Medical Humanitarian Missions

Many family physicians are engaged in medical humanitarian operations throughout the developing world, and many more have considered such participation.1 The term 'medical mission,' originally a subset of religious missionary work, is used here to mean any humanitarian medical endeavor.2 Over the past two years, we have planned, organized, and led 10 humanitarian assistance operations in the Trans-Sahara region of Africa. Request a meeting with the regional medical officer of the host nation, who can often provide data on things such as local disease prevalence, seasonality of diseases, and referral hospitals.