Guidelines for short-term medical missions: perspectives from host countries.

Background: In the past decade, there has been increasing guideline development for short-term medical missions (STMMs) traveling from high-income to low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of supporting health care services. The ethics of STMMs is criticized in the literature and there is frequently a lack of host country collaboration. This typically results in guidelines which are developed through the lens of the sending (high-income) countries' staff and organizations.