PIctured: Violeta Osegueda, MS3 and Axana Rodriguez-Torres, MS4

A free web resource has been created by two medical students with the goal to encourage medical Spanish education on the web.  The website is intended to for medical students and residents, but can also help the general public with medical jargon as well.

Classmates and best friends Axana Rodriguez-Torres, MPH, MS4 and Violeta Osegueda, MA, MS3, created this website together after seeing firsthand the problems that miscommunication caused for Spanish speakers, especially surrounding medical terms, medical jargon or phrasing.

Medical Spanish is quite complex, even for native Spanish speakers. There is always a double translation taking place: one from Medical English to Medical Spanish, and the second from Medical Spanish to Layperson Spanish appropriate for the patient.  Along the way, many mistakes can take place, and cause issues for not only the patients but providers we as well.

One of the issues they saw during clerkships was while some physicians, residents, and even classmates had some level of Spanish fluency, the pronunciation would make it difficult to understand for patients. As medical students they witnessed some awkward interactions, where patients would look at them to “interpret” the physician’s Spanish and then needing to respectfully reiterate the message again. As medical students they can be caught between professional hierarchy and patient advocacy. Sometimes those physicians were overly confident in their Spanish, when interpreter services should have been the more appropriate option.  
 
In addition to pronunciation or questionable fluency, false cognates may also lead to negative clinical outcomes. There are several common examples of these: embarazada (pregnant) vs embarrassed (avergonzada); intoxicada (poisoned) vs. intoxicated (drunk);  constipación (congestion) vs constipation (estreñimiento). “Being embarrassed” and “being embarazada” (being pregnant) are two phrases that can get commonly confused because embarrassed and embarazada sound and look similar, yet, mean completely different things.

They also want visitors to their site to learn about medical interpreters, and not be afraid to use them when they visit the hospital or clinic.

"Please use interpreters with non-English speaking patients," said Violete Osegueda, MA ,MS3. "Talking to your patients with the help of an interpreter is a real-time lesson in Medical Spanish, while you continue to learn from our website." 

Both women were raised in underserved and under-resourced communities, and saw firsthand the problems associated with existing culture and language barrier gaps for communities in dire need.

"The Latino culture is one full of humility where patients feel they are not allowed to ask physicians to repeat instruction, let alone, letting a physician know that they did not comprehend what was just said to them," said Axana Rodriguez-Torres, MPH, MS4 "This is a painful situation that no human being should experience or endure. We hope that our efforts will have a ripple effect." 

Their goals for the future is to expand the website, and have school administration provide financial coverage for certification to medical students who would like to interpret officially in their clerkships. Bilingual certification would benefit  patients’ outcomes and represents professional accountability for healthcare personnel.