Add Medical Interpreters to the Healthcare Team – via Lisa Walker’s blog

We need to expand our definition of healthcare team when it comes to patients with limited English proficiency.

I was reminded of this after reading a March 17 article on Multibriefs.com, “Multilingual healthcare providers for a multilingual nation.” Author Jon Jilani makes a convincing and important argument for the use of competent, trained medical interpreters when providing care to non-English speaking patients.

The article spoke to the likelihood of poor health outcomes when using ad hoc interpreters, such as family members or untrained staff, and the recent availability of national certification processes to ensure competency of spoken language interpreters.

As a former sign language interpreter for the Deaf and a practicing physician assistant, this issue is near and dear to me. Sign language interpreters have been professionally organized and had a national certification process to ensure competency for decades. This is largely due to the existence of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the highly organized self-advocacy of the Deaf Community.

In addition to the national certification exam, which ensures basic fluency in American Sign Language and the ability to function effectively as an interpreter, there is a required specialized certification for sign language interpreters who wish to work in the legal setting. This is because the legal system has a language all its own and people’s lives are at stake.

And yet for years there has been no specialized certification for interpreters who work in the medical system, which has a language all its own and where people’s lives are also at stake. Specialized medical interpreter training and certification for spoken and sign language interpreters is underutilized and long overdue.

To read more of this article courtesy of Lisa Walker, click the link below.

http://www.pasconnect.org/a-new-member-of-the-health-team-medical-interpreters/

 

Medical interpreting a growing industry –via News Telegram.com

WORCESTER — Seasonal flu cases have kept Silvia Uatari-Glaser shuttling constantly between the three campuses of UMass Memorial Medical Center, going wherever there are Portuguese-speaking patients being treated by English-speaking doctors.

Mrs. Uatari-Glaser, a former physical therapist in a Brazilian hospital, brings her Portuguese-English fluency and new skills as a medical interpreter to those who come from the mainland of Portugal, Brazil, the Azores and the Republic of Cape Verde.

In the past, many patients with limited English proficiency would have had a relative — often a youngster who could speak English — to translate for them. However, multiple federal regulations, reinforcing the 1964 Civil Right Act, require that any organization that receives federal funding is required to provide English-language interpreters as part of its services.

And, in 2000, Massachusetts legislators mandated that acute care hospitals and mental health hospitals provide interpretive services 24 hours a day, seven days a week for patients with limited English proficiency who seek emergency care or treatment.

Couple that with a state that saw its foreign-born population jump to 14.9 percent of the population in 2011 — 10.7 percent in Worcester County — and the result is a demand for medical interpreters that has exploded in Massachusetts. (Those born in Puerto Rico and a few U.S territories are considered native-born because they are American citizens by birth.)

The top three countries of birth of new immigrants are China, Brazil and Portugal, but no matter where immigrants come from, the census shows that in 2011 5.8 percent of all households in Massachusetts were linguistically isolated, meaning that all persons age 14 and older in the household were less than proficient in English.

UMass Memorial has done its own census.

As of fiscal 2012, the medical center has identified 133 languages spoken by its patients, according to Connie Camelo, director of interpretive services at UMass Memorial. And from 2007 to 2012, there was a growth of 76.6 percent in the total number of documented interpretations at UMass Memorial, and the interpreter workforce increased by 73.3 percent.

(UMass Memorial has a staff of 23 full-time interpreters that is supplemented by 13 per diem interpreters, and also uses independent contractors and agency interpreters, according to Mrs. Camelo. Spanish, Portuguese and Vietnamese are the top three languages most in demand, followed by Arabic and Albanian.)

“All hospitals in Massachusetts have interpreter offices,” said Barbara Rodriguez, owner and president of TransFluenci Interpreting and Translation Services. “Most hire staff for the languages that are most needed in their geographical area, and contract out to agencies or independent freelance interpreters for those languages that are in less demand.”

Because of the growing medical interpreter profession, Mrs. Rodriguez has developed and implemented a medical interpreter course at eight Massachusetts colleges, including a nine-week, 54-hour course at Quinsigamond Community College, where Mrs. Uatari-Glaser finished studying last summer. After being certified as a medical interpreter by passing an exam offered through the National Council on Interpreting in Health Care, Mrs. Uatari-Glaser took part in a two-month practicum at UMass Memorial before she was hired as a full-time Portuguese interpreter.

Training is also offered through the Massachusetts Medical Interpreter Training Program, a statewide program under the auspices of the University of Massachusetts Medical School in partnership with the Executive Office of Health and Human Services.

This program has been training medical interpreters for the past 15 years, according to Lisa Morris, director of Cross Cultural Initiatives at the UMass Medical School’s Massachusetts Area Health Education Center Network office. The course is usually offered in the fall and spring as well as sometimes in a summer session at one or more of the six regional AHEC Network offices.

Whatever the medical interpreter course, applicants must first pass a language fluency exam in both English and a foreign language before they are accepted into the class.

While the college programs focus on preparing students for entry-level jobs, UMass’ 60-hour Fundamentals of Medical Interpreting course is targeted at the staffs of health care facilities that provide care to those enrolled in the MassHealth program. The program provides interpreters with training in anatomy, physiology and medical terminology in both English and the foreign language.

