Monday, April 7, 2008

Medical Interpreters

I've had the fortune of working with several different medical interpreters at my job. Russian, Japenese, Cantonese and Mandarin speakers. I've come to respect their role for patients who do not speak english, it can be a tricky one. I wish I spoke a different language because I've very interested in learning what exactly changes through translation. I see the role of the medical interpreter to be one of complete translation, word for word, what the physician says to the patient. But given the variation in language this can't be true 100% of the time. My other respect for medical interpreters is derived from the fact that they work in all different types of health care settings, disease areas and spectrums. They must know so much medical terminology! This cross-work in different areas of medicine must give medical interpreters a very unique perspective on the health care system. I wonder if anyone has taken the time to ask them what they thought of how care is given in these different settings? What they thought could be done better?

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