The importance of professional translators and interpreters in healthcare
Multilingual concept art of person holding many countries' flags

Francesca Matteoda, Fellow of the Institute of Translation and Interpreting (ITI) and a former member of the ITI Board explains the services needed to provide clear communication to patients

Clear communication in healthcare is vital – not only for accurate diagnosis and treatment, but also for patient confidence and safety. Yet, for patients who speak a different language, navigating medical conversations without professional language support can be daunting and, at times, dangerous. This article explores why accurate translation and interpreting are essential in the healthcare settings, illustrating how trained professionals bridge linguistic and cultural gaps, ensuring vital information is communicated effectively to the benefit of both doctors and patients.

Translation v interpreting

It is important to clarify the difference between translators and interpreters as the two terms are often confused.

A translator works with the written word, whereas an interpreter with the spoken one.

A translator will take a text in one language and write it in another. They will be aware of cultural differences, localisation issues and use the correct terminology in the context ensuring the translation flows smoothly and sounds natural.

An interpreter on the other hand, will listen to someone speaking in one language and speak it in another. The focus will not necessarily be on including every single word that was spoken in language A, but rather on conveying (interpreting) the overall message, using the correct terminology at all times and not omitting any details. A professional interpreter will also be able to detect differences in tone, which can change the meaning of the words which an untrained person might not pick up on. For example, if someone replies ‘Yeah, sure’, this can mean consent but could also have the opposite meaning, depending on the tone of voice of the speaker.

Getting the message across

Let’s imagine two situations in which you would want to hire an interpreter:

1) You are a patient who may have a terminal condition. Imagine walking into the doctor’s surgery for the results of some tests and naturally, you’re nervous. You sit down, patiently waiting while they pull up the results on the screen. You can feel the anxiety building, it seems like they are taking ages, and then when they speak, you don’t understand everything they say. Do you have a serious condition or not? The uncertainty can be overwhelming.

2) Now let’s switch sides: You are a physician who needs to explain the posology and administration details of a certain medicine to a patient. You haven’t met them yet. It is crucially important that they understand exactly how to take the medicine and how long for, as well as the potential side effects, which can be numerous and quite serious. The patient arrives and you start giving them all the relevant information. You see them nodding to everything you say and think they have understood. Towards the end, you look up and see a bewildered look on their face. You ask then whether they have understood and they utter a weak ‘Yes’, but you are left with the niggling feeling that they actually haven’t understood and may take the medicine incorrectly. Disconcerting?

These are just two possible scenarios that physicians can encounter when dealing with patients who don’t speak the same language. Hiring a professional interpreter for these situations is vital: the interpreter is the link between two different languages and often two very different cultures. Speaking two languages is not enough. Parents sometimes bring their children along as interpreters which can save money, but also puts the child under extreme pressure to ‘get it right’. The child won’t necessarily be aware of cultural differences or have the necessary medical knowledge; the parent might not be entirely truthful in front of their child about some more intimate symptoms, for example.

An English colleague told me that when her father was in hospital in Spain and needed several blood transfusions, her mother, a retired nurse, had his ward in giggles when she told a nurse her husband needed another bag of sangria instead of sangre (blood).

Hiring professionals

A professional interpreter is discreet, impartial, fully aware of cultural and linguistic nuances and can help make life easier for patients and doctors alike, ensuring clear communication and reducing anxiety levels in high-stress situations. They will also ensure confidentiality, whereas untrained individuals, no matter how well-meaning, may inadvertently breach privacy laws.

There may sometimes be a certain reluctance when it comes to hiring a professional interpreter because of the fees, but in the long run, professional interpreting can streamline the healthcare process by reducing misunderstandings, repeat visits and unnecessary treatments, ultimately saving time and resources.

The argument in favour of professional translators is similar.

Some examples of when to use a professional translator include, but are not limited to:

Informed Consent Forms: you have carefully crafted an Informed Consent Form covering all possible eventualities in your native language, but it will be read by non-native patients. Clear communication is crucial for obtaining informed consent, as patients must fully comprehend the risks and benefits of the procedures before agreeing to them. Hiring a professional translator will ensure that the ICF is written using the correct patient-facing terminology and style, so that your patients feel they have been fully informed in their own language. A patient who understands the procedure(s) is likely to be more compliant and will feel happier about the whole process.

Hospital website: your hospital is based in an area with a large immigrant community, such as London or Birmingham, where there is a significant South Asian population. It is essential that all the important information (services provided, emergency contact details, etc.) be provided in the relevant languages, such as Hindi, Punjabi or Urdu. Moreover, the correct use of cultural and regional variations is fundamental. Someone with basic language skills might not be able to use the right terminology or understand cultural nuances, which could lead to miscommunication and harm in a healthcare setting.

A not-so-amusing example of potentially dangerous mistranslations is that the word ‘once’ in the sentence ‘take this medicine once a day’ was misunderstood by a patient’s child reading the instructions and rendered as ‘take this medicine eleven times a day’, because in Spanish ‘once’ means eleven.

The perils of AI

The use of artificial intelligence is on the rise, and unfortunately many people have fallen into the trap of asking AI to translate their texts. The output can sometimes appear to be impressive, but on closer inspection, it almost always fails to hit the mark.

Here’s a concrete example from this translator’s recent experiment with a well-respected AI translation. A Spanish hospital discharge summary had to be translated into English. After anonymising the personal data in the file, this author uploaded it to the AI platform and received a translation within minutes. At first glance, it was impressive. However, once this translator started checking the translation carefully, she was taken aback by the inconsistent use of terminology, untranslated abbreviations, changes in register, omissions… what on the surface looked like a polished text was actually worse than what a student would have produced! While AI can be helpful in getting a first draft, hiring a human translator is indispensable in healthcare contexts where nuance, precision and cultural awareness are paramount.

To conclude, while a friend or relative can help you communicate on an informal basis and may be able to help you write an email in a different language, when it comes to delicate and important matters, such as test results, information leaflets or discharge summaries, hiring the services of a professional is fundamental for avoiding mistakes, anxiety and misinterpretations. If you don’t know where to look, most countries have a professional translation and interpreting association, which will have a directory of members, such as the Institute of Translation and Interpreting in the UK.