Reducing Clinical Errors in Cancer Education: Interpreter Training

Over 22 million US residents are limited English proficient. Hospitals often call upon untrained persons to interpret. There is a dearth of information on errors in medical interpreting and their impact upon cancer education. We conducted an experimental study of standardized medical interpreting tr...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of cancer education 2010-12, Vol.25 (4), p.560-564
Main Authors: Gany, Francesca M., Gonzalez, Carlos Javier, Basu, Gaurab, Hasan, Abdullah, Mukherjee, Debjani, Datta, Minakshi, Changrani, Jyotsna
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Barriers
Bilingualism
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Biomedicine
Cancer
Cancer Research
Communication (Thought Transfer)
Communication Barriers
Community Relations
Decision Making
Diagnostic Tests
Educational Status
Error Analysis (Language)
Family (Sociological Unit)
Health education
Humans
Interpreters
Limited English Speaking
Medical errors
Medical Errors - prevention & control
Medical Oncology - education
Medical Schools
Multilingualism
Neoplasms - prevention & control
Noncitizens
Outreach Programs
Patient Education
Patient Education as Topic
Patients
Pharmacology/Toxicology
Physicians
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Summary:Over 22 million US residents are limited English proficient. Hospitals often call upon untrained persons to interpret. There is a dearth of information on errors in medical interpreting and their impact upon cancer education. We conducted an experimental study of standardized medical interpreting training on interpreting errors in the cancer encounter, by comparing trained and untrained interpreters, using identical content. Nine interpreted cancer encounters with identical scripts were recorded and transcribed. Using an “Error Analysis Tool,” a bilingual linguist and two bilingual medical providers scored the transcripts for interpreting errors made, including their potential clinical severity. Trained interpreters were 70% less likely to have clinical errors than untrained ones. The likelihood of medical error increased with the length of the concept and decreased with the precision of vocabulary. It is important to train medical interpreters and to ensure their availability in cancer education encounters to minimize the risk for errors.
ISSN:0885-8195
1543-0154
DOI:10.1007/s13187-010-0107-9