HealthReach - Health Information for Non-English and Second Language Speakers

HealthReach started as a resource for refugees ("RHIN") but is now expanded to meet the needs of the broader non-English speaking and second-language audience. It offers multilingual consumer health and patient education materials on individual topics and in a few special collections. Some material is in English, aimed at those who serve a specific population. 

MedlinePlus remains a valuable consumer health resource that focuses more on specific conditions and offers information in multiple languages. Entering a search term such as "Asian health" there will also result in a list of resources. Both databases are services of the National Library of Medicine.

Websites Referenced

https://healthreach.nlm.nih.gov/

https://healthreach.nlm.nih.gov/History-of-RHIN

https://medlineplus.gov/

https://www.nlm.nih.gov/

Want to Learn a Foreign Language? MANGO!

MANGO is a foreign-language learning system now offered by many area public libraries.
MANGO focuses on practical conversational skills. Over 50 languages and ESL course are potentially available, depending on your public library. Log in anonymously or create a personal account to track progress through the course, maybe even on a free app for iPhone®, iPod touch® and Android™.


Websites Referenced
www.mangolanguages.com
www.findmango.com

“Point to Talk” to Your Patient

“Point to Talk” is a handy list of written questions in about 20 languages that help a patient and caregiver communicate when language is a barrier. Simply point to the appropriate question and the patient can point to the answer. Click on a language on the Point to Talk page to find the "Discomforts and Requests" sheet, offered as a free online sample. The lengthier AHA award-winning booklets “English in the Hospital” include illustrations and many more topics, and are available for purchase from Massachusetts General Hospital.

Linked with permission of MGH Interpreter Services. For more foreign language and culture resources see the Medical Library website. Please call Family Services for TSRHC interpreter assistance.

Websites Cited 
http://www2.massgeneral.org/interpreters/pointtalk.asp
http://www2.massgeneral.org/interpreters/pointtalk/order_pointtalk.pdf
http://www.massgeneral.org/interpreters/
http://tsrhkids/mlibrary/links.htm

Translation Apps for Your iPhone

Several translation apps mentioned on iMedicalApps sound intriguing to investigate if you have an iPhone. They may not be specific enough for orthopedic settings, and certainly will not replace our wonderful interpreting team!

The first is MediBabble, which is available free. It draws from a list of 2,000 diagnostic questions that have already been translated into 5 initial languages - Spanish, Cantonese, Mandarin, Russian, and Haitian Creole. Two physicians, Dr. Alex Blau and Dr. Brad Cohn, have added this app to an impressive record of service to the global medically underserved.

The iMedicalApps review also mentions Xprompt ($6.99 for initial download including English, Spanish & German; $2.99 for each additional language -- 20 available) which has 800 diagnostic phrases and Medical Spanish ($6.99) with over 3,000 audio phrases in Spanish.

In addition to translating typed text for over 50 languages, Google Translate offers an option to speak a phrase and hear a translation in a in one of 15 languages. It is not medically-oriented. This is the list of languages they mention: "Afrikaans, Albanian, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Arabic, Basque, Belarusian, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Filipino, Finnish, French, Galician, Georgian, German, Greek, Haitian Creole, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Italian, Irish, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Malay, Maltese, Norwegian, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, Vietnamese, Welsh, Yiddish."


Websites referenced:
http://www.imedicalapps.com/2011/03/free-iphone-medical-translation-app-sets-a-new-standard-medibabble-translator-app-review/

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/google-translate/id414706506?mt=8

http://www.imedicalapps.com/2010/04/iphone-medical-app-xprompt-app-review/

http://www.imedicalapps.com/2009/09/app-review-medical-spanish-app-adds-audio-in-latest-update-and-were-definitely-smitten/

http://www.imedicalapps.com/