Missions Medicine and Academic Medicine: An Unlikely Marriage?

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.