Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Caroline Savage
Mr.Gunsher
24 March 2016
AP Seminar
AP Seminar
use to express their feelings to one another. Language is a more complicated concept to grasp.
According to a 2009 study done by the Linguistic Society there are 6,909 distinct languages
present in the world today. Some languages have as little as 1,000 native speakers while others
have upwards of 1,213,000,000 adherents. With this myriad of ways of communication that
globally, people have developed over time, language barriers begin to form. These boundaries
cause cultural barriers and other complications in a global society. A National Geographic
article, Vanishing Voices mentions that 78% of the global populations speak the top 85
languages. This creates over 5,000 languages with less than 30% of the global population to
sustain those languages. The vast number of languages with an inadequate number of speakers
languages begin to disappear.The result of language loss is language barriers , which affects the
Medical technology is a necessity in order to care for the billions of people that populate
the globe. However the language barriers can change and hinder the distribution of care that
people need. This raises the question to what extent do language barriers affect the
and accurate health care to the patient. When a patient's goes to any doctor whether it be in-house
or foreign proper communication is needed for a proper prognosis and diagnosis. When a patient
is being seen the doctor or physician collects data on symptoms from the patient by either talking
to them or a family member, as a well as physical clues and body language. They synthesis a
diagnosis from these conversations as well as possible lab testing is needed. The doctor then tells
the family, caretaker, or patient. Telling the patient can either be through oral communication or
by writing. According to the NCBI the core of medical care is information management based.
This includes relaying correct information to one being treated as well as the patient fully
understands in their language what is going on with their body.The collection of accurate
symptoms results in a proper and specific diagnosis. Looking at this we see the need for accurate
After understanding the need for accurate communication, we can look further and see
how the language of health care can create an unintended language barrier with those being
treated. The health care language is an exclusive language that is not a distinct language that uses
abbreviations for large medical words. Where problems are found in this language barrier that it
affects doctors and patients who are both proficient in the same language.According to the
medical dictionary there are over 100,000 word combinations in the medical language. It’s
comprised of prefixes, suffixes, and root words with different meanings for each word. For
communication in July of 2014. A doctor visit of a young woman was documented to her
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cardiologist. The patient took notes on what the doctor prescribed to her with her current
condition. The note read “Your echocardiogram was unremarkable; the ejection fraction was
68%. There was no LVH. All of your laboratory tests were negative. I’ll send a note to your
doctor.” In fact what the doctors note translated into was the her moving image of her heart were
perfectly normal, the amount of blood that her heart pumps out during every beat was a normal
68 percent. Also it showed that her left ventricle in her heart were normal as was as her normal
lab results. The medical advisor who was observing this interaction mentioned that this
miscommunication was excused and should not have occurred. The patient later admitted that
she was confused and did not know what the doctor had said or ment.
Unfortunately this miscommunication between the doctor and patient have been a taught
skill to doctors. The same Washington Post article mentioned previously discusses that this
language barrier was created by medical physicians decades ago. They invented this language to
not only make it easier to write down appointment notes but to also lessen the blow of a severe
diagnosis. This language is constructed to cloud a patient's knowledge. As we can see this
communication barrier can be detrimental to a patient's health. The medical language inhibits
patient-doctors information from being passed between both parties. The need for transparent
communication was mentioned previously and shown again in the medical language.
Foreign doctors are another source language barrier complications. The language
differences not only affect the communications between a doctor and a patient but also the
understanding of a culture between the two parties. The lack of communication in the medical
field creates a cultural barrier making the distribution of medical services to low-income
countries by foreign doctors very difficult. Countries worldwide have cultural customs when it
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comes to medical treatment. Even top interpreters rarely have the cultural connection that comes
with fully understanding a culture and its customs. Mentioned by the NCBI countries and
religions may can have problems with modern doctors and rely on local healers in their
community as well as possibly witchcraft. When these immigrants travel to the United States this
is when complications can arise. Religions such as Hindu do not allow men to touch other
women unless they are married. This can create conflict in emergency situations in the United
States when male doctors might try to care for a female hindu patient. A study done by the NCBI
gave a field report on a 2 year medical mission trip to bangladesh by korean doctors to stop and
The author of the field note volunteered at a hospital and treated patients. When
discussing his issue with medical mission language barrier he mentioned it as one of the largest
problems that he faced. Not only the lack of language knowledge but also the volunteers
understanding of the culture and understanding the situation that the patient is in. They are also
unaware of how far local medical facilities and healthcare programs can go. Because of this
foreign doctors are unable to understand and efficiently carry out medical procedures without
being able to communicate and understand the patient's situations. The lack of communication in
the medical field creates a cultural barrier making the distribution of medical services to
low-income countries by volunteers very difficult. Cultural barriers can also cause both parties to
stereotype against the other without a complete understanding that goes along with the
immigrants being treated in the host country. According to The Atlantic 21% of the United States
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population do not speak english in their home life. This data is according to a 2011 census. The
older population are the most likely to lack fluency in the english language. Because of this high
number of non-english speaking population immersed in the United States health care, a federal
law was passed that gave funds to patients who needed language assistance. Health care services
are required to have either an interpreter, or staff members who are bilingual. Despite the efforts
less than half of the patients who would benefit from an interpreter receive assistance , this
information found from the Commonwealth Fund. Spanish immigrants being misunderstood is a
common occurrence within the walls of the United States. A story released by the New England
Journal of Medicine stated that a florida spanish speaking man called the ambulance with a
consistent medical problem. He described his symptoms to the paramedic interpreter as being, in
spanish, intoxicado, which means dizzy in spanish. The paramedic read that as being intoxicated
and treated the man as though he was drunk. The real problem that was going on was then
ignored and the man ended up a quadriplegic and sued the hospital.
