health as Mission: Historically, the focus of medical missions has often been individual, curative health care services. However, many field practitioners have realized after years of hard (and occasionally frustrating) work that an intentional approach to population health leads to improved health for larger numbers of people and a decline in acute, treatable but preventable diseases. When population health is combined with a clear message of the Good News of Christ, the result is often wholistic transformation of bodies and souls for both individuals and communities. This subtopic examines the principles of population or public health and how these principles facilitate community transformation. Integrating CHE into Primary Care Practice: The WHO and our most respected medical journals, such as The Lancet, have long reported that the integration of community health into primary care practice is the key to the very future of healthcare. (For example, see WHO's "Building from Common Foundations" and "Primary Care, Now More Than Ever" and The Lancet Volume 372, Page 872) Best Practices in Community Health: Sustainable community health development requires participatory approaches that put the community at the center of its health and development. Explore principles, practices, and example activities in community health that effectively engage communities and facilitate transformation. CHE/Transformation Development Case Study: Transforming lives and Communities through the seamless integration of evangelism, discipleship, disease prevention, and community owned development. This subtopic will explain and explore the core values that make CHE work across the globe: Multiplication, Wholistic & Integration, Community Ownership, Development verses Relief by looking at a case study of a community which has been transformed in measurable ways. Transitioning from Short-term Medical Teams to Sustainable Community Development: This session will focus on how to transition from typical short-term medical teams to models that result in sustainable community development
Knowing and Engaging God's Will: Approaching God's will as guidance and leading, rather than a roadmap God's Peace in a World of Chaos: We have far more to do than can possibly be done and we feel pulled in every direction. On top of that, the world around us seems increasingly chaotic What must we do to live and experience God's peace in our lives? Living Missionally in Your Life and Career Path: Missions is just for full-time missionaries. Everyone is called to live missionally wherever we are and whatever we do. How can we learn to live missionally with our various gifts, jobs, and career-paths? Crosscultural Living: Living crossculturally is something we sometimes have to do, like when we move to another country or even a different part of this one, or we have to pursue in our own cities and towns. How do we approach crosscultural living and how do we engage others from different cultural backgrounds, whether around the world or right here at home. Engaging My Muslim Neighbor: It's one thing to study and try to understand Islam, it's another to meet and engage Muslims. In this session we will consider some basic issues and explore practical ways to meet and minister to our Muslim neighbors.
International Healthcare Professional Education - What You Need to Know: This session will discuss (1) the advantages of teaching overseas, (2 ) its limitations, ), and (3) lessons learned from experience teaching overseas. Long Term Medical Teaching Overseas: This session will discuss opportunities for and the benefits of long term healthcare professional training overseas, using the example of residency training of Africans in Africa. Opportunities for paid professional medical teaching positions overseas, some in English, will be briefly discussed. Short Term Medical Teaching Overseas: This session will discuss different types of short term healthcare professional teaching opportunities overseas and give examples of their impacts. Whole Person Medicine and Whole Person Teaching: This session will outline the nature, benefits, and wide acceptance of whole person medicine education and the wholistic teaching methods used to teach it. Whole Person Medicine Education – The Kenyan Story: This session will tell the story of how whole person medicine education was brought to Kenya and how it has become an indigenous ministry with wide impact.
Awareness and Education on human trafficking: This session will describe the importance of raising awareness among healthcare professionals regarding the issue of human trafficking, and educating them to recognize potential victims of human trafficking within the healthcare setting. The session will provide educational resources on human trafficking as well as resources that will enable the participant to raise awareness of human trafficking among his/her colleagues. Engaging local survivors: This session will discuss the importance of utilizing local survivors of human trafficking in efforts to raise awareness about human trafficking as well as educating healthcare professionals regarding the types of human trafficking that occurs within their location. The session will also emphasize the importance of incorporating survivor input as hospitals and clinics begin to develop response protocols for human trafficking. Developing an institutional response: This session will emphasize the importance of developing a full and multidisciplinary response to victims of human trafficking encountered by a healthcare institution such as a hospital. The session will provide various resources for developing an institutional response including a toolkit for developing a response as well as sample protocols that have been developed. Responding as a community: This session will focus on the various aspects of how a local community should respond to both international and domestic victims of human trafficking in terms of prevention, identification, and aftercare. Special attention will be given to the development of a dedicated clinic that specializes in the healthcare of victims of human trafficking. Responding globally to human trafficking: This session will describe current short term overseas medical mission opportunities available through CMDA that specialize in the care of human trafficking victims. The session will also explore the unique issues surrounding the development of an adequate response to victims of human trafficking within a mission healthcare setting.
The Biblical Foundation for Meeting Physical Needs as Ministry: When we look at the life of Jesus, we see that His ministry had components of preaching (to the crowds), healing (individuals), and discipling (primarily the 12). As followers of Jesus, we want to do as He did. “Preach and heal” are not mutually exclusive things. While the spiritual realm is eternal and the physical realm is temporal, people still have real physical needs. Jesus did not ignore these needs. At the same time, many get so concerned about physical needs that they forget about the spiritual origin of these physical needs. As Christians, we know that the origin of death, pain, and disease ultimately goes back to man’s rebellion against God in the Garden. This discussion will attempt to establish a Biblical framework for healthcare ministry. How God introduced me to His way of missions, that brought Him the glory due Him alone: After experiencing the exhilaration of seeing God use my dental skills to serve His Kingdom, I became overwhelmed by the futility of going and doing. It was time for a new model, one that was consistent with the way God works. 12 years ago a group of us started training local believers to meet the dental needs of their community and witnessed, amazing God-sized results. Allow me to share what God did. Short-Term Medical Missions Effect on Long-Term World Healthcare and the Kingdom of Heaven: Short-Term Medical Missions are becoming a major factor in global healthcare that accounts for millions of dollars spent on travel, accommodations, personal time and effort, but are we truly impacting the Kingdom of Heaven. There is no standardize governing body to evaluate the quality, sustainability or accountability of Short Term Medical Mission’s. Since most organization reports are somewhat biased by their own reporting and when we stop and evaluate cost, efficiency and sustainability are we influencing world health without creating dependency and effectively sharing the good news? When we look at specific metrics, education is usually not a primary goal and in fact, the belief that any care is acceptable regardless of the quality, is widespread. It is the goal of many like-minded mission organizations that “education” of indigenous believers is the answer to the problem of dependency, sustainability, long-term world health and expanding the Kingdom of Heaven. How to Develop Sustainable Healthcare on a Short Term Trip: It is a general perception 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, short term teams could actually do lots more by way of ‘passing on of skills’ and change the trend to make optimum use of the time and resources. Short term team could provide long term and sustainable projects and help move from ‘relief’ to ‘development’ and in establishing self sustaining projects that could be carried out by the local partners on an ongoing basis.Passing on the skills would thus make an impact on the ground. The Long Term Impact of a Sustainable Healthcare Model: A sustainable healthcare model is based on several factors: Preparing the local church through training, selecting the right students; practical and relevant training for the students; and follow up till the clinic volunteers become competent. The result they are able to minister wholistically to many patients over time and have a good business model that generates income to keep the medical ministry running.
Divine Design - Who You Are Matters To Missions: Knowing your particular strengths, skills, personality, spiritual gifts and passions, we will seek to help you understand how their unique fit can guide you to an awareness of where your life can make the greatest impact. Great Expectations - The Sending Church and the MPW: Exploring how the Market Place Worker sending model differs from the traditional missionary sending model, and what each party in the process should expect—church leaders, the Market Place Worker, the congregation. Opportunity Knocks — Landing a Job in a Global Market: Identifying global employment opportunities in the healthcare sector and ways to increase your chances of getting hired. Painting a realistic picture of employment overseas and the process to get you there. Incredible Journey — Real Life Stories from Real Live MPWs: Hear from real people intentionally living out their lives in a workplace and a neighborhood where Jesus is not yet known. Understand what questions they get asked, what friendships are like and how they “do ministry”. Get a glimpse into their inspiration, their journey and the opportunities they see for Market Place Workers. Your Move — Stepping Into God’s Design: Point out tools available to participants that can help them continue learning and progressing toward a decision to take a job overseas and serve as a MPW. Provide a time for finalizing earlier personal reflections and group discussions on the topics presented. Submit questions for the panel to address in the closing Q&A session.
Becoming a missionary -- In John 15 Jesus said that apart from Him we can do nothing. Without a sure and solid foundation in Jesus we have nothing to give. Scripture and prayer are essential in preparing for and in doing ministry, not just later on in a cross-cultural ministry setting, but it must start right now. Managing Expectations: If misplaced expectations are the number one reason missionaries leave the field, how can one set accurate expectations? This session will help address major issues to consider in preparing for missions. Becoming a lifelong learner, determining what success looks like and expecting to be flexible are just a few. Developing Cross-Cultural Relationships: Developing cross-cultural relationships is vital to a missionary's ability to thrive and minister effectively in a new host culture. A biblical understanding of cross-cultural living will help inform and guide our personal journeys as we serve in cross-cultural settings. Dealing with the Tough Stuff: This intensive session will explore the biblical perspective of personal suffering and the suffering of those we serve. It will look at the challenge of trusting in a loving and sovereign God amidst suffering. Stories will shed light on the “Why?” question, how to prepare for the tough stuff, how to help others, and how to survive through tough times. Friendships & Support: Missionaries need friends in order to thrive. This session will focus on understanding the value of friendships and support in building resilience. A variety of relationships are essential for a healthy missionary and require intentionality.
What should be the biblical response to disaster? Elliott and Ken explain in their plenary session how a Christian can effective minister in the mists of difficult circumstances.
Single medical professionals are resilient in a cross-cultural setting and have the opportunity to be highly effective in service. The greatest challenges impact the personal home life of the individual. Applications to increase resiliency in the personal life will be explored with attention given to the relational and sexual domains of life. The worship will include a presentation followed by designated time to pose questions and dialog about the material.
This is a Student Focused session for medical, dental, pharmacy, nursing and all other health related future practitioners. This session is open to all beyond students, please feel welcomed and come. Most of us go through our medical training with the future thoughts of practicing in our health-related fields as our life profession somewhere. It is here that our lives will develop and our stories will unfold. Many of us have preconceived thoughts of living in a community, raising a family and serving our Lord at our local church. And it is here also that we will one day finish our careers and then retire. Sometimes our lives change course. And sometimes it just takes a simple “Yes” for that change to occur. Come and hear testimonies of hope and encouragement from a panel of medical providers that God had changed the course of their lives. Come and dream of the wonders that God has planned for you as you hear stories of His providential calling. Panel Members will include: David Stevens MD: CEO of Christian Medical and Dental Associations Charlie Vittitow DMD: Missions Director at Southeast Christian Church Tricia Burgess MD: Upcoming Director of Global Health Outreach David Maddy DMD: Clinical Assistant Professor and Director of International Outreach and Service Learning, University of Louisville School of Dentistry
Despite improved preventive efforts, malaria still kills approximately 500,000 people every year - mostly children and pregnant women in sub-Saharan Africa. This session will update current knowledge about malaria, review clinical presentations and diagnostic testing, and discuss treatment and prevention.
“FIELD” in medicine usually refers to the areas of proficiency for which you have been medically trained. For those of us who see medicine as a calling to serve Christ, “FIELD” has a different meaning. It has to do with where we are serving Christ. You are in a field right now, even if you think you may be headed to another field in the future. Jesus calls us to an uncompromising view of ministry that applies in every “field” throughout our lives. As a student, a resident, in a domestic setting, or in an overseas placement, are you living out the gospel, engaging the lost, living intentionally, and being a prophetic and evangelistic voice where you are? We will examine Mark 4 to see how Christ calls us to a total life-vision for missional living.
As healthcare professionals learn to utilize spiritual interventions in patient care, they quickly learn they do not have enough time or resources to meet all of their patient's religious or spiritual needs. This session will have many practical tips on how you can be a change agent to establish a spiritual care team wherever you are called to serve as a healthcare professional. This Bible-based care system has been taught around the world in the author's "Saline Solution," "International Saline Solution," and "Grace Prescriptions," books, conferences, and small-group courses. After this session, you'll be prepared to build a team of Jesus followers to share Christ and His Grace with each patient you serve and each colleague you meet.
With the exploding number of new medical and nursing schools (Christian and secular), especially in Africa, finding teachers for the basic science years is a priority and opportunity. In the past, teaching basic science subjects to health care professionals has not usually been viewed as a missionary career path. This workshop will be a panel that will feature short presentations by health care educators, who have worked on the mission field. The needs and opportunities for basic science teachers will be presented followed by a time of discussion and questions from the audience. There will be an open discussion as to how we might find and recruit basic science teachers from schools in the High and Middle Income Countries (HMIC’s) to teach in health professional schools in Low Income Countries (LIC’s).
The experiences that mold oneself are commanded by the Lord. We can’t chose where we are born, our skin color, or our primary language. Coming from the inner city of Caracas, Venezuela through the plantations of Georgia, winding through the Ozarks, and culminating with the hoods of Memphis, these experiences have served to equip me with the tools that are needed for the job. God placed in my heart a desire for the underserved, uninsured and undocumented of North America and he has given me a variety of experiences to wade through the waters of entrepreneurship. Come see how God can use my experiences to catapult you into your own adventure, where it is God who gets the glory.
Serving as a medical provider in a disaster requires some preparation. Serving in a conflict zone takes that preparation to another level. Are you ready to serve? Let’s talk about that.
Asian American Christians health care workers have shown a high level of interest in medical missions as evidenced by a disproportionately large percentage of Asian Americans who attend missions conferences such as Urbana or Louisville GMHC. Yet relatively small percentage end up as long term medical missionaries at this time. A panel of long-term Asian American health care workers will discuss potential barriers as well as potential solutions for Asian Americans serving as long term medical missionaries.
"Rural America" conjures up warm, innocent images from Norman Rockwell paintings. Today, however, small town America could not be further from this picture. Broken homes, epidemic drug abuse, staggering unemployment, and paralyzing depression have ravaged these once nostalgic streets. We’re not in Mayberry anymore! God has called all of us to serve, yet medical missions in rural America have been neglected due to the needs of other parts of the world. When we survey the desperate needs in less populated areas and the lack of access to quality healthcare, it is obvious there is a deficiency. Rural hospitals are closing. Funding is low. Providers are led to other more “obvious” mission fields. In reality, 46.2 million people live in nonmetropolitan counties — that’s nearly 15 percent of U.S. residents spread across 72 percent of the Nation's land area. Who will care for the rural poor? Dr. Thomas will share about his journey from India to Appalachia. He serves as the Medical Director at Dayspring Family Health Center and co-pastors a local church, answering a call to serve vulnerable and marginalized communities. Despite the many challenges of such a ministry, he is learning to experience the rich rewards of caring for the least of these in rural Tennessee. Listen as he shares his stories of serving God in a way he never asked or imagined. Participants will be able to describe the medical, social, spiritual disparities of rural communities.
