Waiting for a translator can mean life or death in a hospital. Now doctors have can have a native speaker in their pocket.
Doctors working in cities with large immigrant populations often come up against a troubling issue: They can't understand many of the non-native English speakers that come into their hospitals. Medical care providers can always call an on-staff translator, but it can take upwards of 45 minutes for them to arrive. In the meantime, patients with symptoms that could indicate potentially deadly ailments--think shortness of breath or chest pains--may be left without proper treatment, simply because doctors can't ask them important diagnostic questions.
The problem led Ucsf medical school students Alex Blau and Brad Cohn to create MediBabble--an iPhone app that allows medical care providers to play back thousands of pre-recorded questions in patients' native languages.
[youtube LWzOfWCoRAU]
"It started from our own desire to take better care of our patients.
Doctors working in cities with large immigrant populations often come up against a troubling issue: They can't understand many of the non-native English speakers that come into their hospitals. Medical care providers can always call an on-staff translator, but it can take upwards of 45 minutes for them to arrive. In the meantime, patients with symptoms that could indicate potentially deadly ailments--think shortness of breath or chest pains--may be left without proper treatment, simply because doctors can't ask them important diagnostic questions.
The problem led Ucsf medical school students Alex Blau and Brad Cohn to create MediBabble--an iPhone app that allows medical care providers to play back thousands of pre-recorded questions in patients' native languages.
[youtube LWzOfWCoRAU]
"It started from our own desire to take better care of our patients.
- 6/28/2011
- by Ariel Schwartz
- Fast Company
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