Reliability of the Service Trip Audit Tool to assess the quality of short-term medical missions.

Background: We aimed to assess the adherence of short-term medical missions (STMMs) operating in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) to key best practices using the Service Trip Audit Tool (STAT) and to calculate the inter-rater reliability of the data points. This tool was based on a previously published inventory of 18 STMM best practices.

Methods: Programme administrators and recent volunteers from 335 North American organizations offering STMMs in LAC were invited to complete the STAT anonymously online.

Development of a theoretical framework for assessment of quality of primary care medical service trips in Latin America.

Objectives: Short-term medical service trips (MSTs) are a controversial modality for addressing the health of marginalized populations. Despite their prevalence, there are no routinely used evaluative frameworks. This study used stakeholder consensus to validate a literature-based framework for MST best practices.