Why do Christians suffer? There are almost as many answers and opinions about suffering as there are Christians. To some suffering is just part of living in a fallen world. It is to be avoided if at all possible and, if necessary, to be endured with Jesus’ help until we escape this life and get to heaven. Others may think it is all from the Devil. Others believe the primary source is personal sin or the sin of others. Some believe it is from a lack of faith and if we just had more faith suffering would not come. There is some truth in each of these perspectives of course but they are not the whole story. Anyone following Jesus will experience suffering at some point in their lives including those who abandon themselves to follow him in mission anywhere in the world. This seminar will look at what the Bible teaches about suffering and discover what it teaches about the role of suffering in our lives, how God uses it to fulfill his purposes for us and how it prepares us to be more effective missionaries and servants in his name.
Your identity profile is the unique combination of personality, strengths, skills, spiritual gifts, and passions. This breakout session will explain how identity self-awareness fits into the context of life planning with three practical outcomes: 1) gain clarity and confidence about the best contribution you make to a team, 2) prioritize where you need to growth the most right now, and 3) how you are vulnerable to sabotaging relationships or derailing your own leadership.
Neonatal survival in resource-limited countries is much lower than in industrialized nations. Twin pregnancies and breech presentations are at higher risker for poor neonatal outcomes. Birth asphyxia and prematurity are the two of the leading causes for neonatal deaths. Risks factors for stillbirths and early neonatal deaths such as post-term pregnancy are discussed. Treatment of birth asphyxia with hypothermia is highlighted as well as treatment of respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) with bubble CPAP. Specific patient case scenarios from the Zimba Mission Hospital Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) have been collected. Cost-effective strategies modified for the developing world can improve neonatal outcomes.
This session will discuss removing educational debt as an obstacle to missionary service
This interactive session will help attendees to better understand the current opioid crisis and possible public health responses. Attendees will leave the session with evidence based plans for approaching opioid abuse in clinical as well as community settings. The session will engage participants using technology and discussion.
Faith-based medical ministries have substantial opportunities to improve healthcare through biomedical research. Success typically requires collaboration between national, organizational, and expert stakeholders. In this session practical aspects of developing a collaborative research program will be discussed.
Daily headlines of disasters and crises can overwhelm or prompt us to action. This session will empower participants to effectively contribute to international response efforts through knowledge and application of life-saving and dignity-upholding elements as outlined by the international response community in the “Sphere Handbook: Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Humanitarian Response.” Participants will explore legal, ethical, and Biblical principles for responding well.
Recent years have seen Tuberculosis re-emerge as a worsening global health burden. Management of Tuberculosis involves treating individual patients as well as protecting community and international public health. Tuberculosis treatment using the DOTs strategy is highly cost-effective, but poorly managed Tuberculosis programs can lead to the development of resistant epidemics. The clinician working in the developing world needs to understand and apply the latest guidelines in Tuberculosis diagnosis, treatment and management strategies.
When a couple young doctors approached me after a plenary session and requested I mentor them, I had no idea what that meant or even how I could do it. When this request was repeated after another conference more, it caught my attention and I laid out a plan. I then enlisted 17 young medical doctors and medical students as mentees in an innovative but structured 3 year mentorship program. The impact in advancing cross cultural medical missions has been significant. I wish I had started this earlier and set time as a priority to pass on what I have learnt to others. What really is mentoring and what lessons can we learn, together, from this model and the cohort’s, experience. This session will be testimonial, hearing from mentees and the mentor.
If you’ve spent any time with children or adolescents overseas, you know that behavioral problems, learning difficulties, and developmental delays are not restricted to the United States. Yet across all environments, we find that the traditional approaches often leave us feeling frustrated and unsuccessful. What if delays in social interactions, academics, emotional regulation, and daily living skills are actually symptoms of a more rudimentary concern? Children living in environments of poverty, turmoil, and/or disease are not in ideal circumstances for optimal development. By using the brain hierarchy of neuro development, participants will leave this session understanding how a child’s history may impact their overall potential and how to unlock success in a culturally sensitive manner.
Vector-borne diseases are among the most complex of all infectious diseases to prevent and control. In recent years, several viruses have spread to new regions and immunologically naïve populations, with significant implications for local populations and international travelers. Zika virus is primarily transmitted to humans via several species of Aedes mosquitoes and can cause symptoms of fever, joint pain, rash, conjunctivitis, muscle aches, and headache. Most Zika virus infections are asymptomatic or are associated with a short course of mild illness, but severe health outcomes are also associated with this pathogen. Zika virus infection during pregnancy can cause microcephaly and other severe fetal brain defects. This session will look at the World Health Organization’s Zika virus country classification categories, discuss the CDC travel guidance for countries with risk of ZIka, and look at principles underlying CDC’s travel recommendations.
Nearly all Christians acknowledge the Bible as God's word, but many disciples, including aspiring health care missionaries, struggle to consistently apply its power to their lives and ministries. Come be encouraged to systematically read, love, and be transformed by the Holy Spirit's most powerful tool. Your future fruitfulness depends on it.
Community Health Evangelism (CHE) is a breakthrough mission strategy that seamlessly integrates evangelism and discipleship with disease prevention and community-based development. Through these ministries people become followers of Jesus, churches are planted, and entire communities are lifted out of cycles of poverty and disease.
The previous generations of mission leaders have produced amazing fruit. The work left to be done requires a modification of our approach in taking the gospel to some of the hardest places on earth. We'll discuss how God is uniting His church to finish the task.
This session will discuss how triage fits into the overall plan for patient treatment in disaster settings, and how it is an imprecise art. There will be a discussion about who should be a triage officer. Consideration will be given to the necessity of designing incident specific triage, or multiple triage areas. Factors of pre and post triage flow is discussed, as will be the limitations and challenges of international settings.
Have you ever been asked, “Why are you still single?”. If so, then this session is for you! We will address common misconceptions about single ministry by looking to God’s Word and sharing our own experiences as single women working in urban Memphis.
Amber continues her plenary session on Discipleship in the Real World with this breakout session.
Listen in as Amber speaks to the entire conference about discipleship in the real world.
This session will examine the current situation in Egypt, one of four global hub cities for refugees and migrants. A United Nations led multi-country study on migrants. Focus will be on drivers of youth migration, including both push and pull factors; and service needs and accessibility issues for youth migrants in the areas of sexual and reproductive health, and gender based violence. Options for short term missions will be presented. Increasing flows of migrants and refugees across international borders has captured popular attention, spurred international policy developments, and highlighted the need for improved programs in support of safe and orderly migration. Recent increase in the displacement of populations across international borders around the world is the highest in 70 years, and contributed to an estimated 244 million migrants (3.3% of the world’s population) in 2015 where 20 million of whom are refugees (UNHCR, 2016). International data shows a high representation of youth among migrants transiting into urban areas, and among international migrants. In Africa and Central Asia one in three people is between 10 and 24, and some 120 million young people reach working age every year. The proportion is highest in the least developed countries suffering extreme travel challenges including violence, trafficking and coercion throughout even in re-settlement environments. Over the past four years, countries in the Middle East have become host to more than 4.2 million new refugees mostly from African and Middle Eastern countries. Egypt became an increasingly important destination country during the late 2000s for migrants and asylum seekers from more than 60 countries, including Palestinians, East Africans, South Asians and, more recently, Iraqis and Syrians. This is while under-development, limited employment opportunities and/or conflict undermine survival and prospects for young people. In all fora, there is widespread concern over the challenge of securing data on persons affected and their needs, drivers of migration, and key decision-points for onward mobility.
This session will cover the topic of sourcing medicines for missions. We will discuss the following: counterfeit medication, substandard medication, risks and benefits of obtaining medication in the united states and transporting it overseas versus obtaining the medication in developing nations, how to source medications that will be used in developing nations.
God's Kingdom is one of paradox. He is famous for His heart for the poor and for His heart for the nations. However, most don't realize how intimately these two passions of His are intertwined. This has massive and unexpected implications for any disciple of Jesus. Paradoxically, global poverty will never end until every nation is reached with the Gospel.
How do I pick a mission agency? How do I know I'm "called?" What about raising children overseas? How can I avoid burnout? These and other questions are answered in this popular talk illustrated with real and sometimes humorous real life stories.
It is a privilege to be called by the Lord to serve him in Medical Missions. Keeping our spiritual health is vital to walking in the journey of caring for others, particularly in difficult circumstances for the patients or for the ministry. This session will be a time of considering the many ways difficulties in ministry might have us lose our focus or joy as we serve. We will look at ways to keep our spiritual and emotional health in difficult circumstances as well as how Scripture leads us to lean on the Lord during these times and other helps that we might have during these times.
Short term missions usually involve a team of people contributing their skills to an indigenous people group. When that team leaves the work often ends. This session will present an innovative alternative to that model, where sharing knowledge and skills with local believers empowers them to serve their people group long after the teaching team leaves!
Samaritan’s Purse disaster response has expanded to include an Emergency Field Hospital (EFH). This workshop will demonstrate what we have learned in adapting modern surgical and medical techniques to a disaster environment. Our EFH is a self-contained modular tent-based system which can adapt to the particular need. Whether it be an earthquake, tsunami, typhoon, or refugee crisis, we can respond very quickly with this airlift relief hospital.
Being a medical missionary is not easy. Now try leading a team of them! These folks tend to be intelligent, passionate individuals with big dreams (just like you). These are often important qualities for the work at hand, but they can easily lead to dysfunctional teams, explosive conflicts and national partners who feel steamrolled. In this session we want to discuss how leaders can keep team vision focused, community life vibrant and partnerships flourishing in the midst of the crucible that is the mission hospital. This session is for everyone regardless if they are the "team leader" because every medical missionary is a leader whether they want to be or not. Here’s a bit of catnip to help you along your way.
In this breakout we will discuss the obstacles to empowering excellence in nursing in resource limited areas and provide evidence based and accepted guideline methods to promote excellence in nursing. We will share experiences in working with nursing and nursing education in developing countries.
This session will review the most common medical considerations you should be aware of before traveling on a short-term medical mission trip. I will review common malaria prophylaxis medications, immunizations, treatment of traveler’s diarrhea as well as other tips and tricks to know. This session is ideal for those with minimal international travel experience.
Opening and operating an emergency field hospital in a disaster setting has many interesting challenges. Operational areas such as base operations, procurement, communications, staffing and others must function differently when in disaster response mode. This session will talk through some of those challenges and lessons learned from several of our past responses.
Short Term Missions in the "Spiritually Darkest" areas of the world are becoming a challenge as access is being denied to western missionaries. The Lord has provided a model to equip indigenous believers with medical skills that will provide opportunities to share the Gospel. These believers know their language and culture that allow access to evangelize and transform communities in the name of Christ. Dr. Tom McKechnie founder of Teach To Transform and Kingspride Hammond founder of Alabaster Project in Ghana will discuss the impact of this model as an evangelical tool.
This session will address systems solutions to short-term mission (STM) drug-related quality of care problems. The quality of care various STM systems are capable of providing varies tremendously: Well designed STM systems enable physicians, pharmacists and other providers to deliver high quality care and have the greatest possible impact for patient health and for the Kingdom; Inadequately designed STM systems provide poor quality care and often cause more harm than benefit regardless of the training and expertise of team leaders and providers. We will assess mistakes made and lessons learned on over 45 global STMs, as well as 15 years long-term missions clinic practice in an area frequented by STMs. STM systems based on the work of missionary mentors, Jesus’ teaching and evidence based guidelines will also be reviewed.
Values and assumptions vary widely from culture to culture. This gives rise to potential conflicts and barriers in the communication process. This session looks at Not the American values and assumptions which can create misunderstandings, damage relationships, and even pose significant danger in the delivery medical treatment in a cross cultural context.
Sepsis is a common cause of morbidity and mortality around the world. Recently, new definitions as well as new management guidelines have been put forth. The goal of this session is to review these new definitions and management guidelines, especially as it may related to care of patients in low resource settings.
During this session some of the unique challenges and opportunities for women in missions will be presented. Participants will gain understanding regarding overcoming obstacles and barriers and how best to prepare for mission service. The presenter will illustrate the ideas through her own story.
Public health measures such as vaccines and clean water are certainly critical and foundational to transforming health in a limited resource setting. However there are times as a long term medical missionary when the huge health disparities between specialty medical care in the developing and the developed world motivate one to initiate specialized treatment programs where none exist. We will discuss the factors to consider in beginning and sustaining these programs in extremely limited resource settings with examples from neonatology, hematology, and oncology at Kibuye Hope Hospital, a 170 bed teaching hospital in rural Burundi.
Over the last 7 years, in partnership with short term teams, Hope Alive Initiatives has been able to set 6 community clinics in Northern Ghana. These clinics are run in a sustainable way by their respective churches. In this session we will share the lessons we have learnt to help you in ministry.
This session will describe the unique roles that women have in medical missions and the challenges faced by women in the international missions context.
How can urban health care missions be done in urban settings, especially in government owned facilities? This breakout session seeks to address this questions. Ministry can be done in and through government hospitals and institutions by connecting with healthcare personnel, sharing the gospel and discipling them and bringing them into healthy churches. This breakout session will give some insights and specifics into how to do this.
Different areas of the world provide the medical missionary with various opportunities and challenges. We will examine results of a survey recently published in the Christian Journal of Global Health to assess how certain health care providers may take advantage of these unique characteristics to engage in profitable and satisfying ministry.
What are the answers to the 10 most common questions to ask before becoming a missionary? From, "How to know God's will?" to "How to pick a missionary organization? and from "What about raising my kids overseas? to "How do I avoid burnout?" this talk will deal give you the answers.
About David Stevens: Dr. David Stevens is the Chief Executive Officer of the Christian Medical & Dental Associations (CMDA), the nation’s largest faith-based organization of doctors. As spokesman for more than 16,000 doctors, Dr. Stevens has conducted hundreds of media interviews. Prior to his service with CMDA, he served as medical director of Samaritan’s Purse. From 1981 to 1992, Dr. Stevens served as executive officer and medical superintendent of Tenwek Hospital in Bomet, Kenya. He helped to transform Tenwek Hospital into one of the premier mission healthcare facilities in that country. Learn more at David Stevens page.
