Talking the talk: new online interpretation system

An innovative interpretation service that allows medical staff to converse directly with non-English speaking patients at New York's Bellevue Hospital Center is proving to be cost-effective and efficient, an International Conference on Urban Health was told.

The remote simultaneous medical interpretation system is more accurate than other types of interpretation, said Dr. Francesca Gany, director of the Center for Immigrant Health at the New York University School of Medicine.

The interpretation service, which uses voice-over-Internet technology, is a world first. The health professional and patient each wear a headset attached to an Internet protocol phone. The phone connects them to interpreters, who translate as they speak. “It's our hope that this will become global,” Gany told conference participants in New York last fall.

The service, which costs about US$1 a minute, will soon be available through the New York hospital system.

An error analysis done by Gany's centre found simultaneous translation to be more accurate than over-the-phone consecutive translation, or consecutive translation by a trained translator in the same room. In those situations, translators often forget to repeat something because of the time lapse, she said.

The centre has also initiated a randomized controlled trial, comparing the new system with “usual and customary” ones, considering aspects such as patient adherence and test ordering. “There can be a hidden cost of not using [well qualified] interpreters, such as a tendency to order more tests,” Gany observed. — Ann Silversides, Toronto