A Medical Translation Assistant for Non–English-Speaking Caregivers of Children With Special Health Care Needs: Proposal for a Scalable and Interoperable Mobile App

BACKGROUND: Communication and comprehension of medical information are known barriers in health communication and equity, especially for non–English-speaking caregivers of children with special health care needs. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this proposal was to develop an interoperable and scalable medical translation app for non–English-speaking caregivers to facilitate the conversation between provider and caregiver/patient. METHODS: We employed user-centered and participatory design methods to understand the problems and develop a solution by engaging the stakeholder team (including caregivers, physicians, researchers, clinical informaticists, nurses, developers, nutritionists, pharmacists, and interpreters) and non–English-speaking caregiver participants. RESULTS: Considering the lack of interpreter service accessibility and advancement in translation technology, our team will develop and test an integrated, multimodal (voice-interactive and text-based) patient portal communication and translation app to enable non–English-speaking caregivers to communicate with providers using their preferred languages. For this initial prototype, we will focus on the Spanish language and Spanish-speaking families to test technical feasibility and evaluate usability. CONCLUSIONS: Our proposal brings a unique perspective to medical translation and communication between caregiver and provider by (1) enabling voice entry and transcription in health care communications, (2) integrating with patient portals to facilitate caregiver and provider communications, and (3) adopting a translation verification model to improve accuracy of artificial intelligence–facilitated translations. Expected outcomes include improved health communications, literacy, and health equity. In addition, data points will be collected to improve autotranslation services in medical communications. We believe our proposed solution is affordable, interoperable, and scalable for health systems.