My wife, Lara, and I thought we knew a lot about missions before we went to Cambodia. We had both been journeying in missions for many years - I majored in anthropology, worked in a cross-cultural clinic, had been on several short-term trips, attended conferences and trainings, and advocated whenever we could for missions; we lived intentionally and missionally. Both of us knew that Cambodia would stretch our lives and our faith. What we did not realize was how much of that challenge originated from our own ideas and expectations of what it would be like.
The similarities are many. Perhaps the best preparation one can get for long-term overseas missions is learning to be fruitful as they serve cross-culturally and incarnationally in domestic communities where the needs are great and the resources are slim. Christian clinics that serve the domestic poor have a major role to play in preparing Christian health professionals for serving God's global mission.
there are more unreached today than there were last year when we met at GMHC. 21 million more to be precise. We are going backwards in our task to complete the great commission and that is not OK. Meanwhile our traditional missions model has sidelined over 99% of Jesus followers who look at the model and do not see a fit. Yet God has made everyone for His purposes and uniquely talented them to fulfill the purposes. Those who are talented in the medical profession, who are passionate about it and believe they were created to do it have been told they have to leave that and do something different, (oh and raise support to do it) or simply do it on a short term mission trip or even as someone told me last year at GMHC, 'forget your specialty and come do general health care'.
We will continue to go backwards unless we engage the whole body of Christ and engage them wholly. In other words send them out to be who God has created them to be. As GP's, Surgeons, Radiologists, Dentists, Pediatricians, Nurses..... what ever God has uniquely made them to do. The world is changing, the missions model has to change. Come hear how we are changing the face of mission and how you, as a medical professional can be at the cutting edge of that - but be warned our call to you is to be who God has made you to be, where He is not worshipped. This is session is for those who are truly interested in using all of their life to reflect God's glory and goodness.
Why do Christians suffer? What made the Apostle's such effective missionaries? There are almost as many answers and opinions about suffering as there are Christians. To some suffering is just part of living in a fallen world. It is to be avoided if at all possible and, if necessary, to be endured with Jesus’ help until we escape this life and get to heaven. Others may think it is all from the Devil. Others believe the primary source is personal sin or the sin of others. Some believe it is from a lack of faith and if we just had more faith suffering would not come. There is some truth in each of these perspectives of course but they are not the whole story.
Anyone following Jesus will experience suffering at some point in their lives including those who abandon themselves to follow him in mission anywhere in the world. This seminar will look at what the Bible teaches about suffering and discover what it teaches about the role of suffering in our lives, how God uses it to fulfill his purposes for us and how it prepares us to be more effective missionaries and servants in his name.
Be missional!
How do you keep up with the demands of ministry while balancing the needs of family, not to mention your own needs?
How do you keep doing more with less?
How do you protect yourself from burnout while advocating for the least of these?
How do you establish boundaries without neglecting the needs of your community?
These are some of the questions Dr. Thomas hopes to explore as he shares lessons from the field. He serves as the Medical Director at Dayspring Family Health Center and co-pastors a local church, answering a call to serve vulnerable and marginalized communities. He is married and has three teenage children. Serving his family and discipling his children are some of his top priorities. Despite the busyness and numerous challenges of ministry and family life, he continues to learn the importance of balance, boundaries, and rest.
If you are experiencing burnout or having a difficult time keeping “afloat”, this session may give you some insights on how to maneuver through the ups and downs of missional living.
Health professionals in all settings should take a history from their patient(s). National guidelines in the U.S. recommend a spiritual assessment be included with most or all patients. Yet, surveys show that over 95% of patients say that no health professional has ever inquired of their spiritual or religious beliefs. Furthermore, most health professionals indicate that they never been taught how or why to incorporate a spiritual or religious assessment into their patient history.
In this session you'll learn why a spiritual assessment is now considered a part of quality, evidence-based patient care. In addition, you'll be exposed to a number of spiritual history instruments to consider using in your patient care and you'll be exposed to options of how to utilize the information obtained from a spiritual assessment.
Finally, you'll be introduced to a small group training tool that you can use at home to facilitate the introduction of these principles to other health professionals.
In recent years there has been a tsunami of 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 beginning to follow suit. This workshop will review some of the guidelines for improving global health missions and what constitutes best evidence based practice in this area. The format of this workshop will be two talks by two mission leaders – one a sender and one a receiver. Both speakers will give positive and negative examples of short-term mission teams with long-term impact. The sender talk will be from Greg Seager RN the director of Christian Health Service Corps. The receiver talk will be by Dr. Jefferson McKenney missionary surgeon and founder of Loma De Luz Hospital in Honduras.
This is the second part of a two part workshop. In Part II of this workshop case studies will be reviewed and discussed. Together we will discuss these important questions and define pathways for healthcare mission teams to have a positive long-term impact on the communities they serve. Handouts of the case studies will be used to facilitate small group discussion and strategy development. Case studies will be assessed in the context of four primary areas: 1) Patient Safety, 2) Healthcare System Integration and Collaboration, 3) Facilitation of Health Development and 4) Community Empowerment.
There are 65 million refugees and internally displaced people in the world today. This session will address the refugee crisis both globally and locally. We will discuss the refugee resettlement process to the United States and, more specifically, to Louisville, Kentucky. Who are the refugees coming to Louisville? What are the major health issues they bring with them and challenges they face post-migration. As healthcare providers, how can we provide holistic care that addresses all aspects of the person?
The ability to prevent and respond to human disasters and the acute needs of displaced persons has now become an essential competency for healthcare personnel. This session addresses the common conflicts surrounding care for complex human emergencies and the principals of both acute relief and of longer-term resettlement. This presentation makes use of interactive role-play and small group exercises will enhance the learning experience.
Serving is sacred work, with power, grace, and humility from the Spirit – small tasks done with love. This is what medical missions for nursing students is all about. According to Mother Teresa, we are touching the body of Christ, even though they may be covered with dirt, maggots, and wounds (Poplin, 2008).
The need for medical, dental, and other care in remote areas around the world correspond to areas where the Gospel is typically not prevalent or readily available. The need is so great that no one individual or organization can meet the need alone. By working together to empower local Christ followers in remote areas to reach the medical, dental, and other needs of people in their own communities as a door opener for the Gospel, we will be able to fulfill the Great Commission. This task requires multiplication of participants through discipleship. We must work together to equip and empower local Christ followers, handing them the baton to continue the race after the training team leaves.
Provides an overview of the Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) with a case-based approach. Addresses the importance of NTDs in global health, clinical features and treatment of select NTDs, tool-ready programs addressing NTDs, and an overview of Mass Drug Administration (MDA).
Long-term impact in health-related missions from a short-term team must consider both long-term and short-term goals and objectives. Perhaps surprisingly, some or many of the long-term impact might not be directly related to healthcare! Understanding the potential long-term goals and objectives requires the short-term team to explore coordinated interaction between communities, local leaders, government, and technical experts. This workshop will identify several models for interacting where short-term healthcare workers can explore how to have a lasting long-term impact, as well as highlighting pitfalls to be avoided.
Peritoneal dialysis can be life saving for patients with acute kidney injury and can be performed safely in the setting of mission hospitals. This session provides an overview of the indications, technique and outcomes of a PD program in a mission hospital in Africa.
Can a church in a poor and vulnerable community run a sustainable healthcare ministry in her community?
Yes, if the church and short term medical team are well prepared for ministry. Here are the steps we have taken to enable local churches run sustainable healthcare ministries as result of short term medical teams.
The US is a much overlooked mission field. 96M people in America still live in areas designated as "medically underserved". All of those areas are communities where poverty is rampant and resources are low. Not only are those areas of great need, they are areas of tremendous opportunity where the harvest is ripe for the gospel. The director of CCHF will share an overview of the issues impacting this cross-cultural domestic mission field and will discuss how Christian health professionals are intentionally living out the Gospel through healthcare among the poor in the United States.
"Holistic Health" is a frequently used term in medical missions, but what does it mean? And how do we accomplish it? Drawing on the speaker's experience, case studies will illustrate lessons learned to make holistic health practical and to emulate Jesus, the Great Physician.
This session will focus on health and safety for medical missionaries. Including being able to describe previous outbreaks among missionary travelers and identify resources for safe and healthy travel preparation.
Your planning to serve but fun raising scares you to death or you have done this before and you hated it because it didn't go well or fast. This session will teach you how to raise your support and enjoy it. It will also teach you how to communicate effectively to cast your vision and inspire others to participate in the Great Commission.
The command "fear not" or "be not afraid" occurs more than a hundred times in the Bible, including many times from the mouth of Jesus. The fear of the LORD is healthy, but our Enemy uses fear as a principal weapons to hinder Christian obedience and fruitfulness. Courage is not the absence of fear, but boldness to proceed in obedience despite fear--because of faith in the Person and promises of God.
This lecture will help potential missionaries understand how God utilizes the church to accomplish his mission to the nations, differentiate between biblical and cultural understandings of calling, and discern their role in God's mission.
Those attending this session will be able to describe the spread of emerging and re-emerging vector-borne viral illnesses. They will also be able to understand treatment and currently available diagnostic tests.
We will discuss the essential of any research project in a low-middle income country including planning a research project, seeking funding, ethical considerations and ethical approval, financial hurdles, cross-cultural challenges, evaluation of the project and publication considerations.
American health care missionaries outside the US need to keep their US health care licenses current in order to practice in some countries, as well as they desire to keep abreast of the latest developments in their field. This need and desire requires a significant amount of continuing education, often 40 hours every two years, which is difficult to achieve when home in the US on a furlough. The Christian Medical Dental Association has over 30 years of annual meeting experiences providing continuing education to dentists, physicians and other health care workers through their Continuing Medical Dental Education (CMDE) Commission.
Dentistry has a great opportunity to reach the least, the last and the lost for the needs are overwhelming and universal. I will use various countries to evaluate and discuss how to take advantage of different opportunities and situations that may be available. It is important for us to discuss and understand the government and the culture and what it entails to move forward on a venture into a closed or creative access country. How to work with national partners. Concerns with communication. How about a site visit. How to select a team and prepare them for such a great opportunity. Time for discussion and asking questions. Lets have some fun.
The most common cause for expatriate healthcare professionals to abandon their service in a mission hospital is unresolved conflict with those that they work or live with in community. This session will share proven principles and techniques to resolve conflict that inevitably comes to everyone during their lives.
This brief educational breakout session will discuss issues in dysphagia (swallowing disorders) within the acute-care setting. Common and complex dysphagia presentations will be discussed through cases across Cameroon and Kenya. Learners will be exposed to a basic swallowing screening protocol, low-resource dysphagia management and techniques to reduce aspiration pneumonia, as well as basic swallow management for complex anatomy such as cleft-lip/palate.
Abstract: Faith-based medical ministries have substantial opportunities to improve healthcare through biomedical research. Success typically requires collaboration between national, organizational, and expert stakeholders. In this session practical aspects of developing a collaborative research program will be discussed.
The topic of leadership and conflict management is not typically taught in professional schools but it is present in both group and work environments, including the mission field. In many situations, the medical professional because of their learned status becomes the leader but they do not have the skills to take on this role. This session will provide the participants with some of the skills and understanding needed to be successful leaders in their environments of practice.
Why do we serve? Where should we go? How do we make disciples? Why should we make disciples? What is the purpose of missions? What does it mean to be missional? How can I go from theoretical to practical? All of these questions, and more, will be discussed in this workshop, using THE source material – the Bible!
Developing a network among like-minded international medical training programs is an important aspect of successfully utilizing medical education as a missions strategy.
More than half of the Middle East population, 54% are under the age of 25 including 90 million adolescents (10-19 years of age). The growth spurt challenges of the second decade of life is mounted with early sexual debut and early marriages. Consequent unintended pregnancies and child birth, the risk of contracting sexually transmitted infections and HIV/AIDS threaten the fragile adolescent still under physical and psychological development. Pervasive conflict and displacement in the region overwhelm prevailing adolescent sexual and reproductive health (ASRH) issues and unmet needs.
National health systems and the private sector do not typically recognize nor address sexual and reproductive health (SRH) needs of young people, especially unmarried adolescents. Health care providers do not recognize nor address health risks and needs of adolescents. Evidence show that adolescent health services -if exist- are fragmented and poorly coordinated. Inherent social norms, attitudes, taboos around sexual health and discriminating gender differences hinder adolescents’ SRH health literacy and access to quality services.
What should the health sector do to transform the current approach that ignores ASRH issues? How do we respond to the urgent unmet SRH needs of the 90 million adolescents living in the Middle East?
Shawnee Christian Healthcare Center went from a concept initiated around a conference table to a full FQHC in ten years. This session will review the many advantages of starting a center from scratch while at the same time looking retrospectively at the pitfalls that can be avoided in starting a center from this perspective.
Dr. Ralph Winter, founder of the US Center for World Mission and Perspectives… 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 for lack of mentors. What is a mentor? What do mentors offer prospective long-term medical missionaries? Come to this session if you desire a mentor or if you desire to become a mentor. Before the session you may want to familiarize yourself with GMHC’s mentoring service at https://www.medicalmissions.com/community/mentoring . John McVay and I will walk you though this process. This session strives to translate your dreams of serving as a long-term medical missionary into reality.
There are over 50 million disabled people in Africa. 18-20% would likely improve with some surgical care. Africa has insufficient surgical expertise to provide for this need, and will likely not have sufficient sub specialists for 50-100 years. An alternate form of limited training is needed both for the surgical and the support needs of the disabled.
Care for the disabled opens spiritual doors for both the child and the parents. It may also open doors into traditionally "closed" countries.
Cross cultural health care service calls for a spectrum of specialized knowledge, skills and attitudes. How does a potential worker equipped him/herself to serve effectively and thrive in such a demanding role as medical missionaries?
We will focus on the key role of mentoring in cross cultural training, and discuss how to find mentors who can facilitate one's development. The selection of an organization with an ethos that supports mentoring will also be discussed.
This interactive session will be of particular relevance to those preparing to serve as cross cultural health care workers, while also being useful to those who are preparing such workers.
The harvest in plentiful in middle east missions. More than 90 million adolescents and youth live in the Middle East today. Adolescents are a key population group representing a triple return of investment, yet they are uniquely neglected in the regional challenges they face. Today, adolescents in the Middle East confront significant health, development, education, employment and socio-economic challenges especially related to the protracted crisis. Region-specific factors greatly influence their health, development, choices, and provision of public health and clinical services.
