Sustainability assessment of a short-term international medical mission.

Background: Few studies have analyzed the tangible impact of global, philanthropic medical missions. We used qualitative methods to analyze the work of one such mission, Operation Walk Boston, which has made yearly trips to a Dominican Republic hospital since 2008.

Methods: We interviewed twenty-one American and Dominican participants of the Operation Walk Boston team to investigate how the program led to changes at the host Dominican hospital and how the experience caused both mission protocols and U.