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Globally there is a grown concern about the ethics and effectiveness of short-term global health activities, also known as short-term medical missions (STMMs). Guidelines for better practices have been developed exclusively by organizations in the Global North, with no mechanisms to enforce and monitor any of these. The goal of this study is to analyze regulations in three host countries where such STMMs take place. Researchers from Ghana, Uganda, and Guatemala were recruited to investigate regulations affecting STMMs. Interviews were performed with 129 participants, including policymakers, health services staff and administrators, patients, and community leaders. Data was analyzed using NVIVO and R Package for Qualitative Analysis, having as the foundation grounded theory and sentiment analysis for identification of patterns in responses. In all three countries, there are regulations regarding the practice of health care generally, as well as governing the importation of medications, but these are rarely enforced when it comes to STMMs, and many participants were unaware of them. In Ghana and Uganda, there is no specific regulation for STMMs. In Guatemala, specific and detailed regulations do exist governing the practice of STMMs, but participants did not report awareness of these regulations. The lack of explicit regulation of STMMs in some countries and the lack of enforcement of existing professional regulations and rules on importation of medications can easily be exploited by those volunteers who prefer not to follow them. All three countries studied do have procedures to be followed by any person who intends to perform STMMs.

Persons from high-income countries have multiple opportunities today to participate in \"short-term experiences in global health\" (STEGHs) in low-resourced countries. STEGHs are organized through religious missions, service learning, medical internships, global health education, and international electives. An issue of increasing concern in STEGHs is \"hands-on\" participation in clinical procedures by volunteers and students with limited or no medical training. To address these concerns, best practices and ethical standards have been developed. However, not all STEGH organizations adhere to these guidelines, and some actively or tacitly allow unethical and potentially illegal practices. This paper considers the legal framework within which STEGHs operate. It assesses whether certain STEGH practices break laws in the US and/or host countries or violate international \"soft\" legal norms. Two activities of particular concern are: practicing medicine without a license and drug importation and distribution. Many activities undertaken in STEGHs would be illegal if they took place on US soil. In addition, these same activities are often illegal in the host countries where STEGHs operate, although compliance is unevenly enforced. Many STEGH activities violate World Health Organization guidelines for ethical conduct in humanitarian activities. This paper encourages STEGH organizations to end unethical and potentially illegal activities; urges regulatory and non-regulatory stakeholders to alter policies that motivate participation in illegal or unethical STEGH activities; and encourages host countries to enforce their local and national health laws.

Background Medical student and resident participation in short-term international trips for trainees (STINTTs) has increased in the past few decades. However, there has been no systematic review of trainees’ actual ethical experiences. The authors sought to identify what ethical issues medical trainees encounter during STINTTs, as elicited by and reported in peer-reviewed, quantitative and qualitative research papers. Methods The authors systematically searched five academic databases finding 659 unique titles and abstracts. The authors applied inclusion and exclusion criteria to these titles and abstracts resulting in fourteen papers, which were analyzed using qualitative thematic synthesis. Results The qualitative analysis of the papers generated four themes: (1) Trainees’ Concerns Over Perpetuating Medical Tourism; (2) Struggling to Identify and Balance the Benefits and Harms of STINTTs; (3) The Complicated Trainee Mens (mind); and (4) Ethical Situations Encountered by Trainees. The fourth theme, which was the largest, was further divided into (a) Navigating social and cultural dynamics, (b) Trainees’ experiences related to the learner role, and (c) Ethical situations not qualifying for other catagories. Some of these issues reported in the empirical research papers are well represented in the broader literature on STINTTs, while others were less so—such as mistreatment of trainees. All included papers were published after 2010, and comprised a total of less than 170 medical trainees. Conclusions Medical trainees report experiencing a wide range of ethical challenges during short-term international trips in which they engage in clinical or research activities. The authors call educators’ attention to specific challenges that trainees face. The relevant literature covering US and Canadian STINTTs is relatively young and largely qualitative. The authors briefly sketch a program for expanding the research on this increasingly common educational experience.

Cleft lip and palate is the most frequent malformation in humans that requires surgical correction but is not primarily life-threatening. That is why in many economically not very well developed countries, special surgical care, such as for cleft lip and palate, is not guaranteed at all or is not sufficiently guaranteed, so that numerous aid organizations have been founded for over 50 years to provide help by organizing surgical aid missions. Even if this help seems primarily ethically harmless and very laudable, the lack of rules and instructions unfortunately regularly leads to the fact that legal, ethical and even medical treatment standards are often not observed to the detriment of the affected children. The necessary principles and prerequisites for surgical aid missions are described in an overview article and from these conceptual and strategic recommendations for the actions of the involved service disciplines are derived. Ultimately, the goal must be not only to surgically help the individual fate but also firstly to treat the functional aspects of the malformation holistically and secondly, to also prioritize the goal of achieving sustainability by competently training the local staff in order to be able to perform such surgery alone in the near future to make such aid missions unnecessary. Surgical aid missions in Third World countries are a model of success as many hundreds of thousands of children and adults with a cleft lip and palate have been successfully treated; however, unfortunately the sustainable further development of local structures and skills is often neglected. There is also an urgent need to establish general guidelines for surgical aid missions in Third World countries.