Over the past two decades, adolescent health issues increasingly made their way to national agendas in many regions of the world, yet it’s only a drop in a bucket. Adolescents are the population that benefited least from the epidemiologic transition. Why does the Middle East lag behind? What are United Nations Health Organizations doing to improve the health of a billion adolescents who live in the world and in particular in the Middle East? Why are we failing adolescents? Why do countries in the region have to care for adolescents, their potential backbone for a vibrant future? How can governments and leading medical institutions ensure gender sensitive comprehensive health and development agenda for adolescents living in the Middle East?
What can a GMHC participant do to help?
Christianity and culture have had a complex and adversarial relationship since the beginning. Early Christians were counter-cultural—and had an immense impact on the peoples around them. Likewise, medical missionaries have deeply influenced the lives of the peoples where they served over the past two centuries. How? At the same time, they were sensitive to the culture around them, learning language and culture and adapting to religious, social and economic constraints. How have they done this? What does this look like in reality? To answer these questions, I will share survey results and moving stories of medical missionaries serving diverse cultures and religions in culturally intelligent ways in over ten countries on two continents.
This will be a practical application of principles for the treatment of common neck and back pain for the non-Physical Therpist medical professional.
Responding to human need in a way that supports human dignity, and avoids paternalism is the foundation of learning to help without hurting. Founded on this understanding, the International Code of Conduct, Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Humanitarian Response, are the most internationally recognized sets of common principles and universal minimum standards in humanitarian response. This workshop overviews these important standards in the context of short-term missions as well as UN coordinated refugee and disaster response.
Medical missions are always under resourced and Doctors and nurses struggle to cope with the enormous need with limited resources.
This presentation looks at generating creativity to fuel innovation as a possible Christian response to this problem.
If medical mission work is important and if God has called us and if we do not seem to have obvious resources then what God is saying is “Get creative”.
Where you choose to serve in healthcare missions will depend on your preparedness, your call, and your goals. This workshop will help you determine how to identify service opportunities that are most likely to match up with your call and your goals. You will be given a variety of tools to use to prepare for service, and to improve your preparedness as you serve.
Faith-based organizations provide up to 70% or more of healthcare in some countries. They often work in remote locations among neglected people without any access to healthcare. Should faith-based hospitals and health programs partner with local governments and other actors in the public sector? Will collaboration compromise witness and mission? Or can collaboration expand resources, opportunity and deepen impact of Kingdom work? This session will help us examine relationships and discover from a Kingdom perspective the common ground/common good of working with local governments, Ministry of Health and other national organizations.
In response to the increasing need for emergency medical and surgical care immediately after major global disasters, Samaritans Purse has developed an Emergency Field Hospital with the ability to deploy rapidly worldwide. The field hospital is both modular, and utilizes a single solution that, despite the type of disaster, will be logistically deployed rapidly to meet the immediate and unique medical needs of the disaster victims. This breakout session will describe the emergency medical response system that Samaritans Purse has developed to deploy this new field hospital in austere situations globally, with particular focus on levels of response, medical staff deployed, tent structures, equipment and supplies. Attendees will also be invited to join with us as part of the medical staff on future disaster deployments.
Knowledge of good health practices often does not change health behaviors. This session will share proven ways to motivate people to change their health behaviors using non-financial incentives as demonstrated in a community health program that has changed the health of 1.2 million people. These techniques are applicable in both the USA or abroad.
This session will cover the main areas of pediatric development and important milestones to look for when assessing the pediatric patient for delays.
This session will have an emphasis on medical mission organizational mission true behavior, and will look at why Christian organizations or institutions, including those committed to using medical missions as a tool for gospel outreach, drift away from or sometimes shift their purpose away from their original intention.
This session will discuss the precautions needed to avoid Zika virus, the latest updates on Zika, and the best-practices in the care of a person with Zika.
after 21 years of implementing transformational development, an independent team has researched on the work of Life in abundance. Life in abundance works in 14 countries in Africa and the Caribbean. The session will share and discuss the findings that confirm the model of development has outstanding impact.
Post-partum hemorrhage is the leading cause of maternal mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa. Common causes include uterine atony, retained tissue, and lacerations, and can be severe especially if the patient presents late. In the tropics, such cases may be complicated by coagulopathy and thrombocytopenia. Contributing factors may be recurrent malaria, chronic anemia due to nutritional factors or hemoglobinopathies, and reactive hypersplenism (tropical splenomegaly). Treatment is complicated by limited blood products, late presentation due to poor infrastructure and transportation, and cultural factors. Even if PPH occurs in a health facility, these factors make treatment challenging. Despite surviving the initial hemorrhage, complications such as renal failure can lead to mortality 7-8 days postpartum in settings where limited laboratory and no dialysis exists. Several cases of complicated PPH are presented, highlighting the key factors that can lead to successful management— a team approach involving prompt medical treatment, ultrasound evaluation, transfusion, curettage, and surgical management.
This session will cover practical factors to consider when moving abroad with a young family. Some topics that will be covered include closing down your home base as well as the initial time period of living overseas and ideas on how to help your family deal with these transitions. We will also cover some practical ideas on how to manage the time pressures of a difficult work environment with family life.
Christians are called to love yet often times, our communities are rife with conflict and unresolved hurt. Interpersonal conflict is cited as one of the major reasons why missionaries leave the mission field.
Using concepts from Ken Sande’s Peacemakers and his personal experience working as a the Medical Director in an FQHC in Appalachia, Dr. Thomas will review …
- The cost of conflict for the individuals, the organization, and for our witness
- The difference between Peacemaking vs PeaceFaking
- Strategies to develop a culture of peace in your organization
- Healthy ways of addressing conflict and working towards reconciliation
Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons(IDP’s) face significant challenges to their health and well-being that are unique, due to lack of necessary resources including food, water, sanitation, shelter, security and healthcare. Caring for people in these situations requires an understanding of their unique needs as well as having realistic goals regarding what can and cannot be done for them.
Recent experiences in providing healthcare missions in disasters in Nepal, Kurdistan and Turkey – both natural and manmade – highlight the need to be well prepared when serving in these difficult situations. Focus areas for the presentation and discussion will include team selection and preparation; travel and logistics issues; identifying and addressing the needs of the people being served, including physical, psychological and spiritual needs; partnering with other relief organizations and local authorities; and returning home successfully.
We are called to serve the “least of these”, and the victims of disasters and crises certainly qualify. Often these events, though causing much hardship and suffering, create the possibility for doors and hearts to be open to the message of Jesus that otherwise would be closed. We must be both willing and well prepared if we are to serve well when we are called to respond to those in need.
Faith-based organizations provide up to 70% or more of healthcare in some countries. They often work in remote locations among neglected people without any access to healthcare. Should faith-based hospitals and health programs partner with local governments and other actors in the public sector? Will collaboration compromise witness and mission? Or can collaboration expand resources, opportunity and deepen impact of Kingdom work? This session will help us examine relationships and discover from a Kingdom perspective about the common ground/common good of working with local governments, Ministry of Health and other national organizations.
As a young nurse, Aileen Coleman left her homeland of Australia in June 1955 for ministry in the Middle East. Sixty years later she remains in active ministry serving the Bedouin people in the Kingdom of Jordan. She will respond to questions reflecting on her years of service as a single women in the Muslim Middle East. She has a burden to see another generation of workers in this field.
Medicine provides a unique opportunity to reach into the lives of Muslim people. Aileen Coleman will share how she and her colleagues have used the treatment of Tuberculosis and other chronic diseases to share the Gospel in the Muslim context.
Healthcare education and professional certification require core clinical competencies to be demonstrated before privileges are granted. In the midst of the endless cycle of healthcare training, experience, documentation and verification, there are ways to act with compassion. In global health we are called to balance competence through learning procedures, improving abilities, and honing skills, with compassion by doing what we can now to meet the immediate incredible needs before us.
This session will include leaning how the following in a community setting can help with spiritual follow up in healthcare missions:
- Utilize partnerships with local church planting agencies [Indian Christian agencies]
- Utilize relationships of trust established at the hospital or through the Community health and development programs, realizing most of us come to know Christ thru such relationships
- Offer to pray with patients / contacts
- Invite to a nearby house church for Sunday worship
This session will look at previous outbreaks of disease among missionaries. This session will also identify resources for travelers to learn about health risks associated with international travel, such as CDC's Travelers' health page containing the most up-to-date information about health needs for individuals traveling overseas.
Preparing for yourself or others for missions includes learning how to stay safe and healthy while traveling. Experts from CDC will offer information on how to avoid diseases, including those spread by mosquitoes and unsafe food and water.
Jesus cured individuals and transformed society. As doctors on the edges of the Kingdom, we are called to care for the suffering patient as well as the crumbling community. A medical mission's approach that integrates curative and public health will be stronger than focusing on either alone; these are complementary not mutually exclusive options.
• This session will provide a review of diseases that have been seen in the United States recently but are typically considered tropical diseases. The discussion will examine epidemiology, transmission, symptoms, and treatment of the diseases.
This session will give an overview of cancer patients in Africa, with a discussion of the difficulties patients face in getting access to diagnosis and treatment. We will also look at over view of the oncology program at Mbingo Baptist Hospital and discuss future possibilities in improving cancer care in Africa.
Like all human institutions, healthcare is subject to the Fall and operates under principles at odds with the Kingdom of God. Disciples of Jesus who understand the character of their King and His Kingdom must advocate, through their words and actions, for just and equitable healthcare. Beginning with a foundation of biblical justice and reviewing Church history, this breakout session will challenge disciples to make Jesus look great by loving and serving the poor and marginalized.
This session will enable participants to understand the necessity for demonstration and proclamation of the Gospel in their daily lives and in missions.
The United States is a much overlooked field in global missions. 96 million people live in areas designated as medically underserved. All of those are communities where poverty is rampant and resources are low. Not only are those areas of great need, they are areas of tremendous opportunity where the harvest is ripe for the gospel. The Director of Christian Community Health Fellowship will share an overview of the issues impacting this cross-cultural domestic mission field, and will discuss how Christian health professionals are intentionally living out the gospel through healthcare among the poor in the United States.
Health professionals in all settings should take a history from their patient(s). National guidelines in the U.S. recommend a spiritual assessment be included with most or all patients. Yet, surveys show that over 95% of patients say that no health professional has ever inquired of their spiritual or religious beliefs. Furthermore, most health professionals indicate that they never been taught how or why to incorporate a spiritual or religious assessment into their patient history.
In this session you'll learn why a spiritual assessment is now considered a part of quality, evidence-based patient care. In addition, you'll be exposed to a number of spiritual history instruments to consider using in your patient care and you'll be exposed to options of how to utilize the information obtained from a spiritual assessment.
Finally, you'll be introduced to a small group training tool that you can use at home to facilitate the introduction of these principles to other health professionals.
This session will discuss understanding the value of medical outreach and allied professionals for outreach to closed countries and unreached people groups. We will learn about different steps for engagement in closed countries. We will also look at how to have clarity in one's role in global missions.
Every person has a worldview, a deep sense of what is real and how the world works. What we believe and value and what we do and say are shaped by our worldviews.
All cross-cultural ministry brings us into different worldviews in missions.
Our approaches to healthcare ministries whether in our home country or another are liberated and limited by (1) our own worldviews (2) our awareness of our worldviews and how they are formed and transformed and (3) our capacity to recognize and work with the worldviews of the people to whom God sends us.
By the end of this session, we will have grown in all 3 of those areas. We will leave with resources for continuing growth.
This participatory session will include learning from person reflection, discussion of Biblical stories, and the wisdom of other participants.
I hope to share both from a Biblical, Missiological, Geo-Political standpoint how health care professionals can be part of a mass movement of Jesus followers to the unreached. Where they can live out who God has created them to be as a passionate and highly qualified medical professional where God is not worshipped. This is not about going to work in Christian hospitals, rather the health care institutions in countries like Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Oman, Dubai where American HCP's are sought after, paid well and if serving with excellence will have opportunities to reflect the glory and goodness of God in these closed environments.
Spiritual formation is a way of describing the life-long journey of becoming who God created us to be. That’s the essence of being a “disciple” or learner. Our experience in healthcare ministry continues to "form" in us the ability to love God with all our heart, mind and strength and our neighbors as ourselves.
In this break out, we will collaboratively identify characteristics of a person who is “prepared” for healthcare ministry, and practices that help us cooperate with God’s efforts to form us for that work.
Participants will learn about the unique roles of women in missions and how to overcome the challenges which women encounter. Suggestions for preparation for missions service as a woman will be presented.
The Ten Questions Everyone Asks About Career Missions: How do I pick a mission agency? How do I know I'm "called?" What about raising children overseas? How can I avoid burnout? These and other questions are answered in this popular talk illustrated with real and sometimes humorous real life stories.
Should you do a domestic or international rotation while in training? When? Where? How do you make it happen? All are questions mission-minded healthcare professionals ask as they explore opportunities to serve during training. Join us as we discuss domestic and international locations, best practices and steps you can take in selecting an opportunity that fits your goals, timeframe, skills, and budget.
This document is for students desiring to prepare for or persevere through medical school, that they would be spiritually ready for their marathon in a way frees them for Christ's mission today and decades from now.
Surviving Culture Shock addresses the stresses that everyone feels when crossing cultural boundaries for short or long term. The ethnocentrism that is true of every culture results in unfair judgment of other cultures and impedes effective interaction. We will explore this dynamic and how to minimize it. We also explain the three stages of the culture shock cycle– tourist, rejection, and adaptation, their natural progression, how to recognize each stage, and the best way forward to a culturally appropriate healthy balance. We also address the inevitable reality of reverse culture shock that often hits unexpectedly upon returning “home” to one’s culture of origin.
If God has called you to be a healthcare missionary, you will experience one of the most satisfying – and challenging – careers in the world. You will be a warrior for God in a hostile land. Like any soldier, you need a time of preparation – what the military refers to as “boot camp” – and that time should begin before you enter your mission field. The time to live, think and pray like a missionary is now!
PRAYER AS MEDICINE: Practical methods & panel discussion regarding personal experiences and best practices in praying for patients during a medical missions outreach.
Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ Luke 10:9 (NIV)
Jesus commanded his disciples to “heal the sick.” As medical professionals involved in missions, we take this command seriously. Our love and service help demonstrate God’s kingdom to the less fortunate. But what if a patient needs more than medical treatment? What if a spiritual cure is also required?
During medical outreaches, which often take place in uncomfortable, rushed and chaotic situations, how can we best incorporate prayer for our patients? How can we pray for each patient when there isn’t enough time, or when there is a language or religious barrier, or if simply lack the training and experience in praying directly with patients?