Unfortunately these examples are common in the United States and happen with some
degree of regularity. Other examples from the New England Journal of Medicine include a
woman who was trying to explain that the daughter had fallen off her bike and “hit herself.” The
interpreter understood that the mother had hit her child and reported her for child abuse. 46% of
encounters in emergency situations that require an interpreter, and interpreter are not being used.
The lack of interpreters and sufficient ways of crossing the barrier leads to an increased rate of
Seeing that the language barrier in medicine is a very strenuous reality for over 49.6
million americans. Due to this strong issue in the United States awareness has been raised and
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solutions have been presented. Laws have been passed in federal legislature as well as
technology being invented to eliminate the detrimental barrier. Telemedicine has been a major
aid to this problem. While telemedicine does offer solutions the patient to doctor personal
communication is still not there. The Atlantic released an article in March of 2014 discussing the
use of medical apps and technology to eliminate language barriers. We can draw comparisons
from other countries that have used technology to aid in this process. Some health care centers in
Russia and at home treatment use an app where you tap different faces on a tablet to signal a
nurse about the amount of pain you are in. If you are in moderate pain you hit the frowny face
and a nurse is alerted immediately. This innovative app was created in New York. While this
passed from patient to doctor. Once symptoms and side effects of drugs need to be
Even though vast advancements have taken place in technological communication there
is yet to be a fully bilingual interpreter device that can benefit the cause. The Atlantic gives an
insight from Dr.Glenn Flores on the topic of downfalls in telemedicine. "If you just have a
simple tablet that asks, do you have pain or not, that's going to give people a false sense of
security,You're going to end up putting people at risk." The personal connection that comes with
talking face to face with a doctor about your past medical history, allergies, and you symptoms is
The Atlantic ran a report on a chinese immigrant by the name of Tan invented a software
called Canopy to assist and train medical professionals in spanish speaking communication and
to help bridge the gap between the two. This app include of 1,500 audio clips that are sentences
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of phrases in another language. These sentences include what the doctor might say to a patient
such as “I am going to check for an ear infection.” The software allows the medical sayings to be
has a button that calls a phone interpreter for the impending conversation. Again,while this
In conclusion the need for the extinguished language barrier is great. Confusion in the me
dical field caused by the lack of knowledgeable interpreters is creating great casualties and
malpractice sue in the medical field. While telemedicine has been a proposed solution to this
issue the only practical solution that will fully eradicate this barrier would be trained medical
professionals available in all languages. However, this solution is not plausible in any of the
coming years. For the present we must rely on new technological advancements that can bridge
Works Cited
1.)Quinton, Sophie. "Speaking the Language of Health Care." The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company,
2.)Saha, Somnath, and Alicia Fernandez. "Language Barriers in Health Care."Journal of General
Stories- Nursing Features and Profiles. Nurse Zone, 2008. Web. 23 Mar. 2016.
4.)Flores, Glenn. "Language Barriers to Health Care in the United States — NEJM." New England
Journal of Medicine. New England Journal of Medicine, 20 July 2006. Web. 23 Mar. 2016.
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5.)Min, Jinsoo. "International Medical Mission Facing Global Increase of Chronic Disease: 2-Year
Experience in Bangladesh." Journal of Korean Medical Science. The Korean Academy of Medical
6.)Schyve, Paul M. "Language Differences as a Barrier to Quality and Safety in Health Care: The
Joint Commission Perspective." Journal of General Internal Medicine. Springer-Verlag, 24 Oct. 2007.
7.)"Medical Dictionary, Medical Terminology." Medical Dictionary. Medilexicon, 25 July 2004. Web.
23 Mar. 2016
Terminology Improving?" Taylor & Francis. Taylor and Francis Online, 10 Dec. 2009. Web. 23 Mar.
2016