Medical Mission

In April 2008, Kristina Marsack, the current APSPA President-Elect, participated in a medical mission to Guatemala City, Guatemala. The mission assisted approximately 50 children overcome a number of craniofacial deformities, with an emphasis on cleft lip and palate repair. Read more about her trip in the July 15th issue of AAPA News. Click here to read the article.

We are currently building a database of professionals interested in participating on future medical missions. Existing members can submit their information into the database by logging into the members section of the website and updating the member profile. If you are new to APSPA you can add the mission information while entering your new registration.

Surgical Volunteers International link http://www.surgicalvolunteers.org.

"One of the biggest challenges in an overseas surgical trip is to evaluate, operate, and provide postoperative care for a large number of patients in a short period of time. This requires the surgeon to often be in many places at once. Once the critical aspect of an operation has been completed, the presence of the physician's assistant becomes invaluable. This allows the surgeon to break free and evaluate new patients as they arrive at the hospital for triage. Additionally, the surgeon can ensure that the postoperative course of previous patience is proceeding as expected and discharge those patients ready to go home. Without the PA, the day for the entire surgical team becomes a lot longer as triage and postoperative rounding has to be delayed." -Dr Hollier's, the SVI Chairman."