History Of INMED

The Institute for International Medicine is built on the truth that one generation can profoundly motivate and equip the next. INMED itself is the result of model individuals whose self-sacrificing lifestyle inspired INMED’s leaders to create this organization. Today, INMED is casting a vision the next generation of healthcare professionals to serve the most neglected citizens of our planet.

INSPIRATION: 1976 – 2002

As a high school senior, Nicholas Comninellis read Dr. Tom Dooley’s moving account of caring for Vietnamese refugees in the book Deliver Us From Evil. “I want to do that too!” was his heart-felt response.  As a medical student at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, Comninellis leaped at opportunities for international service. For two months, he was mentored by Samuel Marx, an American physician who instructed him at the Clinic Evangelica Morava in the jungle of eastern Honduras. After completing medical training in 1982 Comninellis worked for a year at Shanghai Charity Hospitalwhere he was guided by Dr. Donald Dale – a British physician who launched the Jian Hua Foundation. In 1989 Comninellis took two-year an assignment in Angola, southern Africa, where Dr. Steven Foster, a Canadian surgeon, introduced him to the vagrancies of working in that war ravaged nation. They served together at the famed Kalukembe Hospital. In 1991 Comninellis entered service in the Kansas City public hospital system at Truman Medical Centers, all the while a dream growing within him.INITIATION: 2003 – 2004 ACADEMIC YEAR

DEVELOPMENT: 2004 – 2005 ACADEMIC YEAR

ADDITION: 2005 – 2006 ACADEMIC YEAR

FIGHT HIV: 2006 – 2007 ACADEMIC YEAR

LAUNCHING INTO MEDICAL MISSIONS: 2007 – 2008 ACADEMIC YEAR

FIGHTING THE DISEASES OF POVERTY: 2008 – 2009 ACADEMIC YEAR

SERVING THE FORGOTTEN: 2009 – 2010 ACADEMIC YEAR

FROM RESCUE TO RESILIENCE: 2010 – 2011 ACADEMIC YEAR

FROM INSPIRATION TO MOBILIZATION: 2011 – 2012 ACADEMIC YEAR

THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED: 2012 – 2013 ACADEMIC YEAR

STICKS IN A BUNDLE ARE UNBREAKABLE: 2013-2014 ACADEMIC YEAR

WHAT CAN YOU DO IN TEN?:  2014-2015 ACADEMIC YEAR