Developing Digital Facilitation of Assessments in the Absence of an Interpreter: Participatory Design and Feasibility Evaluation With Allied Health Groups

BACKGROUND: To ensure appropriate and timely care, interpreters are often required to aid communication between clinicians and patients from non-English speaking backgrounds. In a hospital environment, where care is delivered 24 hours a day, interpreters are not always available. Subsequently, culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) patients are sometimes unable to access timely assessment because of clinicians’ inability to communicate directly with them. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to design and evaluate CALD Assist, a tablet app to assist communication between patients and allied health clinicians in the absence of an interpreter. CALD Assist uses key phrases translated into common languages and uses pictorial, written, and voice-over prompts to facilitate communication during basic patient assessment. METHODS: CALD Assist’s design, functionality, and content were determined through focus groups with clinicians and informed by interpreting and cultural services. An evaluation was conducted in a live trial phase on eight wards across 2 campuses of a hospital in Victoria, Australia. RESULTS: A commercial grade CALD Assist mobile app for five disciplines within allied health was developed and evaluated. The app includes a total of 95 phrases in ten different languages to assist clinicians during their initial assessment. Evaluation results show that clinicians’ confidence in their assessment increased with use of the CALD Assist app: clinicians’ reports of “complete confidence” increased from 10% (3/30) to 42% (5/12), and assessment reports of “no confidence” decreased from 57% (17/30) to 17% (2/12). Average time required to complete an assessment with patients from non-English speaking backgrounds reduced from 42.0 to 15.6 min. CONCLUSIONS: Through the use of CALD Assist, clinician confidence in communicating with patients from non-English speaking backgrounds in the absence of an interpreter increased, providing patients from non-English speaking backgrounds with timely initial assessments and subsequent care in line with their English speaking peers. Additionally, the inclusion of images and video demonstrations in CALD Assist increased the ability to communicate with patients and overcome literacy-related barriers. Although a number of hurdles were faced, user uptake and satisfaction were positive, and the app is now available in the Apple App Store.