In this M3 Conference Plenary Session, Carlan Wendler, MD, FACEP, a missionary doctor with Serge, discusses how a networked world has changed the game for healthcare missions qualifications. Scudder, Livingstone, Schweitzer, Hume, Mackenzie, Steury, and many healthcare missionaries of the past two centuries were renaissance men – carpenters and architects, mechanics and engineers, physicians and administrators. For those of us who did not grow up on a ranch or a farm or in a world without running water, electric lights, or the Internet, their stories can sometimes feel remote or near-legendary. However, Dr. Wendler suggests that the most effective healthcare missionaries of the 21st Century probably need a new and different set of competencies, one they might be closer to already possessing than they know.
Dr. Carlan Wendler has been serving since 2013 as Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at the Frank Ogden School of Medicine at Hope Africa University in Bujumbura, Burundi, and as the ER Director at Kibuye Hope Hospital, taking on the role of Chief Medical Officer in mid-2022. He graduated from the University of Michigan Medical School and did his residency at Los Angeles County + University of Southern California.