Health IT Vendor – Habla Espa?ol?
Dirk Schroeder
Digital Health Entrepreneur (w. exit); Corporate Board Member, Strategic Advisor; Investor; Professor of Entrepreneurship & Health; Global & Multicultural Health Expert
Sure, everyone knows that there are some people in the U.S. that speak a language other than English at home. But did you know that the number is now at an all time high of 61.8 million! That’s 20% of all Americans! And in the country’s most populous states (California, Texas, Florida, New York, Illinois) the percentage is even higher. In California, 44% of school-age children speak a language other than English at home!
For Health Information Technology (HIT) and digital health companies, offering solutions in multiple languages, or at least Spanish as well as English, is an absolutely essential part of landing and growing paying customers.
Hospital systems and health plans, two of the HIT industry’s largest client groups, are required to provide materials in multiple languages due to a range of regulations and laws (see some of my earlier LI posts). And even with the scaling back of the ACA, pre-ACA regulations requiring other languages will likely stay in place.
Digital health and HIT vendors who are selling into these hospitals and health plans will therefore eventually need to offer more than English, especially if their solution includes patient-facing elements and the company is interested in “going to scale”.
The next question is: How does one get this translation done, easily and affordable?
Executives from digital health companies often ask me, “Can’t I just use machine translation, like Google Translate?”
While these programs have gotten much better over the years and can reasonably convey the gist of the message, there is simply nothing like a live professional medical/health translator to assure that the intent and tone of the material is captured in the translation. If you are just using an automated translation tool, what are you saying about the image your company is projecting and the importance of these potential clients? Professional translation companies like HolaDoctor also have expansive healthcare glossaries that assure quality and consistency.
In randomized trials, we have even scientifically proven that translations culturally adapted for the target population result in twice the engagement, twice the behavior change and twice the impact of health outcomes.
In sum, if your clients are requiring that you offer your product in multiple languages, and you are truly interested in your product will used by non-English dominant audience for behavior change and improved health outcomes, make sure your translations are the very best that they can be.
I will be heading to HIMSS next week to meet with a number of digital health IT and content companies that are furiously trying to get their solution professionally presented in multiple languages. Some of these are at the request of current clients, or so they can win an RFP, or as they look to “Go Global”.
Please feel free to reach out if you’re in this same boat and will be at HIMSS.
I’d be happy to share what we’ve learned at HolaDoctor over the past 15+ years translating and culturally adapting material for a range of digital health companies and content suppliers.
Dirk Schroeder
EVP and Chief Medical Officer, HolaDoctor Inc
Cell: 678-520-4131
Healthcare Recruitment | Better Healthcare through Wellness | Strategic Sales Leader| Relationship Builder| Grit | SaaS Telehealth & RPM Rainmaker | A Country Girl born in the City
8 年I on the other hand, not only press the send button, before completing my post :-) I am the only Monoglot in my tribe of 3 daughters and myself. My twin daughters,who began their Undergraduate studies at 17 years old this fall, are also fluent in Spanish. One might think that the ethnicity in our home was Spanish. Not at all. My ex husband, their father is second generation American, but Greek. He also speaks reads and writes fluent Greek. Im German, Scottish and Irish and speak only English. The love of other languages, has opened many doors for my daughters. The oldest has taught and, continues to teach students at the Graduate and Undergraduate level who speak English as a second language. She will be sent to Southern Spain this summer to teach English to native Spaniards. The language and dialect differences that both Spanish and Portuguese each possess is not easily translated by Google, nor other computerized systems. I can say this as someone who has relied on those systems to translate messages many times,only to have my daughters roll their eyes at my translation:-) As a advocate of Telehealth/Telemedicine I believe technology does and will continue to do amazing things in healthcare. Bravo to you Dirk Schroeder, ScD, MPH
Healthcare Recruitment | Better Healthcare through Wellness | Strategic Sales Leader| Relationship Builder| Grit | SaaS Telehealth & RPM Rainmaker | A Country Girl born in the City
8 年This is a tremendous post. I agree with the translation factor on so many fronts, my oldest daughter at 23 is on year two, of a full ride 5 year PhD program at UCLA for Spanish Linguistics. During her Undergrad, on scholarship she was sent to study Spanish abroad in Northern Spain for 5 months. Her sophomore year of her undergraduate program she was sent to Brazil to study Portuguese for 7 months. She was a fluent Speaker of both languages prior to being sent abroad. Her immersion in both languages is what opened her academic career into the Linguistics arena.
NIH Health Services Researcher, Science Liaison, Policy Analyst & Faculty of Public Health
8 年Thus is why our family with 3 sons spent 3 years working, schooling & living full time in a Latin American country. Immersion IS the best way to truly learn and the earlier in life, the better. There's a tremendous benefit to having that fluency and the understanding of the realities of living in a developing country. I wish all those running for Congress and the presidency had this type of experience.