In this session we will discuss a number of practical ways in which you can pray for patients. This session aims to include a panel discussion in which we will hear stories of ways in which experienced medical missions leaders incorporate prayer into their medical missions.
Practical topics include: How do we present prayer to the patient? How do we pray with an interpreter? If we want to lay hands on someone, what is a respectful way to do that? How do we pray for children? How do we partner with the Holy Spirit in prayer when we are rushed and need to see many patients quickly? How do we pray for people of other religions?
The session will be led and moderated by Rev. David Harder, a non-medical missions professional who has participated in medical missions for decades. He and his family lived in the Middle East from 2003-2011. Since 2006 he has worked to train individuals in praying for the sick in ways that are always honoring and loving toward the individual. David also serves as Communications and Development Director for Blessings International-Medicines for Missions.
Included as a topic for discussion will be the initial results of a survey submitted to the around 2,000 medical missions customers that order medicine from Blessings International each year. The survey seeks input regarding how those teams utilize prayer in their medical outreaches.
Single medical professionals are resilient in a cross-cultural setting and have the opportunity to be highly effective in service. The greatest challenges impact the personal home life of the individual. Applications to increase resiliency in the personal life will be explored with attention given to the relational and sexual domains of life. The workshop will include a presentation followed by designated time to pose questions and dialogue about the material.
Session Description:
Widely acceptable in Middle Eastern countries, gender based violence (GBV) in the region is far from being well documented. Inherent socio-cultural norms in most settings, contribute to eclectic tolerance of GBV, a fatalistic attitude and helplessness among victims. Women, adolescents and other vulnerable population groups, especially internally displaced people (IDP) and refugees are at high risk suffering preventable clinical complications and fatal consequences.
This session will survey GBV in the Middle East highlighting its inherent root causes presenting the epidemiological picture in the region. You will learn of the clinical consequences of female genital cutting. The importance of region-specific data, and challenges in data-driven documentation will be discussed. UN prevention and care programing, and culturally acceptable initiatives will be introduced. Anecdotal experiences from the field will be shared on ministering to refugees and IDP victims of GBV.
Eighty percent of the cases of cervical cancer are found in poorly developed countries. There is not adequate screening available to diagnose precancerous lesions and treat them. Many lives can be saved using methods that do not rely highly on technology advanced training. This session will describe the scope of the problem, the tools available for diagnosis and treatment and the ones that would be applicable in a low resourced setting. Additionally, some training will occur to use visual inspection with acetic acid so that its applicability and ease of use is demonstrated.
Every year 3.6 million girls in Africa and the Middle East undergo a procedure in which their external genitalia is cut and sometimes sewn. This cultural practice can lead to numerous complications throughout a female’s life, especially during childbirth. This session will focus on the care of women who have experienced female genital cutting, while also discussing cultural attitudes and eradication efforts. Warning: graphic images will be presented.
Malaria has been a health threat for hundreds of years, yet continues to be a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, particularly in developing countries. Using case presentations, and drawing from the speaker’s international experience, this workshop will explore what’s new in malaria diagnosis and treatment and consider the emotional, mental, social and cultural as well as medical implications of the disease.
This session will cover the topic of sourcing medicines for missions. We will discussthe following: counterfeit medication, substandard medication, risks and benefits of obtaining medication in the united states and transporting it overseas versus obtaining the medication in developing nations, how to source medications that will be used in developing nations.
A woman in the United States often has 15 visits to her healthcare provider and as many laboratory evaluations during the course of her pregnancy. Is this a realistic model of care in the developing world? This session will discuss the essential components of antenatal care that can be practically delivered in low and middle-income countries, with the goal of reducing maternal and perinatal morbidity and mortality.
The principles of abdominal surgery are not different in Africa, but the presentation, available diagnostic tools and frequency of certain etiologies is significantly different. The approach and therapy the more common causes of the acute abdomen will be the primary diseases discussed.
This is a primer of how to get started in palliative care and can be used to teach others as well. There is also a companion Palliative Care Toolkit Trainers Manual available for use with medical missions physician assistants, doctors, and nurses.. Both documents are available in a number of languages.
Chronic hepatitis B and C cause cirrhosis and liver cancer, and are major causes of death throughout sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. Advances in the diagnosis and management of these chronic viral infections are beginning to impact patient outcomes in low and middle income countries. In this session current hepatitis global guidelines will be discussed, as well as practical issues and new solutions for hepatitis care in resource-limited settings.
This session will describe a variety of opportunities to reach out internationally through educating healthcare professionals desiring advanced skills and knowledge. This will include not only specialty specific opportunities, but those related to faculty development, bioethics, advanced life support training, and other topics.
Overview and update of Tuberculosis in global health, augmented with cases from around the world.
of the 6.3 million children under the age of five who died in 2013, 44% (2.761 million) were neonates (defined as age 0-28 days). Over the past decade, neonatal mortality decreased at an annual rate of 2.9% compared to 4.9% in children aged 1-59 months. This smaller reduction in under-five mortality (U5M) among neonates is a significant contributor to the worldwide failure to achieve Millennium Developmental Goal 4 this year. Reducing global neonatal mortality through prevention and treatment programs in low-to-middle-income countries (LMIC), where nearly all U5M occurs, is a high priority among global child survival agendas.
Why is HIV/AIDS still a concern on the mission field? HIV prevalence and AIDS death rates have declined in many countries, yet HIV/AIDS continues to have tremendous medical, emotional, economic and social challenges. Using case presentations, this workshop will explore HIV/AIDS treatment and care drawing from the speaker’s experience in Africa.
Contemporary criticism by global health experts of much of short term medical missions activity (Dead Aid, When Helping Hurts) is valid. We have a tendency to justify use of US diagnostic and treatment guidelines in low income countries as equitable while demonstrably unreasonable and harmful. Careful consideration of the whole care process from care access to care follow-up including all costs including harms and benefits coupled with compassion leads to cost-effective, patient-centric care
There is little in the medical literature about applying the basic tenets of medical ethics in resource limited situations common in mission hospitals. For example, healthcare professionals are taught not to attempt medical or surgical interventions they have not be trained to do. That prohibition will be quickly violated when you are the only option for the patient. With real life stories and practical suggestions, this talk prepares future missionaries to serve well and ethically overseas.
The Ebola outbreak in West Africa not only challenged governments, NGOs, and health systems, but had ripple effects including the closure of hospitals and clinics and loss of health care workers. Over the past year, training has taken place, hospitals have reopened, and survivors are being treated. However, Liberia's Medical College remains closed (as of June 2015), and many other areas are still adversely affected. ELWA Hospital's experience shows how a Mission hospital has navigated through this crisis, and how God's aims have been furthered. .
This talk will review common parasitic diseases in the tropics. The classification, presentation and basic treatment of these syndromes will be discussed in a case-based format. Visual recognition of findings will be part of this interactive session, using an audience response system. We will focus mostly on classic skin, abdominal, and pulmonary syndromes. We will also discuss some beneficial effects of parasites on childhood immune development. Less emphasis will be placed on parasites covered in other sessions, such as malaria. Let me know if you have a case to discuss or a specific question before the session.
Effective short-term healthcare missions requires actions that facilitate long-term change in the local setting - in healthcare services, in combating poverty, and in addressing spiritual needs. Unprepared short-term teams often do more damage than good. This presentation will provide strategies and tactics to properly prepare a short-term healthcare team and to build a relationship with a national partner that improves national conditions over the long-term with short-term teams.
Faith-based medical ministries have substantial opportunities to conduct biomedical research that positively impacts the communities they serve. In addition, biomedical research can help mission organizations achieve their strategic goals. In this session missional, ethical, and practical aspects of research in faith-based, developing-world settings will be discussed.
During the main GMHC conference 2015 PRIME International's CEO, Prof Richard Vincent, presented this breakout session on ‘Compassion: Foundation for Whole Person Care’.
Scientific and technical advances may be seen as the key to best medical practice, but to focus only on biological processes is to ignore other powerful influences on the causes and treatment
of illness. A solely mechanistic approach fails to deal with the basic requirement of patients to be cared for as people - in body, mind and spirit.
This session explored the topic of whole person care including its biblical basis, evidence for its benefit and its delivery to patients founded on compassion.
While weaving into his presentation personal experiences from both his time serving in Liberia and his own experience with Ebola, Dr. Sacra will discuss ways in which the response to the Ebola crisis sometimes has unintended consequences. We’ve observed cultural clashes sometimes leading to violence, both in cities and in rural areas, as well as impacts on the health system as a whole. Some key interventions carried out by the Government and NGOs have served to disempower communities rather than empowering them. We’ll review lessons learned from these first 6 months in battling Ebola.
The power of story for the medical missionary God called us, we listened, and we took small steps toward obedience. Then when the Ebola tragedy struck, we knew God would be faithful and use it for His glory. Followed by Q&A time.
The Ebola epidemic in West Africa is staggering and unimaginable in terms of magnitude of cases and overall mortality. Corporately, the international humanitarian community could not have anticipated the extent of this unparalleled outbreak, and coordinated global efforts have been significantly outpaced by exponential growth of this deadly disease. Traditional treatment methods of patient isolation and clinical management within Ebola Treatment Units (ETUs) can no longer serve as the exclusive means of patient care. The staggering numbers of patients and inadequate numbers of qualified health care personnel have mandated a vastly unique three tiered “community-based” approach. Please join Dr. Lance Plyler as he reviews and explores the evolution from traditional clinical management to novel approaches of patient care rendered via community care centers and home based efforts.
The 2014 Ebola outbreak has already killed more than 4000 people, and the end is not clearly in sight. During this session, we will put Ebola into context of other health problems in Africa and then review the presentations, diagnosis, management, and prevention of this devastating illness. We will also explore ways that we can get involved in battling Ebola, whether near to or far from West Africa.
ELWA Hospital is a small SIM mission hospital near Monrovia, Liberia. When did we first hear about the impending threat of Ebola? What did we do? How did we prepare? What happened? Come and hear the story of Ebola coming to ELWA.
Suppose you were born in Central Thailand 60 years ago. As a teenager you found a numb spot on your arm, later on your arm became painful and finally your hand was deformed and you couldn’t feel or grip anything. You and your family were frightened. The monks at the Buddhist temple tried to help, but their expensive poultices did not help. Your family loved you, but they felt they had no alternative than to put you out of the house. You were a social outcast and would have to live a life of begging.
What is worldview? What is your worldview? What is the worldview of the community described in the scenario above?
The great majority of medical missions in East Asia takes place in Buddhist and Chinese (Confucius) contexts. Are they the same, similar or different? What obstacles must be overcome to make an impact physically and spiritually in East Asia? What must a medical missionary understand and put into practice in order to work effectively with peoples in Buddhist and Chinese worldviews? Finally, what is the unique role that medical missions can have in these contexts?
This session will feature Dr. David Leung, a family medicine doctor who has worked at Evergreen ministries in Taiyuan, China for over 15 years. He will present the Chinese worldview. I will present the Buddhist challenge.
The principles of abdominal surgery are not different in Africa, but the presentation, available diagnostic tools and frequency of certain etiologies is significantly different. The approach and therapy of peptic ulcer disease, small bowel obstruction, large bowel obstruction and parasitic disease in the abdomen will be the primary diseases discussed.
Endoscopists in the global South face common challenges including limited training opportunities and poor access to equipment and repair facilities. Despite these challenges therapeutic endoscopy creates dramatic improvements in patient outcomes in resource-constrained settings. Strategies for implementing, growing, and sustaining endoscopy services – including the role of short-term partners - will be discussed.
Cross-cultural medical workers are under multiple levels of stress peculiar to their professional roles.
They often serve as mental health resources to colleagues and other cross-cultural workers, have difficulty limiting the hours of work with minimal reprieve for rest and restoration.
This session will focus on cognitive and behavioral tools that can improve mental and emotional self-care.
This session will discuss the role of women in health care missions today. It will include examples and personal stories that will encourage expanded vision and new perspectives on opportunities and needs.
This session will focus on the advances in maternal, newborn, and child health (MNCH) with a special emphasis on healthy timing and spacing of pregnancies (HTSP). We will discuss the progress made over the past 25 years as well as a way forward with a focus on international family planning. We will look at Ethiopia as a case study for the implementation of healthy timing and spacing of pregnancies and the linkages with addressing other global health millennium development goals. In terms of next steps, we will provide a robust discussion around philanthropy, awareness-raising, and advocacy opportunities to elevate the issues of MNCH for a goal of better dialogue and increased funding on these important global health and development issues.
May people talk about being a missionary in the future… "when I graduate from medical school… when I pay off my debt… when I have more experience… THEN I will become a missionary." The problem is that few are actually living the life of a missionary NOW. Being a missionary does not just magically happen when you set foot on foreign soil. In this session we will discuss the preparation of your heart and hands to be a missionary NOW in your current context, whether that be nursing school, medical school, or residency, AND in the future, whether that be North Africa or North Tulsa.
Historically, the medical goals of medical missions have focused primarily upon primary care, preventive care, and infectious diseases. While these continue to be areas of great need throughout the world, and justifiably remain laudable goals of medical missions, a great deal of literature has emerged in recent years regarding the enormous burden of chronic disease in developing countries. Correctible cardiac lesions have been shown to represent a disproportionate burden of chronic diseases in the developing world, and generally are a disease of children and young adults. Due to lack of diagnostic and curative services, most of these patients continue to die at very young ages. However, with appropriate technology, teaching, and capacity building, many patients can be treated to prevent progression of disease, or provide curative surgical therapy. In this breakout session, we will look at the example of Tenwek Hospital in Kenya, where hundreds of open-heart procedures have now been performed with very low morbidity and mortality. We will examine the significant financial issues involved with this type of technology, as well as the enormous number of productive years of life, which can be redeemed through cardiac care. Finally, we will also discuss the joys of providing spiritual as well as physical healing of the hearts of people in the developing world.
4 years ago my wife and I felt the Lord was calling us to relocate our family of five into a historic African American community in Memphis, TN. While the neighborhood had a proud heritage it had fallen victim to seeing most of the successful professionals move out of the neighborhood and as a result drugs, gangs and poverty had now replaced the proud heritage with a reputation for being one of the most violent and toughest neighborhoods in Memphis. While the calling was clear our emotions and fears fluctuated as we prepared and ultimately made this move. I will share the journey to adapt to a new culture and how medicine has been a great tool to graft ourselves into a neighborhood so that the name of Jesus can be proclaimed.
"Rural America" conjures up warm, innocent images from Norman Rockwell paintings. Today, however, small town America could not be further from this picture. Broken homes, epidemic drug abuse, staggering unemployment, and paralyzing depression have ravaged these once nostalgic streets. We’re not in Mayberry anymore!