“People don’t usually use medical terminology in their everyday language, so we review this to make sure they are familiar with it,” said Ms. Morris.

Students also learn the skills, besides language, they need to conduct themselves as appropriate medical interpreters.

“A good interpreter is interpreting everything that is said,” said Ms. Morris. “It is not listening to someone’s story and then giving a summarized rendition, which is what generally folks do when they are not trained. Trained interpreters deliver everything. It should be as if it were a recording, without deleting any part of the message.”

To read more of this article courtesy of NewsTelegram.com, click the link below.

http://www.telegram.com/article/20140302/NEWS/303029991/1237

 

Medical interpreting is growing industry led by UMass Medical School — via UMass

UMass Medical School’s statewide medical interpreter training program, conducted in partnership with the Executive Office of Health and Human Services, leads the way in this growing industry, according to an article in the Sunday Telegram & Gazette.

“A good interpreter is interpreting everything that is said,” Lisa Morris, director of Cross Cultural Initiatives at UMass Medical School, told the Telegram for the March 2 story. “It is not listening to someone’s story and then giving a summarized rendition, which is what generally folks do when they are not trained. Trained interpreters deliver everything. It should be as if it were a recording, without deleting any part of the message.”

The article about the rising demand for medical interpreters features the Massachusetts Medical Interpreter Training Program, which has run for the past 15 years as part of the Commonwealth Medicine division’s Massachusetts Area Health Education Center Network.

“Fundamentals of Medical Interpreting” is a 60-hour course offered at six regional MassAHEC offices in the fall and spring, and occasionally summer. It is geared to staff at health care facilities that serve patients enrolled in MassHealth. Applicants must pass a fluency exam in English and a foreign language before they can be accepted.

The program provides interpreters with training in anatomy, physiology and medical terminology in both English and the foreign language, Morris told the Telegram. “People don’t usually use medical terminology in their everyday language, so we review this to make sure they are familiar with it,” she said.

Read the full article at: Telegram & Gazette: Medical interpreting a growing industry

Related links on UMassMedNow:

Medical interpreters prepare for certification

MassAHEC named Language Access Champion: National Council on Interpreting in Health Care honors Medical Interpreter Training program

Interpreters for limited English patients shorten hospital stays

Successful Massachusetts medical interpreter training program goes to Texas

Plan to break down Boston’s language barriers — via Boston Standard

The importance of breaking down language barriers was discussed at a meeting to look at issues raised in the borough council’s immigration report.

The ‘social impact of population change’ in Boston Task and Finish Group met on Thursday to hear evidence of progress from organisations involved with migrant workers.

These included the East Midlands Strategic Migration Partnership (EMSMP).

In his role as chairman of EMSMP, Coun Paul Kenny spoke of the need for a better scheme to encourage migrants to learn English.

“It’s been apparent over the last 18 months that trying to get more eastern Europeans to learn English is becoming a major issue,” he said.

“When you talk to Boston College we know it’s an issue there. Within the Salvation Army it becomes a big problem where people don’t know how to communicate.”

He said scouting groups in Boston have been asked to encourage migrants to get involved to help ‘reduce some of the tensions’.

“We don’t think Boston is isolated in some of these issues, but as one of the smallest authorities you have one of the highest percentages in these issues. Boston is on the national agenda.”

To read more of this article courtesy of The Boston Standard, click the link below.

http://www.bostonstandard.co.uk/news/local/plan-to-break-down-boston-s-language-barriers-1-5872781

 

Harvard startup MyLingo wants to turn your smartphone into a movie translator –via Boston.com

By Scott Kirsner, Globe Columnist

Growing up in a Connecticut household that mostly spoke Polish, Olenka Polak and her brother Adam had first-hand experience in how language can be a barrier to participating in the culture. And that led the siblings, years later, to start a company that would help make a key part of American culture — the movies — more welcoming to those who don’t speak English.

The Polaks are co-founders of myLINGO, a still-stealthy startup based at Harvard’s Innovation Lab. myLINGO is developing a mobile app that would make it easy to rent, for 99 cents, a movie’s audio track in a wide variety of languages. And it’d be useful not just for theatrical releases, but also for on-demand or DVD viewing at home. “You can imagine a scenario where the kids are fine watching a cartoon in English, but Abuela and Abuelo would want to listen to the audio in Spanish,” says Olenka Polak, right, who just wrapped up her sophomore year at Harvard. (Her brother is a 2012 graduate of Johns Hopkins.)

For a demo, Polak started playing the Spanish version of “Toy Story 2” on her laptop. The prototype app on her iPhone listened to the soundtrack for 20 seconds or so to figure out what part of the movie was playing, and when I put the earbuds in, I could hear Buzz Lightyear speaking in English, perfectly synchronized. The app checks in every few minutes with the soundtrack on the film or DVD, just to make sure it is still in the right spot. (Audio processing expert Dan Ellis of Columbia University is an advisor to myLINGO.)

To read more of this article courtesy of Boston.com, click the link below.

http://www.boston.com/business/technology/innoeco/2013/05/harvard_innovation_lab_startup.html