Opportunities and responsibilities for pharmacists on short-term medical mission teams

BackgroundAmerican medical mission teams commonly travel to developing countries for short-term provision of clinical services. Although medications play an important role in the work of these teams, how to plan and organize a mission field pharmacy has been seldom described in the literature.ObjectiveTo describe pharmacist participation in medical mission work.SummaryGlobal standards and policies, as well as traditional best practices, should be applied to the selection, acquisition, use, and disposition of medications taken into a host country. This report describes the roles and responsibilities of pharmacists in planning and organizing a mission pharmacy and in delivering quality pharmacy services in the field.ConclusionPharmacists have an important contribution to make to medical mission teams. Pharmacist knowledge of drug products, regulatory issues, medication storage, dispensing, patient consultation, therapeutic substitution, and pharmacy organization and workflow is ideally suited for mission field work.