God has called all of us to serve, yet medical missions in rural America have been neglected due to the needs of other parts of the world. When we survey the desperate needs in less populated areas and the lack of access to quality healthcare, it is obvious there is a deficiency. Rural hospitals are closing. Funding is low. Providers are led to other more “obvious” mission fields. In reality, 46.2 million people live in nonmetropolitan counties — that’s nearly 15 percent of U.S. residents spread across 72 percent of the Nation's land area. Who will care for the rural poor?
Dr. Thomas will share about his journey from India to Appalachia. He serves as the Medical Director at Dayspring Family Health Center and co-pastors a local church, answering a call to serve vulnerable and marginalized communities. Despite the many challenges of such a ministry, he is learning to experience the rich rewards of caring for the least of these in rural Tennessee. Listen as he shares his stories of serving God in a way he never asked or imagined.
Before we can understand God's will for us, we must first understand his overarching plan to glorify himself among all nations. This breakout session will explore God's mission and our response to him, common barriers that prevent us from surrendering to God's mission, and disciplines that prepare us to do God's will.
The United States is a much overlooked field in global missions. 96 million people live in areas designated as medically underserved. All of those are communities where poverty is rampant and resources are low. Not only are those areas of great need, they are areas of tremendous opportunity where the harvest is ripe for the gospel. The Director of Christian Community Health Fellowship will share an overview of the issues impacting this cross-cultural domestic mission field, and will discuss how Christian health professionals are intentionally living out the gospel through healthcare among the poor in the United States.
Contemporary criticism by global health experts of much of short term medical missions activity (Dead Aid, When Helping Hurts) is valid. We have a tendency to justify use of US diagnostic and treatment guidelines in low income countries as equitable while demonstrably unreasonable and harmful. Careful consideration of the whole care process from care access to care follow-up including all costs including harms and benefits coupled with compassion leads to cost-effective, patient-centric care
1.2 million young children die each year due to acute respiratory infection. Careful attention to appropriate diagnosis, evidenced-based management, and preventive strategies can help prevent these unnecessary and tragic deaths.
Pregnant women and children are at particular risk of malaria in endemic areas, and all non-immune visitors to these areas risk severe disease and death. This session will review the epidemiology, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of malaria with special focus on pregnant women, children, and travelers.
Despite declining HIV prevalence and AIDS death rate in many countries, HIV/AIDS remains a tremendous challenge with medical, emotional, economic and social problems. Using case presentations and an interactive format, this workshop will explore HIV/AIDS care and treatment issues particularly from the speaker’s experience in Africa
many of the consequences of human trafficking have health ramifications, both physical and mental. It is important to be aware of these to help in identification of victims and to meet their health needs
This session will give a general overview of the topic of human trafficking specifically designed for healthcare professionals. It will cover both domestic and international trafficking as well as sex and labor trafficking. The session will also discuss general identifiers of human trafficking, as well as how to prepare to respond to victims of human trafficking in the healthcare setting.
This session will look at antibiotics appropriate for treatment of dental infections and for antibiotic prophylaxis as well as discussing antibiotic misuse and increasing drug resistance.
Oral Surgery can be particularly challenging on the mission field. In addition to dealing with communication and language difficulties, there are cross-cultural issues and often the lack of x-rays, proper lighting, poor suction, the lack of a trained assistant and possibly the lack of some necessary equipment. Some teams have no dentist on board and many dentists do only limited oral surgery in their practices. How can we be prepared and what are some of the techniques that we can use that might be of help as we care for those who often have never seen a dentist before and are in pain or have been in pain. Releiving pain and infection and doing no harm is only one of the pressing issues when we are out of our comfort zone working in a small dark area where we could be injured and where the incidence of HIV may be quite high.
This session will focus on the medications used to treat malaria. Most of the discussion will be focused on malaria treatment outside of the US, but time will also be spent to compare the global treatment of malaria to the treatment of malaria "imported" into the US. The session will end with a look at medications currently undergoing investigation for the treatment of malaria in the future.
Mental Health challenges are among those that bear the greatest burden of disease and disability in every country evaluated. Special challenges of diagnosing and caring for people suffering from mental health challenges in Africa will be addressed.
While embarking on a general surgical career as a worker in Africa, I found the breadth of surgical need far beyond my narrow thinking. General surgery gave way to gynecolgy, plastic surgery, orthopedics, urology, and ultimately neurosurgery as pertaining primarily to children with hydrocephalus and spina bifida. The rehab surgery has endured as my focus for the last thirty years. It has been a journey where there are few surgeons involved and where the huge needs seem to have opened a wonderful spiritual path.
Fever is a common and recurrent diagnostic dilemma for medical providers in tropical regions or those who see international travelers. Patterns of fever and associated clinical findings often provide important clinical clues to direct diagnostic testing and therapy. Join in an interactive session that will review the causes of fever in various parts of the world. This session will focus on the diagnostic and therapeutic challenges for those who work in resource poor areas.
Infertility rates are highest in low resource countries and unfortunately these are the same areas where a woman's worth is frequently based upon her her child bearing abilities. This session will look at common causes of infertility and available treatment options
Travel to developing countries exposes one personally and professionally to new and unfamiliar diseases. This session will review real cases illustrating common tropical worms and germs. Join in the group discussion and diagnostic challenge.
Opportunities for mentoring , discipling and learning from majority world healthcare leaders of today and tomorrow have never been more available or diverse. Ministering healing in Jesus’ name can occur within CANs; within national nursing, medical and other allied health schools; and within a growing number of Christian university-based ,health professions schools. Making a long term commitment allows relationship based discipleship that can produce servant healers from among the Americas, Africa and Asia.
This session will outline the advantages of medical education missions compared to direct care missions, give examples of organizations with which attendees can participate in short term medical education missions, identify challenges participants face and ways they can be overcome, and provide examples of the long term impacts recent short term medical education missions have had.
Traditional short term medical mission trips involve doing much work and seeing many patients. Many of the procedures can be taught to indigenous believers, allowing them an opportunity to learn new skills that can be used long after the team has gone home. These skills in turn allow access to areas of outreach not available to foreign workers. This breakout explores methods in use today that allow such outreach.
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 sustainable projects and help move from ‘relief’ to ‘development’ and self sustaining mode. Caleb Rayapati, will show case how the “Pass on the skills” is making an impact on the ground, a firsthand account of the partnering mission using the Dental Outreach skills in self sustaining method, involved in community development in India impacting through practice of Biblical wholisim- a first hand account of how Indian Church has impacted using health care skills.
Can a church in a poor and vulnerable community run a sustainable healthcare ministry in her community?
Yes, if the church and short term medical team are well prepared for ministry. Here are the steps we have taken in Ghana to enable local churches run sustainable healthcare ministries as result of short term medical teams equipping them.
“Prepare your shields, both large and small, and march out for battle! Harness the horses, mount the steeds! Take your positions with helmets on! Polish your spears, put on your armor!”
Jeremiah 46
If God has called you to be a healthcare missionary, you will experience one of the most satisfying – and challenging – careers in the world. You will be a warrior for God in a hostile land. Like any soldier, you need a time of preparation – what the military refers to as “boot camp” – and that time should begin before you enter your mission field. The time to live, think and pray like a missionary is now!
"A disciple is not above his teacher...if they persecuted me, they will persecute you...if they have called the head of the house Beelzebub, what will they call the members of his house?" Since Genesis 3, all human beings have suffered, but disciples of Jesus, especially those who seek to glorify Him as missionaries, inevitably enter into His peculiar sufferings: loneliness, alienation, rejection, humiliation, and physical pain. Some disciples will pay the ultimate price of martyrdom.
We don't pursue suffering for its own sake, but obedient disciples can't avoid hardships. We need a biblical theology of suffering that protects us from despair--and allows us to benefit from suffering's redemptive and maturing power.
Dr. 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 for lack of mentors. What is a mentor? What do mentors offer prospective long-term medical missionaries? Come to this session if you desire a mentor or if you desire to become a mentor. Before the session you may want to familiarize yourself with GMHC’s mentoring service at https://www.medicalmissions.com/community/mentoring . This session strives to honor God by helping you translate your dreams of serving as a long-term medical missionary into reality.
Health professionals in all settings should take a history from their patient(s). National guidelines in the U.S. recommend a spiritual assessment be included with most or all patients. Yet, surveys show that over 95% of patients say that no health professional has ever inquired of their spiritual or religious beliefs. Furthermore, most health professionals indicate that they never been taught how or why to incorporate a spiritual or religious assessment into their patient history.
In this session you'll learn why a spiritual assessment is now considered a part of quality, evidence-based patient care. In addition, you'll be exposed to a number of spiritual history instruments to consider using in your patient care and you'll be exposed to options of how to utilize the information obtained from a spiritual assessment.
Finally, you'll be introduced to a small group training tool that you can use at home to facilitate the introduction of these principles to other health professionals.
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 all be safe, but is there any place in which we can be safe today? One question we all have to answer is: Is security the absence of danger or the presence of the Lord. But, being good stewards of the great blessing of volunteers serving the least and the last is our obligation. We need to be prepared and have trained and seasoned team leaders to know what to do when the unthinkable happens. We will discuss how to approach these situations from the standpoint of evaluation of risks, minimizing exposure, preparation and training for an encounter with the unthinkable.
Scientific and technical advances are often seen as the key to best medical practice and have become the aspiration of both developed and developing countries. But to focus only on biological processes is to ignore other powerful influences on the causes and management of illness. A solely mechanistic approach fails to deal with the basic requirement of patients to be cared for as people - in body, mind and spirit.
This session will explore the broader practice of patient care defined by the phrase ‘whole person medicine’. Beginning with a biblical basis for this approach, and taking evidence from history and research, we will examine its core component of compassion including its practical application in healthcare delivery and teaching.
The Kingdom of God or Kingdom of Heaven shaped every aspect of Jesus’ ministry - - his healing, prayers, teaching and even his identity . As we follow him in health care missions, the Kingdom should also define our goals, methodologies, and ways of relating with those we serve and with our co-workers. It should fuel our hope and our perseverance.
Everyone who has been on a medical mission has some embarrassing and/or hilarious stories of cultural or language blunders. Sometimes the events are just funny. Sometimes they can seriously compromise relationships and the intended impact of the whole mission, including our Christian witness. This session offers perspective, spiritual grounding and practical tools for building healthy relationships, avoiding, or at least recovering from many of the common mistakes in cross-cultural missions.
How do you “Do No Harm” when you are often practicing beyond your training? How do you treat everyone “fairly” in a context of unlimited need and limited resources of time, equipment, supplies and staffing? Using real life examples, we will examine the practical application of the ethical principles of non-malfeasance, benevolence, autonomy and justice in the difficult situations faced by many medical missionaries.
Long-term improvement in health-related indicators for a population depends on coordinated interaction between communities, local leaders, government, and technical experts. Long-term input from outsiders can be valuable, as can coordinated input from outsiders who engage in appropriate partnering relationships with nationals. This workshop will identify several successful models for partnering where short-term healthcare workers can have a tremendous impact, as well as highlighting pitfalls to be avoided.
This session is design for those who already have an understanding of human trafficking and need guidance regarding how to develop a protocol to respond to victims of trafficking within a hospital or clinic. The session will cover the steps necessary to develop a response protocol and the elements that should be contained in a good protocol.
Traditional short term mission trips focus on going to an area and "doing" work for a people group or "working alongside" a local ministry for a few days. Often when the mission team leaves it creates a hardship for the locals as the "doers" have gone leaving work still to be done. What if we could train the local believers to do the work that we are doing? This session presents just such a model. An empowering method of short term missions passes on teachable skills to indigenous people allowing them to do for each other long after a short term team has left.
A discussion of the highs and lows of long term hospital based missions. Mission hospitals afford opportunities for deeply meaningful service but not without significant challenges and often at considerable cost.
Oral lesions can present clues of a systemic conditions—the appearance, the character of the lesions, the size, the duration, and the location of the lesions can give some insight as to a possible systemic implications. On the mission field, without all the desired tests and studies, it is very helpful to have an idea what lesions may be part of a systemic condition and what lesions are most likely to respond to local measures. Bring your "thinking cap" and lets have some fun. There will be time for questions and answers.
This session will give an overview of the current picture of trafficking in persons within the United States including international and domestic trafficking with an emphasis on child sex trafficking, the major form of trafficking in persons within the U.S. In addition, the session will address specific indicators of human trafficking for the healthcare professional and how to help identify victims of human trafficking that may present in the healthcare setting.
The panel will address the challenges and rewards of serving internationally as a single person. It will provide food for thought and prayer for those who are considering and preparing for cross-cultural service.
This session describes how healthcare professionals, working in developing countries, will require a lot improvisations. In addition, the speaker will explain how healing requires more than healing just the body. There will be a discussion on how to provide healthcare with limited medications, technology, help and limited understanding. There will be a brief discussion on how healthcare providers put themselves at risk and finally, a overview of how to train and equip locals to sustain healthcare once the healthcare team has left the area.
Sign up for this workshop when you arrive at the conference registration desk. Space is limited
The skills of wound management and suturing are frequently needed by medical and nursing professionals in mission settings. Often there is not a surgeon available, and the next most qualified person to take care of the patient may be you. Accurate suturing skills are an important part of acute wound management which can be performed well with a little training in careful technique. This workshop is a practical hands-on approach to suturing for non-surgeons. We will walk you step by step through closure of a wound by using a pig's foot in place of the patient. Basic, easy to use, but reliable techniques of suturing will be introduced or reviewed. This session will include a demonstration and practice of:
• the basics of wound healing and closure
• guidelines for choosing the correct suture and needle
• correct knot tying methods ( for right or left handed persons)
• wound closure with a variety of suturing techniques
• common pitfalls
• practical tips on improving your technique.
Space will be limited to medical, nursing professionals, or students in these professions. Sign up early. Please review the attached PowerPoint presentation before you attend the session.
Parasites are the cause of many common tropical diseases. Recognizing the typical presentation and prevention of parasitic diseases can be extremely valuable for those practicing in a tropical setting. We will explore short case vignettes to illustrate the classic diseases caused by protozoa, worms and ectoparasites. Those who wish to present their own cases are also invited to participate. Bring your powers of observation and clinical wit to diagnose these mystery cases.
Worksite wellness is one of the 5 groups of communities for community engagement. Schools are a specialized workplace. Consistent health / wellness messages in schools and worksites will reach the family from two strategic directions.
