Local pediatrician travels far from Cape Cod to help refugees

In November 2025, Jacqueline Sloan, MD, a pediatrician with Seaside Pediatrics, traveled far from her practice in Yarmouth and Orleans to the mountains of northern Thailand to provide care to refugee children and adults during a week-long medical mission.

“It was an amazing trip,” said Dr. Sloan. “I was recruited by Global Medical Staffing (GMS), which is a partner of International Medical Relief (IMR), the group that runs the missions, about two months before the trip,” said Dr. Sloan. “I also received a sponsorship to cover my travel expenses and stay through another organization, Making a Difference Foundation.”

The team’s mission was to provide medical care and health education for the refugees from Laos and Myanmar (formerly Burma) who live in the mountains approximately 20 miles from the borders of those two countries. Unlike the Thai people, who have universal healthcare, the refugees do not have access to healthcare and rely on the support of medical missions every few months.

How She Prepared for the Trip

Dr. Sloan had a great deal to do in the two months leading up to her departure. It included many virtual meetings with the IMR team and three virtual meetings with the medical team, which was comprised of a dermatologist, OB/GYN physician, two emergency department physicians, herself and a dentist. There were also six nurses, and many lay people, totaling 30 team members.

“During these meetings, every detail of the trip was discussed including the transport of medical and other supplies we would take with us,” Dr. Sloan said.

Dr. Jacqueline Sloan and her colleagues in Thailand

All equipment, medications and other supplies collected by IMR were broken down into 50-pound bag allotments and each bag was mailed to the individual members of the team, who transported that bag along with their personal clothes and items to Thailand.

After a long flight from Boston to Thailand, Dr. Sloan was met at the airport and driven to Chiang Rai, a small village in northern Thailand where the team stayed. Upon arrival at the village, all of the supplies the team brought with them were sorted, labeled and placed in duffel bags they took with them to the clinics.

Traveling to Clinics

“Each day, we carried the bags containing our supplies to a different location, usually 45 minutes to one hour drive away from the village,” said Dr. Sloan. “We would set up the clinic, see and treat patients all day and then pack everything up and bring it back to the compound where we were staying. Logistically, it was well run, but a lot of work.”

While she was the only pediatrician, she helped the ER physicians by seeing adult patients.

“There were many who had high blood pressure, diabetes and other chronic diseases,” Dr. Sloan said. “A lot of the patients had gastritis and intestinal worms. Every child we saw received a dose of Albendazole, a medication which could also be given every six months to prevent them from getting worms.”

Skin infections were prevalent. People came to see the medical providers with festering wounds that developed from simple scrapes due to poor hygiene. They were treated with topical or oral antibiotics.

One family brought their child to one of the clinics with a septic knee and didn’t realize it was serious and an emergency. The team arranged for the child to be transported to an area hospital where they were admitted and treated with intravenous antibiotics.

“The dentist was the busiest person on the trip, performing a huge amount of dental procedures and pulling a lot of teeth,” said Dr. Sloan. “Many were coming in with significant pain and infections.”

Some of the Challenges

Language barriers made it difficult to elicit symptoms and complaints from the patients.

Many of those who came to the clinic didn’t understand the purpose of their visit. Often, this was the first time any of them had seen a doctor.

“We were seeing Laotian and Rohingya (Myanmar) refugees with different languages other than Thai,” Dr. Sloan said. “We had Thai and English-speaking interpreters and the refugees brought their own interpreters to translate. Often, we were going from English language to Thai and then the refugee translator to gather information and explain their diagnosis.”

More than half the mission was to promote health and wellness, Dr. Sloan explained.

“We had six nurses and, also, social workers to help with that, along with the lay people on our trip. We stressed the importance of brushing teeth twice a day and gave out toothbrushes and toothpaste. We brought hundreds of pairs of reading glasses for older people. Many broke down in tears when they put them on because they could read or see something in front of them that they could not see before. We instructed the refugees about the importance of using soap and hand sanitizer to promote good hygiene.”

Dr. Sloan went on another medical mission, to Peru, when she was a pediatric resident. Both trips were memorable for the chance to see such different parts of the world, but mostly because it gave her a chance to help others.

“The people were so grateful for our help both trips and I would do another trip in a millisecond. I loved it!”