Misevaluation of the Aims of Medical Missions and Coordination of Short‐ and Long‐Term Efforts

We were interested in your recent paper titled “Error Traps in Global Anesthesia,” published in the Pediatric Anesthesia Journal on November 28th, 2025. Your work identifies common errors that result in missed opportunities or even harm in current global anesthesia efforts; however, it raises a concern that we address in this correspondence. While it is true that sustainable advancement in access to safe surgical care across the globe requires capacity building and that short-term medical “missions” are incomplete solutions to complex barriers to care [1], there is a need for global anesthesia care at this moment that cannot solely be addressed by long-term solutions, which take several years or decades to develop. International medical missions aim to provide a short-term avenue to alleviate health burdens, serving as an outlet for a strained healthcare system while larger-scale global efforts are still being implemented. Often, the aim of these medical missions is misrepresented, with research papers concluding that they have little impact on population health outcomes and that they may pose a risk of harm. It is important to note that many medical missions are pioneered by healthcare professionals determined to serve these communities through sweat and tears, often taking heavy pay cuts and personal sacrifices in a bid to contribute toward change. The fragmented nature of individual medical missions, occurring separately in different areas and at various times of year, creates barriers to care continuity and reduces efficacy. A more practical and dynamic solution is to create a system that enables synergistic collaboration first between medical mission organizations and then between large-scale “big picture” operations focused on the more complex barriers and small-scale medical missions to tackle the challenges we face more efficiently. A proposed solution is to create a unifying body that enables cooperation among these medical mission organizations, ensuring a more concerted approach and possibly year-round continuity of care. With thoughtful collaboration, short-term efforts can be coordinated to enable bidirectional partnerships with local communities so that resources are appropriately allocated, and their impact is more sustainable when guided by the stakeholders most affected by change. The long-term outcomes, including potential harms, can be monitored if multiple organizations work in conjunction, especially if larger-scale initiatives help guide efforts. There is a need for both short-term and sustainable, long-term initiatives in global anesthesia. By coordinating the efforts of multiple organizations, the benefits of both approaches may be realized. We sincerely appreciate the efforts of researchers and clinicians working to shed light on the current state of global anesthesia, creating timely solutions to advance care where it is needed most. The authors have nothing to report.