This session will share answers on how to become a medical missionary. Each person who attends will receive a 3 x 5 card when they enter the room. The moderator John McVay will group and select questions, direct them to appropriate panelists, and receive questions from the floor. Probable topics discussed from questions expected are: Guidance, Agencies, Training, Funding, Singles, and Families.
Urban health care and the gospel must embrace 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 indigenous to our communities to stay to serve God within the context of their lives? This workshop will explore Christ’s healing ministry among those he came to serve. Susan Post, the director of Esperanza Health Center and Tony Gonzalez, an Esperanza leader will share their experiences, challenges and vision for health care ministry as one who relocated into North Philadelphia and one who grew up in North Philadelphia. We need one another to be able to gain a more complete vision for effective Christ-centered health care ministry.
In health care ministry, we share the compassion of Christ. Christ's compassion "suffers with" those we are called to serve. Engaging deeply with our patients can be difficult if our own lives are not bound with our Savior. We can find ourselves disillusioned, distant, or overwhelmed as we share in the suffering of others. Spiritual vibrancy and worship are vital for compassionate ministry. This workshop will explore Christ's call to share in the suffering of others, the importance of a life of worship for ministry, and some ways we can foster spiritual vibrancy in our lives of ministry.
Over 96M Americans live in medically underserved areas (MUAs) right here in the United States. Most MUAs are located in strategic areas of need where service is desperately needed and where people are ripe for the gospel. Medical mission pioneers are responding to needs in our own nation by applying in domestic settings proven strategies that have worked in challenging international fields. These courageous disciples recognize that our mission really is "global" and not just "international"; that "mission" is not something you do 2 weeks in the summer, but is a lifestyle; and that serving in cross-cultural, impoverished communities here not only fulfills our Christian mandate, but is the best preparation they can get for work in other countries.
This session will examine what gospel-driven healthcare looks like in the U.S., and discuss the principles and strategies that are helping Christians extend Christ's love through healthcare to the neediest of our neighbors.
When? Where? How? All are questions mission-minded healthcare professionals ask as they explore rotations or volunteer service during training. Join us as we discuss domestic and international locations, best practices and steps you can take in selecting an opportunity that fits your goals, timeframe, skills, and budget.
Dr. David Stevens talks with Dr. Carol Spears about her journal to and on the mission field.
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 sustainable projects and help move from ‘relief’ to ‘development’ and self sustaining mode. Caleb Rayapati, will show case how the “Pass on the skills” is making an impact on the ground, a firsthand account of the partnering mission using the Dental Outreach skills in self sustaining method, involved in community development in India impacting through practice of Biblical wholisim.
In today's world, major urban centers, with highly renowned medical centers and universities, are also places with high infant and maternal mortality/morbidity. According to UNFPA's Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin (2012), "The number of maternal deaths is often inversely proportional to girls' and women's status in the family and society, and evidence shows that the poorer the household, the greater the risk of maternal death." In this session, we will examine factors influencing women's health, both in urban and global settings, and discuss strategies for health promotion and disease prevention with women and their communities
Traditional ways of serving in medical missions have included working in mission hospitals, clinics and aspects of community development and public health. Less well-known—but significant—medical mission ministries from the beginning include medical education and cooperating with local and national governments in planning or providing healthcare, including national healthcare. As entry into many areas of the world has been restricted for traditional medical missions over the past generation, these other less well-known thrusts have increased in strategic significance.
Three distinguished panelists—Dr. James Smith, Dr. Daniel Tolan and Dr. Matthew Koh— bring extensive experience from nearly all continents to this session. They have served in both Christian and secular contexts and short and long term programs that have greatly enhanced the scope and effectiveness of medical missions worldwide. Join us to expand your horizons of opportunities to serve in these medical ministries.
If you’ve been on a short-term trip you’ve experienced it; it’s the last day and the line of patients is as long as the day of arrival. Desperation is in the air. There is a nagging sense in your gut that this is not right. This session will present techniques that empower believers to meet the healthcare needs in their own community
How should I manage medical and surgical diseases in a resource limited setting? How do I decide whether to test or just treat? Should I treat the poor, rural farmer in Africa for mild HTN as I would a farmer in Minnesota? Learn an evidence-based probabilistic approach to rational, ethical, shared decision making with patients in resource limited settings that leads to cost effective care. Learn how to leave expensive, guideline centered, inefficient, futile care and embrace high value, patient-centric, cost effective, sensible care for the poor and medically underserved
The Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI) strategy has been proven to prevent disease, disability, and death and improve care for ill children in outpatient settings in low income countries. Learn the algorithms that can help you and your colleagues provide high quality integrated care for sick children in resource-limited settings at a fraction of the cost of usual care, improve case management skills of your health care staff, as well as improve your local health system and the health practices of families and communities where you serve.
Medicine is one means of meeting the needs of people throughout the world. Working with the disabled opens closed doors and is an outreach to those I consider "unreached". Three to ten percent of the world is considered to have some type of disability. Only a very few in the developing world can find care to improve their plight in life. Surgical rehabilitation, and its associated care, has opened doors throughout East Africa and has opened doors into closed countries. Kenya was the beginning. In 2006 a team entered a country where we were told, "There are no Christians, national or expats!" The third day there a medical student commented, "I have never met a Christian." A recent publication suggested that only 1 in 15 in that country had every met a Christian. Now, seven years later we have touched the physical lives of probably thousands, and we have planted a lot of seeds. Children with hydrocephalus, spina bifida, burn contractures, club feet, cleft lips/palates, and other disabilities are receiving care that was not previously available, AND children from 4 surrounding regions are also coming for care. The work of BethanyKids in Kenya, and of the Lord, saw about 7,000 people come to the Lord in 2011. Most of Africa has nearly no significant medical care for the disabled. With added workers and further training, doors could be open to much of the developing world.
This session will help participants to work through the nebulous idea of God's calling by exploring a Biblical framework for knowing and doing God's will, and helping participants identify and overcome common barriers that prevent people from fully surrendering their lives to leading of the Holy Spirit.
Knowing medicine or dentistry is not enough to be a successful missionary. There are many things beyond medicine you need to master to be effective. You need to learn how to recruit, train and supervise people. You will likely be involved in fund raising, program design and development, evangelism, leadership, government relations, project proposals, public speaking and much more.
This session will give you an overview of many of these areas and get you started down the path to be a life long learner. Dr. Stevens will share clear principles and practical experience seasoned with examples from his missionary experience. He will point you to good resources to learn what you need to know beyond medicine.
"Justice" has multiple meanings in the Bible. When the psalmist declared that "righteousness and justice are the foundation" of the Messiah's throne (Psalm 89:14), he was speaking of an equity and fairness that goes beyond punishment for bad people. God's zeal for justice is found throughout the Old and New Testaments. This breakout session will define biblical justice, describe present day healthcare injustices, and demonstrate that working for healthcare justice is a powerful means of glorifying God and expanding the Kingdom of Jesus.
Are you and your family planning to be missionaries in the US or overseas and wondering the impact on your family life? This session will provide advice from a couple who served 8 years in Asia, where 3 of their 4 daughters were born. They'll give suggestions, some of it learned the hard way, for how you and your family can thrive on the mission field. Included will be strategies and insights for successful family preparation beforehand and healthy family life after your begin serving. Time will also be available during the session for asking your questions.
Mission Medical: Assessing and Addressing Spiritual Needs of Patients
We'll discuss (1) why healthcare professionals have been reluctant to take a spiritual history, (2) the positive association of spirituality/religiosity and physical/mental health, and (3) several spiritual history tools to consider for use in clinical care.
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 beginning to follow suit. Yet, few churches or educational institutions have any knowledge of what constitutes best practices in global health. This workshop will review the six guidelines for best practices in global health as they appear in the book “When Healthcare Hurts: An Evidence Based Guide to Best Practices in Global Health Initiatives”. It will also review the four primary areas of global health best practices which include the following.
- Patient Safety
- Healthcare System Integration and Collaboration
- Facilitation of Health Development
- Community Empowerment
International short-term healthcare teams are challenging to develop and lead, due to the need for cultural intelligence, strong spiritual preparation of the team, and complex regulatory requirements in each country. Organizers must assure that they understand the myriad cultural complexities of working across cultural barriers, and how to educate their short-term team on the essentials. Spiritual formation of the team, and strong support of the disciple-making ministry of national partners must include strong, proactive preparation of team members and establishing a safe, ministry-focused environment for service. Careful planning with credible national partners is essential for both effective spiritual ministry, and for negotiating the many legal, regulatory, and customs requirements in developing country settings. This session will discuss mechanisms to plan for, prioritize, and measure desired actions and outcomes.
Preventing and Managing Burnout
Cross-cultural medical workers are under multiple levels of stress peculiar to their professional roles.
They often serve as mental health resources to colleagues and other cross-cultural workers, have difficulty limiting the hours of work with minimal reprieve for rest and restoration.
This session will focus on cognitive and behavioral tools that can improve the mental self-care with attention to appropriate and assertive limit-setting, sleep preservation, stress management, and team development.
The session will also discuss strategies for managing burnout when it emerges including these tools as well as clinical tools of formal assessment and bio/psycho/social/spiritual interventions
Objectives:
1- Participants will be able to describe the main sources of challenge to mental health of cross-cultural medical workers and the signs of emerging burnout
2- Participants will be able to describe at least three cognitive-behavioral strategies that can be utilized to improve mental self-care and burnout management.
Goals of This Breakout Session Include:
1. Review the list of evidence-based, low-cost, mortality-reducing interventions for critically ill patients that are appropriate for use in resource limited settings.
2. Share practical lessons learned including successes and challenges from running an ICU in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Global Health Issues: Major Existing Global Issues
Intensive Medical Education in Low Resource Areas
Speaker: Ndidi Musa
Location: ED 210/212
Abstract: To achieve the Millennium development goal 4, which is to reduce under-five mortality by two-thirds by 2015, still remains a challenge for low resource countries. Emergency and critical care services are often the weakest parts of the health system and yet have the potential to significantly reduce mortality. Effective triage, emergency care and intensive care is possible by putting into place intensive training and education that equips the health care staff to recognize and care for these critically ill children. Mission hospitals have the potential to take the lead in intensive care medical education for a number of reasons. Most missionary doctors have trained in a system where triage is the norm and where simple measures like availability of oxygen can save a life. it is with this background in mind that we will explore the following objectives: We will define the spectrum of intensive care services; We will identify tools and resources available to educate and train health care providers to improve skills and knowledge in intensive care; Innovations in critical care are they possible in mission hospitals?
Healthcare provides a unique opportunity to engage the deepest issues of life and faith alongside those who are suffering. Can you care for patients in a way that brings them before Jesus and offers them peace, healing, and wholeness? Discover how to practice healthcare as your ministry…starting even now as a student or resident.
The last contact we have with our patients is often discussing and dispensing their medications. This session will examine barriers and provide strategies to address cross-cultural: communication with patients, issues in appropriate patient medication use, and methods to provide clear instructions when counseling patients on medications.
The needs of long-term expatriate workers are quite different from those of the short-term worker. Long-term strategies include more flexible malaria prophylaxis regimens (covering high risk seasons), self treatment options for diarrhea and malaria, additional disease concerns (Japanese encephalitis, rabies) and dealing with mental health issues such as culture shock and depression.
Caring for Asian patients from other cultures offers some unique challenges, whether these are recent immigrants to the U.S. or patients seen in overseas settings. Language is just the first obstacle and often professional interpreters are a necessity. Cultural expectations differ by country. High context Asian cultures can make it difficult to communicate even after language issues are resolved. Many illnesses present differently with physical complaints often masking mental health concerns. Familiarity with various Asian culture bound syndromes is essential.
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.
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. When these children are brought to a mission hospital, reconstructive surgery may not completely eliminate the deformity or its consequences; however the significant improvement allows the children to be accepted into the local society. The treatment of these children gives the missionary doctor and hospital staff a great opportunity to show the love and compassion of Jesus Christ and many parents and older children have come to know Christ as their Savior.
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 address
important 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 Convention on the Rights of the Child identifies 4 cores principles; * Non-discrimination, * Best interest of the child, * Right to life, survival and development, * Respect for the views of the child. One of the rights is that 'children with a disability have the right to special care, training, to help him/her enjoy a decent life in dignity - and achieve the greatest degree of self reliance and social integration possible.' During this session, there will be discussion of each of the 8 MDGs as they apply to all children - with a focus on Disability. International successful initiatives will be discussed - as well as challenges and opportunities for future involvement of conference participants to make a difference in this new priority of preventing disability - and caring for those with a disability, and in partnership with those who have a disability , advocate for integration of children with disability into the community so that together we can maximize the potential of each
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 work on these goals over the coming year and invite participants to make those actions part of their covenant with God; Stimulate thinking and planning for beyond-2015.
The crucial 1,000 days from the start of a woman’s pregnancy until her child’s 2nd birthday offer a unique window of opportunity to shape healthier and more prosperous futures. The right nutrition during this 1,000 day window can have an enormous impact on a child’s ability to grow, to learn, and rise out of poverty. It can also have a profound effect on the long-term health, stability, and development of entire communities and nations. Today, under-nutrition is still a leading cause of death of young children throughout the world. For infants and children under the age of two, the consequences of under-nutrition are particularly severe, often irreversible, and reach far into the future.
This breakout will look at these realities through the lens of Christian health ministries by:
Tracing the correlation between nutrition during the 1000 Days to lifelong health, the ability of children to thrive, learn and become fully contributing adults.
Reviewing the place of nutrition and feeding and care of children in the ministry of Jesus, and the ministries of those who follow in his footsteps
Engaging participants in identifying a web of factors that promote and or resist adequate nutrition for children under two. Exploring ways in which participants’ health-care missions can contribute to improved nutrition in the communities and regions in which they serve. Presenting and then collectively refining a list of best practices and resources for improving child nutrition among vulnerable populations
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.
What is God's perspective on the role of health and healing in our world today? Does the Bible give us direction as medical missionaries? This break out session will give you a Biblical framework for understanding how your personal call to medical missions integrates with God's overarching promise to bring healing to the nations.
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 opportunity to both demonstrate and share the love of Christ in a tangible way.
A look at the life of Dr. Paul Brand, a pioneer in developing tendon transfer techniques for use in the hands of those with leprosy.
A Glimpse of Africa through the eyes of Dr. David Stevens and his mentor, Dr. Ernie Steury
This session will focus on the treatment of malaria both outside and within the United States. Time will also be spent on symptom control and the potential for a malaria vaccine.
