User-driven Tool for Bilingual Clinical Dialogs and Medical Language Acquisition

PROJECT SUMMARY Persistent disparities in healthcare access hinder the nation's 26 million individuals with limited English proficiency (LEP) from receiving quality care and, as a result, from achieving optimal health outcomes. Patients who struggle to understand their care providers report difficulty navigating both administrative and clinical procedures and experience significantly higher rates of delays in care delivery and poorer outcomes than their English-proficient counterparts. Despite numerous federal and state-level mandates for increased language assistance services, healthcare organizations have had limited success in tackling these challenges posed by the language barrier. This project aims to bring much-needed innovation to alleviate communication obstacles and accompanying health disparities. The envisioned solution will offer both in-clinic communication support and user-driven medical language skills acquisition training that can be accessed on desktop computers, touchscreen tablets, and mob