Controversies in short-term medical missions | Nicholas Comninellis | TEDxUMKC

Short-term medical missions are a very popular phenomena among North American healthcare professionals. Beyond a gesture of compassion, however, serious questions may surround the professional ethics and actual effectiveness of this practice. Short-term medical missions is often further complicated by concerns connected with limited time commitment, inadequate resources, unfamiliar cultural context, and lack of continuity following departure. Akey element in assuring that such missions are ethical, effective, and culturally relevant is national partnerships: cooperation with healthcare professionals, healthcare institutions and/or educational institutions in the host nation. Such partnership may involve provision of materials, instruction, and/or special services - always in collaboration with, and ideally, under the direction of national leaders. Another key element is continuity of commitment over a period of years, especially when such periods of service are of short duration.

Nicholas Comninellis is an Assistant Clinical Professor of Community & Family Medicine at the UMKC School of Medicine, and founder of the Institute for International Medicine. He served inner city citizens for a year at Shanghai Charity Hospital during the pre-prosperity era, and over two years initiated a healthcare ministry in the war-besieged city of Huambo, Angola. He's served one-month medical assignments in Honduras, Haiti, Zimbabwe, Burkina Faso, Niger and Kunming, China. After working in the KC hospital , before launching INMED in 2003. He attended the UMKC School of Medicine, the SLU School of Public Health, and was a family medicine resident at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center/John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth, Texas. Dr. Comninellis has a diploma in tropical medicine from the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. He is board certified in both preventive medicine and family medicine, and is author of INMED International Medicine & Public Health.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

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