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 serve God within the context of their lives? This workshop will explore Christ’s healing ministry among those he came to serve. Two of Esperanza Health Center’s leaders will share their experiences and vision for health care ministry as one who relocated into North Philadelphia and one who grew up in North Philadelphia. We need one another to be able to gain a more complete vision for effective Christ-centered health care ministry.
Description: Throughout the world bacterial infections remain a leading cause of illness and death. The introduction of new antibiotics on the market has lagged behind the increasing rate of resistance to many antibiotics to treat infections. This problem becomes magnified in developing areas of the world where resources are not as readily available. Good antimicrobial stewardship involves selecting an appropriate drug and optimizing its dose and duration to cure an infection while minimizing toxicity and reducing the chance to develop antibiotic resistance. This session will look at the limited evidence that supports these ideas and put forth practical suggestions on how antibiotics should be judiciously used in developing countries.
Learning Objectives: The participants on completion of the session should be able to...
1. Identify six common clinical syndromes that may be seen in an ambulatory care environment and that may require antibiotic treatment.
2. Understand the evidence that summarizes the rate of resistance for these common infectious diseases.
3. Select an antibiotic regimen, dose and duration, that will likely be successful and uses the least amount of health resources.
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.
While Communicable Diseases have traditionally been responsible for the majority of morbidity and mortality in low and middle income countries (LMIC), a rapid shift from rural, agrarian to urban, sedentary lifestyles has resulted in a dramatic rise in the burden of Non-Communicable Disease in these countries. Hence, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer and other non-communicable diseases are rapidly reaching epidemic proportions. This poses considerable burdens on the already limited health care resources. Not only are health care professionals in short supply, but their training in the complex management of non-communicable diseases is seriously lacking. Furthermore, certain non-communicable diseases present differently in LMIC countries, including ‘malnutrition diabetes’, a poorly understood entity that probably affects millions of people globally. This highlights the need for new and innovative approaches to treat non-communicable diseases, as well as an understanding of traditional lifestyles and cultures. The ideal approach to prevention of non-communicable diseases in various traditional settings would be to develop cultural sensitivity and understanding, to encourage people to maintain some aspects of their more active ancestral lifestyles and avoid the diseases of modernization.
This session will review the many causes of cognitive impairment and provide detailed information about several of these causes, including early malnutrition, iron deficiency, diarrheal diseases, and prenatal alcohol exposure. The session will discuss the demographics of cognitive impairment and the negative effects on individuals, families, communities, economics and governments. The session will provide a proposal for establishing "Cognitive Watches" in countries to identify most common causes of cognitive impairment and to prevent these causes.
This session will review the missionary influence on WHO evidence-based international guidelines to achieve global development goals. Lack of implementation of these Biblically-based guidelines has resulted in a world-wide “Slow-Motion Disaster". The global epidemic of non-communicable diseases primarily due to obesity and smoking recently resulted in the second ever UN General Assembly on Health in its 67 year history; and, as reported by the UN "... constitutes one of the major challenges for development in the twenty-first century, which undermines social and economic development throughout the world and threatens the achievement of internationally agreed development goals.” As emphasized by the UN and WHO, the root cause of this impending worldwide health, economic, and development disaster is not medical and it cannot be resolved by doctors and nurses. For this is a Lifestyle problem, a problem of beliefs & values. It is a spiritual problem, and it will not be resolved until the Church reassumes its responsibilities for the holistic (mind, body, spirit ) health of its members, its community and its country.
We will conclude by demonstrating how the local Church, regardless of size or resources, can begin to provide the evidence-based holistic health and healing necessary for true transformational development.
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.
There have been many major developments in HIV research in the past year. So much so that many are now talking confidently about the end of the disease, zero new infections, curing HIV, etc. This interactive session will explore the developments, including those presented at the International AIDS Conference in July to which the facilitator is a delegate. There will be opportunities to explore the what is being learned and proposed and to evaluate how practical they are in various settings around the world, especially Africa where the majority of people living with the virus reside. If you have any interest in and/or experience with HIV, you will benefit from this session and your participation will benefit the rest of us.
In the wake of the AIDS pandemic and other disasters remain those least capable of caring for themselves. How do we best respond to their needs? Drawing from the speaker's international experience and using case studies and an interactive format, the session will explore the health issues of OVCs and the physical, mental and social components to their care.
How can a ministry continue after we leave? Drawing from the speaker's mission expereince and using case studies and an interactive format, participants will explore successful principles and strategies for sustainability in medical missions.
Disability: Displaying the Works of God in Wholisitic Development
People with disability were a priority in Jesus' ministry while on earth. He even defined himself in terms of his disability ministry when questioned by John's disciples on whether or not he was the promised Messiah. By examining Jesus' ministry among the disabled, we will discover how His Body should prioritize ministry among this often-forgotten population and how their restoration requires an entirely wholistic approach to ministry.
Using Stories for Wholistic Health Education
Stories are proving to be an extremely effective way to communicate "truth that sticks." They naturally break down resistance, and create interest. They are more easily understood, remembered, and repeated. Stories change lives.
Stories are best if they are short, clear, and relate to the listener's life experience. The impact of stories is augmented if they are followed by questions.
This session will be interactive.
This session will give examples of stories that can be used for both physical and spiritual teaching. It will give you sources for stories and questions that others have written, and give you pointers on who you can create your own stories with follow up questions.
This session will also present ideas on how you can make your stories more interesting - more memorable - more fun. This session will not make you a story telling pro, but it will encourage to start gaining the experience that gradually will make you more confident and effective as a communicator.
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 Health for All.
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 beginning to follow suit. Yet, few churches or educational institutions have any knowledge of what constitutes best practices in global health. This workshop will review the six guidelines for best practices in global health as they appear in the book “When Healthcare Hurts: An Evidence Based Guide to Best Practices in Global Health Initiatives”. It will also review the four primary areas of global health best practices which include the following.
- Patient Safety
- Healthcare System Integration and Collaboration
- Facilitation of Health Development
- Community Empowerment
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 obligation. We need to be prepared and have trained leaders to know what to do when the unthinkable happens. We will discuss how to approach these situations from the sandpoint of evaluation of risks, minimizing exposure, training for the eventuality of the most common conditions that could be encountered and preparation for the unthinkable. Unfortunately there is evil in the world and if one looks at the statistics: in 2009 there were 278 reported victims of 139 serious security incidents compared with 1999 when there were 65 victims involved in 34 such incidents. This trend continues to go up in all areas from kidnappings, road attacks, mob violence, ambushes, robberies, to suicide bombings. This situation hightens our responsibility and be wise and prepared even as we trust the Lord for our provision and protection. To God be the glory.
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, and to reduce opportunities for the deceiver to cause division and strife and to cast dispersion on the name of the Lord. It will also offer suggestions for proactive steps to take that may minimize potential disruptions within the team and between team members and nationals.
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 find what’s available to keep you on track for medical mission. As an extra bonus, meet a young medical missionary (not me, obviously) on home assignment to discover how he found a mentor and what this means to him.
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 challenges are great in the often uncomfortable environment of the mission field. How can we be prepared and what are some of the techniques that we can use that might be of help for us as we care for those who often have never seen a dentist before and are in pain or have been. Relieving pain and infection and doing no harm is one of our most pressing issues in areas where there is no dental care available. It is a matter of getting our of your comfort zone and working in a small dark area, in which you could injure your self as well and where the incidence of HIV may be quite high. Lets look at some way to work in and through these difficulties for the glory of the Lord and the benefit of those who need to know Jesus and seek relief from their suffering. May His great love and compassion show in all we do and say. To God be the glory.
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 and x-rays will guide our discussions and help you be better prepared. Cases will be of interest to those with medical training or those serving in an area without easy access to medical care. Come and enjoy the game.
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 developing world. We will discuss:
• major causes of avoidable blindness
• approaches to the community that work well
• technology that is appropriate for effective low cost and high volume eye surgery
• the case for static vs. mobile eye care units
• how to set priorities on a low cost eye care budget
• integrating spiritual care with eye care in the community
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 methods
• wound closure with a variety of Suturing techniques
• common pitfalls
• practical tips on improving your technique
• guidelines for choosing the correct suture and needle
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. Existing ALS management guidelines for children in LR settings are largely empirical not evidence-based, written for the hospital setting, not standardized with a systematic approach to patient assessment and categorization of illness, and taught in current pediatric ALS training courses from the perspective of full-resource settings. Extending higher quality emergency and critical care services to children in the developing world is the focus of this session. Simple inexpensive ALS management when integrated into existing programs of primary care can improve child survival across the globe.
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.
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 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."
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
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 come? How can you fit in?
Before 1850, there were fewer that fifteen medical missionaries. The average life expectancy for missionaries in Africa in that day was eight years.
Oftentimes, medical missionaries started because missionaries were taught basic medical needs.
Around 1890's to early 1900's university campuses began to head overseas as missionaries. Many went to China. This is why you see so many Christians in China today.
By 1925 there were 1,157 medical missionaries.
Listen to the audio for more details on the past, present, and future of medical missions.
About the author:
*Dr. David Stevens is the Chief Executive Officer of the Christian Medical & Dental Associations (CMDA), the nation’s largest faith-based organization of doctors. As spokesman for more than 16,000 doctors, Dr. Stevens has conducted hundreds of media interviews. Prior to his service with CMDA, he served as medical director of Samaritan’s Purse. From 1981 to 1992, Dr. Stevens served as executive officer and medical superintendent of Tenwek Hospital in Bomet, Kenya. He helped to transform Tenwek Hospital into one of the premier mission healthcare facilities in that country.
Dr. Stevens’ experiences provide rich illustrations for inspirational and educational presentations at seminars, medical schools, conferences and churches. He is the author of "Jesus, MD", "Beyond Medicine: What Else You Need to Know to be a Medical Missionary", "Leadership Proverbs" and many chapters and magazine articles.
Dr. Stevens holds degrees from Asbury University and the University of Louisville School of Medicine and is board certified in family practice. He earned a master’s degree in bioethics from Trinity International University in 2002.*
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 emphasis is two-fold: One is that unhealthy dependency can be avoided from the beginning in cross-cultural ministry. The second is that the dependency syndrome can be overcome where it has become established. He believes that churches and other institutions do not need to suffer long-term consequences from this illness, and
there is plenty of evidence to confirm that. Obviously there are places in the world where outside assistance is justified, but in many places local resources are available for those who adjust strategies to identify and mobilize them.
Buddhists in East Asia largely believe in one of the dominant Buddhist traditions, animism and ancestor worship. They believe in karma, the moral law of cause and effect which demands that every soul suffer for its past “sins;” so there is no value in alleviating suffering. While very few Buddhists have come to Christ through the direct preaching of the gospel, some have responded to the compassion shown by medical missionaries since the early 19th century. This session features the plight of one leprosy patient, an outcast in society who gradually found new life through the lives of Christians who dared to touch him, clean his wounds and tell him about Jesus. This session will bring attendees face to face with a culture that is very resistant to the gospel, the reasons for that resistance and what we can do about it.
Missionaries are sent to reproduce themselves spiritually. Yet how do you do that in the midst of a busy clinical and hospital schedule? This seminar will equip you with a biblical model and a simple time-sensitive plan to build and multiply the number of Christ-followers and spiritual leaders among your patients, colleagues, and others on your mission field.
The Vanga Hospital began in a rural area of western Congo in 1920. Beginning in 1961 the hospital grew into a comprehensive and sustainable Christian health service run by the Congolese church in partnership with a missionary staff. The health system includes: (1) A 400 bed multi-specialty teaching hospital (2) A school for training nurse practitioners and nurse midwives (3) A widespread system of improving community health through dialogue and community initiatives (4) A decentralized network of rural health centers that make primary health care services accessible to the entire population of 250,000 in the catchment area
(5) A family medicine residency for Congolese family physicians (6) A team approach to caring for the whole person (7) An integrated approach to coping with the HIV-AIDS epidemic
There are inherent dangers that come with following Jesus into a ministry of medicine. God's ways are not the ways of men and all too often health care professionals are slowly led astray from their original intent and calling to follow Jesus into a life of healing. God's heart is to bring restoration to a fallen world. But God's purpose of restoration can easily get lost as we enter into the health care system. Now more than ever, we need to maintain biblical fidelity in our medical practices. In this seminar, we will focus on Jesus' mission to bind up the broken hearted by surveying the biblical foundations for healing ministry in Isaiah, Luke, and Acts. We will also discuss what it will take to recover the holy call of healing.
How to have a long term impact with a short term medical team? Philosophy of Ministry, National Partnerships, Careful Preparation, Effective Clinic Outreach and Post Trip Attention all are critical ingredients! . To Cover Philosophy of Ministry, Partnership with Local Host Ministry, Preparing and Recruiting, Local Host Responsibility, Arrival and Clinic Week, Extracurricular Activities, Leave Taking/ Farewell/ Re-Entry
Disciples who commit themselves to risky obedience will face strong opposition from enemies within and without. Jesus gave often overlooked counsel on how to wage prayer warfare.
There are countless barriers that prevent aspiring healthcare missionaries from achieving their goals. Come learn strategies for recognizing and overcoming both obvious and hidden obstacles.
Identifying and using local resources to address both nutritional and economic needs of you community. Emphasis will be place on nutrious tropical plants that can be used as perennial vegetables and have proven health benefits.
This is one of the principle precepts taught in every med school, and is the basis for all emergency medicine. But while we are careful to “do no harm” with our patients, we overlook the harm we do in perpetuating a fallen health delivery system by the way we run our practices. This workshop examines several best practice models of how Christian health professionals have chosen to be part of the solution instead of part of the problem, and will challenge us to look at our responsibility as ambassadors of Christ’s Kingdom to transform our practice of medicine in ways that reflect His character and will.
Work among the poor in the US is remarkably good preparation for healthcare workers interested in serving overseas. This session will demonstrate how work in the inner-city of Memphis TN has prepared many missionaries for the toughest fields on earth--and how this model could be employed all over the U.S.
This session answers the 10 basic questions most often asked by those considering career missionary service.
Medical missionaries will find their resources to help others limited in nearly every realm of their work-time, skills, financial, emotional, equipment and spiritual to name a few. We know what care is available to patients and come skilled to provide it. But many times we are unable to provide it due to limitations of many kinds on the field. How does one decide what care to provide and whom to provide it to? This talk will discuss the conflicts the medical missionary finds on the mission field as they serve to provide health care in less than optimal circumstances. Using Jesus healing ministry as an example, guidelines will be provided on how to effectively serve Christ in situations where care cannot be given to all as the medical missionary would like. A foundation in decision making and practical guidelines w!ill be discussed to assist the front line missionary with these problems on the field.