It has become increasingly apparent that only the truly effective humanitarian work emphasises empowering local practitioners. One problem, though, is that we are often seen as the \"experts\" who have come to \"save\" the children. This perception may adversely affect the confidence in the country's own providers. Non-profit organisations performing paediatric heart surgery in developing countries were identified from two sources: the CTSnet \"volunteerism\" web page and an Internet search using the term \"Pediatric Heart Surgery Medical Mission.\" The website of each organisation was reviewed, seeking a \"purpose\" or \"mission\" statement or summary of the organisation's work. A separate Internet search of news articles was performed. The top five articles were analysed for each organisation, and the findings are then analysed using the Principlist and Utilitarian ethical systems. A total of 10 separate non-profit organisations were identified. The websites of eight (80%) placed significant emphasis on the educational aspects of their work and/or on interaction with local professionals. However, of 43 news articles reviewed, reporters mentioned education of, or interaction with, local professionals in only 14 (33%), and four out of 10 organisations studied had no mention of the local providers in any article. Although non-profit organisations emphasise the teaching and programme-building aspects of their efforts, media reports largely focus on simpler and more emotional stories such as patient successes or large donations. Acknowledgement of the clinical and financial contributions of the host countries is both a duty following from the principle of justice and an important factor in long-term programme building.

Social networking site use is increasingly common among emerging medical professionals, with medical schools even reporting disciplinary student expulsion. Medical professionals who use social networking sites have unique responsibilities since their postings could violate patient privacy. However, it is unknown whether students and residents portray protected health information and under what circumstances or contexts. The objective of our study was to document and describe online portrayals of potential patient privacy violations in the Facebook profiles of medical students and residents. A multidisciplinary team performed two cross-sectional analyses at the University of Florida in 2007 and 2009 of all medical students and residents to see who had Facebook profiles. For each identified profile, we manually scanned the entire profile for any textual or photographic representations of protected health information, such as portrayals of people, names, dates, or descriptions of procedures. Almost half of all eligible students and residents had Facebook profiles (49.8%, or n=1023 out of 2053). There were 12 instances of potential patient violations, in which students and residents posted photographs of care they provided to individuals. No resident or student posted any identifiable patient information or likeness in text form. Each instance occurred in developing countries on apparent medical mission trips. These portrayals increased over time (1 in the 2007 cohort; 11 in 2009; P = .03). Medical students were more likely to have these potential violations on their profiles than residents (11 vs 1, P = .04), and there was no difference by gender. Photographs included trainees interacting with identifiable patients, all children, or performing medical examinations or procedures such as vaccinations of children. While students and residents in this study are posting photographs that are potentially violations of patient privacy, they only seem to make this lapse in the setting of medical mission trips. Trainees need to learn to equate standards of patient privacy in all medical contexts using both legal and ethical arguments to maintain the highest professional principles. We propose three practical guidelines. First, there should be a legal resource for physicians traveling on medical mission trips such as an online list of local laws, or a telephone legal contact. Second, institutions that organize medical mission trips should plan an ethics seminar prior the departure on any trip since the legal and ethical implications may not be intuitive. Finally, at minimum, traveling physicians should apply the strictest legal precedent to any situation.

Global surgery, while historically a small niche, is becoming a larger part of the global health enterprise. This article discusses the burden of global surgery, emphasizing the importance of addressing surgical needs in low- and middle-income countries. It describes the barriers to surgical care in the developing world, the ethical challenges that these barriers create, and strategies to overcome these barriers. It emphasizes the crucial role of preparation for global surgical interventions as a way to maximize benefits as well as minimize harms and ethical challenges. It ends with the cautionary statement that preparation does not eliminate ethical problems, so surgical volunteers must be prepared not only for the technical challenges of global surgery but also for the ethical challenges.

Background The motivation to volunteer on a medical service trip (MST) may involve more than a simple desire for philanthropy. Some volunteers may be motivated by an intrinsic interest in volunteering in which the context of the volunteer activity is less important. Others may volunteer because the context of their volunteering is more important than their intrinsic interest in volunteering. Furthermore, MSTs may pose a variety of ethical problems that volunteers should consider prior to engaging in a trip. This study evaluated the motivations and barriers for graduate health care students volunteering for an MST to either the Dominican Republic or Mississippi. Volunteers’ understanding of some of the ethical issues associated with MSTs was also assessed. Methods Thirty-five graduate health professions students who volunteered on an MST were asked to complete an online survey. Students’ motivations and barriers for volunteering were assessed using a 5-point Likert scale and Fisher’s exact test. Ethical understanding of issues in volunteering was assessed using thematic analysis. Results Students’ motivations for volunteering appeared to be related to the medical context of their service more than an inherent desire for volunteer work. Significant differences were seen in motivations and barriers for some student groups, especially those whose volunteer work had less opportunity for clinical service. Thematic analysis revealed two major themes and suggested that students had an empirical understanding that volunteer work could have both positive and negative effects. Conclusions An understanding of students’ motivations for volunteering on an MST may allow faculty to design trips with activities that effectively address student motivations. Although students had a basic understanding of some of the ethical issues involved, they had not considered the impact of a service group on the in-country partners they work with.

Ethical problems are common in clinical medicine, so medical volunteers who practice clinical medicine in developing countries should expect to encounter them just as they would in their practice in the developed world. However, as this article argues, medical volunteers in developing countries should not expect to encounter the same ethical problems as those that dominate Western biomedicine or to address ethical problems in the same way as they do in their practice in developed countries. For example, poor health and advanced disease increase the risks and decrease the potential benefits of some interventions. Consequently, when medical volunteers intervene too readily, without considering the nutritional and general health status of patients, the results can be devastating. Medical volunteers cannot assume that the outcomes of interventions in developing countries will be comparable to the outcomes of the same interventions in developed countries. Rather, they must realistically consider the complex medical conditions of patients when determining whether or not to intervene. Similarly, medical volunteers may face the question of whether to provide a pharmaceutical or perform an intervention that is below the acceptable standard of care versus the alternative of doing nothing. This article critically explores the contextual features of medical volunteer work in developing countries that differentiate it from medical practice in developed countries, arguing that this context contributes to the creation of unique ethical problems and affects the way in which these problems should be analyzed and resolved.