Using Google Translate^© in the hospital: A case report

Article type: Case Report

Authors: Leite, Fernando Ochoa^* | Cochat, Catarina | Salgado, Henrique | da Costa, Mariana Pinto | Queirós, Marta | Campos, Olga | Carvalho, Paulo

Affiliations: Hospital de Magalhães Lemos, Porto, Portugal

Correspondence: [*] Corresponding author. Fernando Ochoa Leite, Hospital de Magalhães Lemos, Porto, Portugal. E-mail:fernando.opcleite@gmail.com

Abstract: INTRODUCTION: Doctor-patient communication is essential to the establishment of a therapeutic relationship and to the clinical improvement of the patient. Medical Interpreter Services (MIS) allow the doctors to communicate with patients that do not speak the same language of the clinical staff. However, MIS are not always available and when that happens it is of the upmost importance to find alternatives. OBJECTIVES AND METHODS: Presentation of a clinical case in which Google Translate^© (GT^©) was used as a translation tool to communicate with a patient. Discussion of the utility and validity of GT^© as a translation tool in Medicine. A Pubmed search for articles concerning the use of technological innovations as translation tools was performed using the key words: GT^©, language barriers, foreign language, and communication barriers. RESULTS: In the reported clinical case, GT^© allowed the translation and the establishment of communication with a foreign patient. The Pubmed search found two articles concerning the use and validity of GT^© as a translation tool in Medicine. CONCLUSIONS: GT^© is the most readily available and free initial mode of communication between a doctor and a patient when language is a barrier. Nonetheless, GT^© should not be trusted for important medical communications unless all avenues to find a human translator have been exhausted, and the procedure is clinically urgent.

Keywords: Medical translation, Google Translate^©, communication

DOI: 10.3233/THC-161241

Journal: Technology and Health Care, vol. 24, no. 6, pp. 965-968, 2016