Two Translations and 13 Applications!

Things are quiet this week on the healthcare/language front. Two stories worth noting both seek to help non-English speaking patients communicate with their healthcare providers.

A new telemedicine web platform which records mental health patients being interviewed in their native language has been approved for testing with live patients. The project is testing the efficiency of machine translation, enabling English speaking doctors to understand and diagnose the mental health of non-English speaking patients. The patients are interviewed by trained healthcare professionals in their native language. The videos are uploaded for English speaking doctors and contain subtitles translated by several cloud-based technology providers. If the project is successful, it could be the beginning of a sophisticated telemedicine platform that breaks down language and geographical barriers.

Also this week, a pharmacy tech was recognized with an award. Luke Shockley is a pharmacy tech at Owensboro Family Pharmacy. In May, he was named Kentucky Pharmacy Technician of the Year. What inspired me most about Luke’s story is his work with ESL children. Luke frequently translates medication dosages and dispensing instructions for his non-English speaking customers. Luke recognized this need in his community and now helps patients find cheaper drug alternatives that will be covered by their insurance. With a co-worker, he also put together medication bags for patients who could not afford their prescriptions. The two plan to continue working together and incorporating this philanthropy into their business model.

If you remember, another one of my Google alerts focuses on training with technology. An interesting item popped up this week under this alert. 13 EdTech Applications That Are Transforming Teaching and Learning highlights 13 tools teachers and students of all ages can use to spur creativity and critical thinking. This is a must read for every middle-school, high school, and college teacher!

The applications are worldwide and one of the most interesting is No Isolation out of Oslo, Norway. No Isolation is a robot avatar for chronically ill students. The avatar sees, hears, and even speaks for children who are not able to be in class because of illness. EDX is another application, managed by Harvard and MIT, that offers online courses from 140 institutions. Many of the courses are MOOCs, but, hey, who wouldn’t want a Quantum Mechanics course from Berkley on their transcript?! Other applications to check out include: Labster, Dreambox Learning, and Newsela, which contains readings for English language learners.

Thanks for tuning in, again, and best wishes for a happy, successful, language filled week!