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Doctors who use Google Translate to talk to patients want a better option

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Re: Doctors who use Google Translate to talk to patients want a better option

#11

Post by kvathupo »

slackfan wrote: post #3

There has been a better option for a long time, called on-staff Medical Interpreters. In fact, my spouse worked as one for approximately seven years. Unfortunately due to hospitals consolidating into medical networks and cutting costs wherever they could, this went from on-staff interpreters, to contract interpreters, to on-call phone interpreters (works incredibly poorly), to google translate. Blame the beurocrats r…

What are countries with more functional healthcare systems doing differently?

When it comes to comparisons with other countries, much of the dialogue in the US is centered on insurance coverage. That said, I'm curious if other countries have found better solutions to similarly fundamental issues, such as doctors working long hours, doctors being forced to maximize the number of patients, continued medical education, and patient education about the doctor-patient relationship.

Re: Doctors who use Google Translate to talk to patients want a better option

#12

Post by jquery »

Deepl is a better option. It feels several years ahead of Google Translate in quality. I know enough Japanese to hurt myself, and Deepl is definitely giving the superior translations, by far, which is great for my studies. As an analogy, it’s like going from 144p to 360p (a good human translation ranges from 720p to 4k+). Yeah 360p video is still blurry but it’s in a different league than 144p.

Re: Doctors who use Google Translate to talk to patients want a better option

#14

Post by pseingatl »

Telemedicine is now a "thing," it is not that difficult to find a medical professional in another country who is fluent in English as well as the target language. Just as X-Rays are now commonly sent overseas to be read, you can set up a Zoom call with a medical colleague who is bilingual.

On the other hand, if you are complaining about the quality of Google Translate, that is another matter. Deepl.com's translations are better, but they support fewer languages. Google Translate works on the amount of source material available in the foreign language and what kind of source material. Mandarin can be quite good. Legal Arabic isn't that bad either, after a United Nations project to translate all Iraqi laws into English. There's not that much Burmese; Thai translations are uniformly horrible and as for Mizo? Forget it.

Re: Doctors who use Google Translate to talk to patients want a better option

#16

Post by LAC-Tech »

atdrummond wrote: post #13

For those who know better than I - does this article, when saying Taiwanese, refer to Taiwanese Mandarin or the language also known as Taigi/Taigu?

Considering they were using google translate, I assume they meant Taiwanese Mandarin. Though usually when I hear taiwanese as a language in english it's tai-gi.

Re: Doctors who use Google Translate to talk to patients want a better option

#17

Post by atdrummond »

freedomben wrote: post #2

I can't imagine being a patient in pain trying to communicate that to a doctor who didn't speak the same language, especially when the pain was due to a different issue (as the article describes). The pendulum has fully swung from "pain is a vital sign" to "suck it up" and "anyone who complains about pain is a liar or a drug seeker unless they're older than 65 or have a visible external wound."[1] It's difficult even…

It has become an absolute joke. I have had 6 surgeries for Crohns, a back surgery due to wear and tear from high level athletics, and am a long term sufferer of an aggressive leukaemia. Despite using opioids responsibly for over a decade, I am regarded as nothing more than a drug seeking pest the very few times I have actively sought pain relief during in-patient hospital stays. Prior to being dropped entirely from my Oxycodone IR script (30 10mg pills a month, truly not a large amount) without any warning due to my pain doctor finally simply giving up on the system, I had never asked for an increase in a dose ever - despite still having plenty of untreated pain.

Legitimate chronic pain patients are being abused at this point in order to save face for the broken, rent-seeking pharmaceutical system that enabled the prescription opioid 'crisis' in the first place.

Re: Doctors who use Google Translate to talk to patients want a better option

#18

Post by rahimnathwani »

This article says they used Google Translate for "Taiwanese to English, English to Taiwanese", but Google Translate doesn't list 'Taiwanese' as a language.

It does list 'Chinese (Traditional)' and I guess that's what they were using.

Re: Doctors who use Google Translate to talk to patients want a better option

#19

Post by atdrummond »

LAC-Tech wrote: post #16
atdrummond wrote: post #13

For those who know better than I - does this article, when saying Taiwanese, refer to Taiwanese Mandarin or the language also known as Taigi/Taigu?

Considering they were using google translate, I assume they meant Taiwanese Mandarin. Though usually when I hear taiwanese as a language in english it's tai-gi.

I was doing some research on Hokkien in general the other day and that's when I noticed some using the endonym Taigu instead. I'm not sure what the difference, if any, is.

Re: Doctors who use Google Translate to talk to patients want a better option

#20

Post by ipaddr »

munk-a wrote: post #7
slackfan wrote: post #3

There has been a better option for a long time, called on-staff Medical Interpreters. In fact, my spouse worked as one for approximately seven years. Unfortunately due to hospitals consolidating into medical networks and cutting costs wherever they could, this went from on-staff interpreters, to contract interpreters, to on-call phone interpreters (works incredibly poorly), to google translate. Blame the beurocrats r…

My SO had to seek medical attention in rural southern France (we were visiting Carcassone) - she initially sought care at the local emerg where there was not a translator available, she speaks high-school french but most of the conversation was carried out through miming and charades. A few days later, as instructed, she followed up with a local clinic where she prepared a written version of her condition and brought…

Usually your staff comes from the local population which gives you staff members who speak the languages you would need.
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